SEWM Voice for the Network - May 2015

Once a month Social Enterprise West Midlands feature a Voice for the Network section in our Weekly Round Up newsletter sent to our members on a Friday.

We have published our latest update here to provide an overview of the key things we have been doing recently.

Voice for the Network is an opportunity to provide members with information about what SEWM are doing in the sector currently to raise the profile of our network and our members, events we have attended and spoken at, how we provide the regional perspective and most importantly how we are championing social enterprise and social value.

Social Enterprise West Midlands and Social Enterprise UK announce new joint partnership

Social Enterprise West Midlands (SEWM) and Social Enterprise UK (SEUK) have announced a joint decision to partner more strategically, and to integrate their activities over the coming year.

“The SEWM team is delighted to be a part of Social Enterprise UK and see this is as a great opportunity for us to grow and develop the support for social enterprises and social businesses across the West Midlands.”

Read the full release here

Members Induction

This week saw our Members Induction event and SEWM were delighted to welcome our latest members to the network. It was also great to be introduced to new colleagues at some of our more long-standing member organisations.

The Induction also saw SEWM members Devenishgirl‘s Melanie Glass, The Priory Rooms Meeting and Conference Centre‘s Beth Sadler and advant~age‘s Jenni Buckland who came to speak to new members about their experiences as part of the network and provided such fantastic top tips to making the most of your membership benefits.

Under One Roof

This week saw the Social Enterprise Showcase event celebrate the first year of Under One Roof, an incubation project delivered in partnership between Staffordshire University and Keele University.

Sallie Ryan, SEWM’s Partnerships and Membership Manager was invited to deliver a presentation as part of the afternoon agenda that focused on the support available to social enterprise’s across the region, while the morning had been looking at social enterprise start up’s. Throughout the day, face-to-face mentoring sessions were available for both professional infrastructure advice and guidance, and general marketing.

The showcase way of showing the achievements from all those involved in the Under One Roof project and SEWM was delighted to see several of our members and partners there including The Key Fund, Big Issue Invest, Charity Bank, UnLtd, BES and VAST.

Social Enterprise and Housing Hub announce latest strategic partners

Since Se Housing Hub‘s conception, it has always been a long term goal to become self sustainable. Over the last few months we have been in discussions with some major organisations about becoming long term strategic partners with us. We are please to announce that, HACT, Charity Bank and Service Matters have agreed to join us as strategic partners.

And the latest newsletter published!

The latest edition of the Se Housing Hub has been published: sponsored by Advant~age a national social enterprise and SEWM member.

This edition includes 2 best exemplar case studies highlighting the importance of social investment, 3 must-attend events and the latest developments on the website including our new advertising opportunities to promote your business and services on the Se Housing Hub. Read it here

Social Value Champions Forum

We are looking to hold our next Social Value Champions network in July to bring together our Local Authority Champions and continue the good work of championing social value. We will also explore the post-election landscape for the Public Services Social Value Act. Watch this space for more news!