Event details
To share the detail of the event as widely as possible, we've written up the outline of the day here - and the presentations from the day are downloadable below.
Andy Daly from Social Enterprise UK explored the question “What is social enterprise?”, illustrating with some examples from different sectors and explaining a bit about the work of Social Enterprise UK. His presentation is here.
The other presentations are case studies of three very different community transport organisations who have taken different approaches to ensuring their longer-terms sustainability as social enterprises:
- Llanwrtyd Community Transport operates in an exceptionally rural area. They have set up a business offering recycling facilities at events in the area to support their community transport services, which wouldn’t be viable by themselves. They have also set up various other community assets such as a community centre, credit union and coffee mornings – which are now run by the people who use them. Their presentation is here.
- West Norfolk Community Transport has built on their base as a well-established community transport organisation to develop a trading arm with a full O License operation running scheduled bus services. When the local Stagecoach depot shut down last year, they stepped in to run several of their routes themselves, developing their “Go to town” bus brand. They plan to keep expanding in the years ahead, supporting their charitable work with commercial bus services across Kings Lynn and the surrounding area. Their presentation is here.
- South Pennine Community Transport is a small, startup community interest company based in Holmfirth, run by a former manager at the local Arriva bus operation. The aim is to run scheduled bus services for community benefit where commercial services aren’t viable. The organisation has been running for about four years and today operates 19 registered bus routes with 6 vehicles. Its mixture of smaller, cheaper-to-run vehicles and balance of tendered routes with routes they’ve created is allowing them to develop a sustainable model for running and growing their organisation. Their presentation is here.
If you’re interested in exploring the social enterprise route for your organisation, contact Martin Clarke at [email protected] or find out more about what we're doing here.