Social Enterprise: Be the News - free media event for social enterprises
24 February, 2015
Birmingham’s John Taylor Hospice and Social Enterprise West Midlands have joined forces to hold a free media event for social enterprises on the 17th March 2015.
Social Enterprise – Be the News is an afternoon aimed at helping local social enterprises raise their profile in the media. It will feature talks, forums and a question and answer session with media specialists including the editor of the Birmingham Post Stacey Barnfield.
People attending the event also have the chance to win a tailor-made media workshop by taking part in a twitter competition. Delegates simply need to tweet why they are attending the event in a headline news style with the hashtag #socentnews and tagging @jthospice and @_SEWM to be a potential winner.
John Taylor Hospice was founded in 1910 and became part of the NHS in 1948 but in 2011 its staff chose to leave the NHS and become a social enterprise. Since then it has won a host of social enterprise awards including the SE100 Storytelling Award, the SEWM Prima Award for innovation and it was one of just three social enterprises to receive the Social Enterprise Gold Mark at a ceremony at the Houses of Parliament in November.
John Taylor Hospice head of brand and media Diane Parkes said: “Here at the hospice we fully understand the importance of ensuring our voice is heard in a very busy media environment. We want to share our stories and tell people how we make every moment matter for the people we care for and their families and we do that through using as many news channels as possible.
“Together with Social Enterprise West Midlands we are keen to encourage other local social enterprises to raise their profiles and ensure they are sharing their stories. There are so many social enterprises doing so many amazing things that we can be the news.”
Social Enterprise West Midlands is the regional network for social enterprise, social value and its supporters. SEWM’s objective is to grow the social economy and the impact as a result of the business its members do. Social enterprises are businesses like any other - it is what they do with their profits that makes them different. Social enterprises trade in all industries from catering to counselling, accountancy to arts and apprenticeships, website design and weight management services as just some examples.
SEWM CEO Melanie Mills said: “We want Social Enterprises to raise their profile in the media showing the quality of their products and professionalism of their services. Purchasing decisions are made based upon these primary needs but there is so much more to social enterprise and the compelling outcomes which come from buying social.
“There are so many inspiring stories that come from our members, all involve people who often are the most excluded in our society and struggle to get into work. Many find social enterprises are able to give them the chance they need, this workshop will focus on making sure we can use the media to raise awareness of how and why we do our business differently.”
