Check out the full range of products: www.ness-soap.co.uk

Sat 24th March 2012
Craigmonie Centre, Drumnadrochit.

This motivating event will aim to explore realistic alternatives for communities and businesses to tackle fuel poverty; 
focusing on the positive outcomes that sustainability can bring – green gold!

Key Speakers
Andrew Millson - Scottish Business in the Community
Chris Perkins - Highland Birchwoods
Dr Peter Dennis - The SEAM Centre, Inverness College UHI
Richard Jones - HBS Ring Ltd           
Workshops
As well as a programme of inspiring speakers, delegates will have the opportunity to choose from a selection of workshops: 

• Getting the most out of wood fuel. 
  
• Using a thermal imaging camera to tackle fuel poverty. 
  
• Developing a business model for a low carbon economy. 
  
• Practical ways to reduce fuel poverty in my community. 
  
• Making Renewable Energy work for you.

Click to download the booking forms and detailed programme. Book now as places are limited – Deadline 5th March 2012. The AGM will take place after the conference at 4pm – all welcome!

A Highland based outdoor activities project, sporting reminiscence workshops for dementia suffers in Stirlingshire, a Clackmannanshire employability project,  a community owned shop in the Western Isles, an inspirational personal development enterprise for teenage girls and an East Ayrshire cleaning and maintenance service.

Firstport, the support organisation working to identify and seed social enterprises in Scotland, works in partnership with Scotland Unltd to distribute funds from the Social Entrepreneur’s Fund and the Millennium Awards Trust. These most recent awards come from the Millennium Awards Trust.

Highland based Simon Sims benefited from £1,675 to setup Outlook Adventure which will provide a range of outdoor activities including kayaking, cycling and climbing for people with physical and learning disabilities. Simon has been involved in delivering outdoor actives for 25 years and has a long history of working with people with a wide range of disabilities. By setting up Outlook Adventure, people who are normally excluded from such actives will be given the opportunity to participate, help organise trips and events as well as volunteer, providing an incredible boost to self confidence and employability prospects. There will also be a small number of jobs created for people who have disabilities that have struggled to find work.

Sporting Memories Network, a Stirlingshire based enterprise setup by Michael White, received £1,850. Michael is a retired teacher with extensive experience supporting older people and is involved in a range of community activities.  Sporting Memories Network aims to setup groups in local communities and within care settings using sporting reminiscence to inspire and engage older people suffering from dementia and similar illnesses. Volunteers (over 55s) will be trained to co-ordinate and run the local groups. Participants will be encouraged to engage with life, conversation and other people.
 
Thanks to a £2,375 award, Clackmannanshire based Lorraine Carman will setup Amazing Events, which will offer on the job training and employability training workshops within an events management organisation to unemployed people. Lorraine will work with groups of 10 people at a time over 6-8 weeks, who will spend 3 days on the job training each week and one day on employability training which aims to change individual’s mindsets to help build positive attitudes.  Lorraine has a background of developing and delivering employability training designed to support individuals back into work.

Western Isles based Kenneth Campbell plans to open Carloway Community Shop with the help of £1,360. Carloway is a remote part of Northwest Lewis which has no facilities close by. The objective of the shop will not only supply locals with food and fuel but will create local employment and business opportunities as much of the food will be locally produced and grown.

Glasgow based Elysia Wilson is delighted to receive £1,500 to help deliver Urban Justice, a personal development programme aimed at teenage girls aged 12-17. The programme will be delivered in schools and community settings and aims to see every girl develop an understanding of her own personal worth, strength and purpose. Teenage girls in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Fife and Stirling will be engaged in positive activities and planning for the future when they are at a vulnerable age.  Elysia has a background in opera but realised, having seen something similar in Australia that she wanted to do something different.

Craig Cooper based in East Ayrshire has benefited from an award of £2,500 to setup SoCo Solutions, an environmental cleaning and maintenance service offered primarily to areas of high unemployment and social deprivation. Jobs will be targeted at long term unemployed living in the communities where the work will be carried out.  Services offered will include, street, road and path sweeping, pressure cleaning of streets, walls and doorways and landscape maintenance including gardens and public spaces. Craig has experience of living in an area where residents don’t always look after the spaces around him and is interested in how people interact with the physical environment where they live.

Karen McGregor, Interim Executive Director of Firstport, said: “These latest awards offer a snapshot of ideas emerging from local people across all of Scotland striving to make a difference in their communities. Having a dedicated fund available for social entrepreneurs has uncovered a high level of demand and a growing number of Scottish based social entrepreneurs.”

Firstport offers free support and advice to start up social entrepreneurs with funding from the Scottish Government, in addition to providing start up awards in conjunction with Scotland Unltd through the Social Entrepreneur’s Fund and the Millennium Awards Trust.

For further information please contact Karen McGregor, Interim Executive Director, Firstport on 07800 863837

Just Enterprise are offering a series of half day business development workshops on crucial aspects of social enterprise activity. Aimed at employees and members of existing enterprising third sector organisations, the events are FREE to attend and are scheduled in response to demand for specific topics and themes:

Thursday 19 April
Business Planning - 9.30am - 12:30pm
If an organisation doesn't know where it's going then the chances are it will probably end up somewhere else. This business planning workshop will help you to review your current strategy and begin to plan how you want to deliver your services in the future. Covering the stages involved in developing a business plan, as well as the tools and techniques that can be used to gather and assess information, the session will be fully interactive allowing participants to share knowledge, experience and ideas.

Marketing - 1.30pm - 4.30pm
How does your organisation move to a marketing perspective? What strategic and tactical questions do you need to answer and is there an advantage in promoting your social aims? Attendance at this workshop will help you with these questions and more.

These workshops will be held at 81a Castle Street, Inverness, IV2 3EA
Tea & coffee will be provided at both sessions and lunch will be provided for delegates attending both morning and afternoon sessions

Wednesday 16 May
Costing - 9.30am - 12:30pm
One of the most important issues for an organisation is to determine the cost of the services/products you provide. In order to recover your costs and pitch services/selling prices at the right level it is essential to have accurate knowledge of what your service actually costs. This workshop explains how you can accurately cost your services on a full cost recovery basis. Using recognised techniques, the workshop uses ‘live’ data from an organisation that delivers four separate services and demonstrates how to reallocate all central and administration costs to each service. 

Pricing - 1.30pm - 4.30pm
Do you know how to set prices for the services/products your organisation provides? Are you leaving additional earnings on the table when you pitch your prices or are you not sure? This workshop will show you how to price your services and explains a variety of techniques used in product pricing.

These workshops will be held at Ness Horizons Business Centre, Inverness, IV2 3BW
Tea & coffee will be provided at both sessions and Crown Deli will be available at lunch time should delegates wish to purchase lunch. 

Apply here for a free place on a business development workshop
 

Office available to rent in Munlochy, with ample parking.  The office itself is separate to our own office (it’s part of the main building but has separate access).  Shared kitchen / toilet facilities with our own staff.  Kettle, microwave, toaster, fridge.

Tea / coffee / milk included!
All for the bargain price of £300 pcm, £600 deposit required and available from 1st March.
Phone line available if required (additional cost – approx. £100 per quarter plus call charges).
All enquiries to either Carolyn Gethin (01463 811606) or Stewart Meikle (01463 741836).

Calman is a young people's organisation, where young people team the skills for work in an enterprise setting. Growing the business means increased opportunity for young people, converting high performance to lasting community benefit.

Full time, salary up to £30,000 + 10% for meeting targets

You will be an experienced Manager with a background in commercial business, able to drive forward the performance of our trading and subsidiary business activities, including our outstanding Cafe Artysans and HR3D product ranges. You will have a track record of achieving consistently high sales, evidencing effectiveness in product design, marketing and income generation. You will be expected to develop the existing sales platform in order to support increased activity , ensuring the implementation of appropriate pricing, ordering, stock control invoicing and performance reporting systems. You will have responsibility for managing a staff team through growth, and accordingly for developing the skills of this team. The Calman organisation exists fundamentally to enable young people to achieve their potential. As young people learn the skills of work by being the staff in our enterprise activities, you will be required to ensure that the progression of young people into permanent employment, including through identification of employment opportunities.

We are looking for a manager with strong leadership skills, able to deliver our business targets, whilst also supporting delivery of the organisation's social purpose. You must have experience of meeting sales targets, forward planning, managing budgets, HR and building a strong customer base. You must also be a good team player, able to work with colleagues to ensure that young people participating in our enterprise businesses have a good learning experience, and can progress appropriately.

For details and application form email: andrew@calman.org quoting Ref BDM01.
Closing date 24th February.
For these posts, applicants must have a valid driving licence and access to a car, and they will be required to undergo PVG registration.  Calman Trust Ltd is an equal opportunities employer.

Social enterprises, charities and local enterprise partnerships have been invited to bid for more than £23.7m of funding available in 2012 from the government’s new Coastal Communities Fund, aimed at promoting regeneration in seaside towns.

Coastal communities across the United Kingdom will receive a multi-million pound boost each year from a new Coastal Communities Fund, the Chancellor and Chief Secretary to the Treasury, has announced.

This new fund will be financed by the Government through the allocation of funding equivalent to 50 per cent of the revenues from the Crown Estate’s marine activities.

This new fund is designed to support the economic development of coastal communities and will support a wide range of projects, including those that support charities, the environment, education and health.

Examples could include support for developing renewable energy, improving skills or environmental safeguarding or improvement.

The fund will be linked to the revenues that are raised by the Crown Estate’s marine activities each year. For example, in April 2012 there will be £23.7 million available in the Coastal Communities Fund, this is based on a 50 per cent share of the £47.4 million revenue raised by the Crown Estate’s marine activities in 2010-11.

For each country of the UK, the funds available will be directly linked to the revenues raised by the Crown Estate’s marine activities from that area, with separate funding for England, Wales, Northern Ireland, the Highlands and Islands and the rest of Scotland.

The fund will be available on a bid basis and the Government is in discussion with the Big Fund, part of the Big Lottery Fund, about the detailed terms on which they could deliver the funds to communities.

The Big Lottery’s Big Fund has a wealth of experience and expertise in delivering funding and is well placed to distribute Coastal Communities Funding, on behalf of the Government. The Government will also liaise with the devolved administrations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, said: ‘This new funding shows that the Government is committed to supporting coastal communities and ensuring that they benefit from the revenue that our coasts and the Crown Estate produce.  I know that coastal communities play a vital role in wellbeing of the whole country and I am glad that we can provide support for them through this new fund and ensure that they continue to benefit the whole of the UK.’

Speaking from Stornoway, the Chief Secretary, Danny Alexander said: ‘I am delighted to announce a new multi-million pound fund that will support coastal communities across the UK. Coastal Communities share a strong sense of place and it is only fair that we share the Crown Estate’s revenues equally.  We welcome innovative bids from charities, businesses, social enterprises and local organisations, which support the economic development of the community.’

Speaking from Thanet, Economic Secretary, Justine Greening, said: ‘It’s great to be here to see how a significant part of the Crown Estate’s marine activity, which already contributes to the local economy, will play a role in the creation of this new fund.  Every coastal community in the UK will have the chance to bid for a share to help them with projects that will have a real and lasting impact on the local economy.’

The Fund will open for business in April 2012. Further details on how to apply to the Fund will be published shortly.

The Coastal Communities Fund is UK wide and will be worth 50 per cent of the gross revenues from the Crown Estate’s marine activities. Further details of how to apply will be announced shortly.

The definition of a coastal community, for the purposes of the Coastal Communities Fund, is defined as any coastal settlement within a local authority whose boundaries include UK foreshore, including local authorities whose boundaries only include estuarine foreshore.

The fund will be directly linked to the revenue raised in each country. In April 2012 the fund will be broken down as follows:

Search Planning Resource: LINK

HM Treasury News: LINK

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