NNSE anniversary event Alison Holland with councillors

Alison Holland, founder of Brightwayz social enterprise at NNSE showcase event in Kettering

Transcript

00:00We actually launched NNSE officially on Social Enterprise Day four years ago.

00:08I say we, I say we, actually it was me with my little mad lockdown project thinking I run a social enterprise,

00:18I run Brightways, we've now been doing that for 20 years. I've been through it, I know what the challenges are

00:26when you're a new start-up and you need funding and you need help and you need advice and you need the people there

00:33to help you and you need to know who's good at giving you advice and also who's to block out the voices from

00:40the people saying you can't do it because you can. If you've got a passion that's strong enough and that is

00:47where social enterprises come from. They come from personal passions, it could be a social mission,

00:53it could be an environmental mission, there's something that you think I want to do this, I want to make our community,

01:00our world better in some way but I want to do it as a job, I can't just do it free and not get paid for my time.

01:08So then social enterprise, that is an amazing answer to that. If you've got a bit of entrepreneurial spirit

01:16but at your heart you've got your social and environmental thing that you care about, social enterprise is a great way

01:25to bundle it all together and actually give yourself a job, give other people jobs, give your local economy a boost

01:34and be doing good for your own community and the wider area.

01:38The VCSE arena for the council is very important. We give something like £1.8 million over the next three years per annum

01:49that is to the voluntary sector and that number is growing. For every pound that we give to the VCSE arena,

01:59that equates to about the equivalent of five to ten pounds of council money. You do a lot of the stuff that people

02:07won't come to the council because the stigma involved but they will speak to you guys.

02:13You've got less red tape than we've got in the council so you can get things done quicker. So it is extremely important.

02:21It's wonderful to be here and support North Northamptonshire Social Enterprise Network.

02:30The work that you do obviously and the voluntary sector, as Mark has mentioned, adds absolute value to everything that we do as a council.

02:40All I can say is keep up the good work. Four years is amazing and twenty years is even better.

02:48So I'll just say congratulations and happy birthday.