Melanie Mills on Ministers Visit, 20 October

SEWM Chief Executive, Melanie Mills, was delighted to welcome Nick Hurd, Minister for Civil Society, to an exhibition and open work group session on social enterprise in the West Midlands, at All Saints Action Network in Wolverhampton last Thursday, 20 October 2011.

The regional visit was also the platform to launch Big Society Capital, a new initiative that will help open up access investment, financial services and funding streams for the social enterprise sector. Nick o’Donohoe, Chief Executive of Big Society Bank, outlined how funds have been identified and will be drawn down through intermediaries, starting as early as 2012 with £140 million being made available.

Melanie responded to the visit by saying, ’SEWM is particularly delighted to welcome both Nick, and Nick, to the West Midlands… we see this engagement with Government as a real boost to the local enterprise sector. This new funding is critical to support social enterprises as they seek to provide much needed local services to their communities and provide additional routes to employment in the region’.

Exhibitors from a wide range of regional social enterprises demonstrated the value their goods and services bring to local communities and how they are adding real value to the economy through innovation, upskilling of local people into employment opportunities and providing consumers (both business and domestic) with the choice of purchasing and trading ethically.