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

Wednesday 5th October 2011, Glasgow
10am-4pm

Firstport is looking for social enterprises interested in gaining external advice and support from PwC volunteers for our upcoming EVOLVE event.
 
EVOLVE events  are one day skill sharing sessions, matching social enterprises with volunteers from commercial businesses.  
 
The sessions bring together social enterprises and a small group of corporate volunteers for one day to help develop the social enterprise. Working alongside the volunteers, you will take a strategic look at your business, identifying strengths, weaknesses and challenges ahead. They will also help you to put together an action plan that will give you greater confidence to drive your business forward.   At the same time, you will help the volunteers to understand what social enterprise is all about by telling your story,inspiring them through the work that you do and the difference your organisation makes in the community.
 
We have worked with local SME's as well as corporate giants including PwC, Lloyds TSB, HBOS and Scottish Gas and we have received some fantastic feedback from participants.
 
“The team of volunteers were professional and interested.  It is great to have involvement from somebody who is not as close to it as we are, and especially when those people are experts at business advice, focused on the bottom line.  We thoroughly enjoyed our day with them.  I hope they all got something useful out of it too.”
 
Interest in EVOLVE events is always high and sessions are often oversubscribed.  We have a limited number of places available for this event and registering your interest does not guarantee a place.  Social enterprises will be chosen to participate in the event based on their suitability. If you are interested in attending, please complete our registration form by following the link below.   Please be aware that at least two individuals from each social enterprise must attend.
 
Register here http://evolveoctober.eventbrite.com