North Northants Social Enterprise network members celebrate Social Enterprise Day and group's anniversary

The special showcase celebration hosted by NNSE network was held on Friday (November 22) at Kettering Rugby Club.

NNSE members joined invited guests to the pop-up event to provide information and mingle with visitors to share the work of their social enterprises.

Executive members of North Northants Council (NNC) - Cllr Mark Rowley, Cllr Helen Howell and Cllr David Brackenbury - were among the more than 30 visitors who came to the showcase.

NNSE chairwoman, Alison Holland who runs Brightwayz social enterprise, said: “Today we are not only celebrating Social Enterprise Day and the fourth birthday of NNSE but we are launching our NNSE Friends scheme - a chance for anyone who is interested in local social enterprise to get connected to us and get involved.

"‘Friends’ may be local people interested in starting a social enterprise, local leaders, educators or local corporates interested in collaborating with our members.”

Ms Holland started the network started as a ‘lockdown project’ and has now expanded with nearly 40 local social enterprise members.

She added: “I know what the challenges are when you are a new start-up and you need funding, help and advice.

"If you’ve got a passion that’s strong enough – you want to make our community, our world better – but you want to get paid for your time social enterprise is an amazing answer to that.”

Social enterprises are businesses which have a social or environmental purpose at their heart and any profits are ploughed back to support their aims. Charities are also considered social enterprises if they earn at least half of their income from sales of products or services. All local social enterprises are invited to join NNSE free of charge.

Cllr Rowley, NNC executive for housing and communities said: “The VCSE (Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise) arena is very important for the council. We give something like £1.8m per annum – over the next three years – to the voluntary sector and that number is growing. For every £1 of money we give in the voluntary sector equates to about £5 to £10 of council money. It’s extremely important.”

Cllr Helen Howell proposed a toast to the on-going success of the network.

Anyone interested in becoming an NNSE Member or Friend can find out more at www.nnse.org.uk