Social Enterprise Ambassadors Programme
Outcome of workshop held on Monday 26 March 2007
This workshop was held at Oxo Tower on London's South Bank, with
invitees from the social enterprise sector, government and other interested
organisations. It was jointly hosted by Ed Miliband, Minister for the Third
Sector, and Baroness Glenys Thornton, Chair of the Social Enterprise
Coalition. A list of those who attended is attached at Annex A.
The
Social Enterprise Action Plan[PDF, 1.67MB, 73 pages],
launched by Gordon Brown in November 2006, aims to help foster a culture of
social enterprise, including raising awareness and attracting new entrants
to the sector. Social enterprise ambassadors will be a key part of this.
The Action Plan states:
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The Office of the Third Sector will work with the social enterprise
sector to develop a programme to appoint 20 social enterprise ambassadors
to raise awareness of social enterprise and work with government on the
development of policy.
We want this programme to complement other work going on in Government and
within the sector. We want it to involve the many organisations – often
publicly funded – that share the overall aim to foster a culture of social
enterprise.
The workshop
The workshop outcome has been used to develop the invitation to tender for
choosing the ambassadors and running the infrastructure programme to
support them.
The key feedback is:
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the programme should be bold – to ensure that more people, and in
particular key target groups, have an awareness and understanding of
social enterprise as businesses that principally reinvest their profits
to pursue social aims, and that it becomes an aspirational career choice
-
it should be really high profile from the start and increasingly so,
appealing to the media and opinion forming journalists – telling great
stories about how social enterprises change people's lives
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different ambassadors should be chosen to appeal to particular audiences
whose attitudes and behaviour are material to the growth and development
of social enterprise (for example young people, the finance community,
people looking for career change, diverse demographic and particular
sectors such as health)
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it needs very clear, understandable and accessible language from the
outset, with targeted messages to particular audiences
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ambassadors should be authentic, credible social enterprise
practitioners, with excellent communication skills, the resources and
mandate to speak on behalf of the movement and bringing their own
relevant networks to the programme
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the programme could ensure high PR/media attention through celebrities
and recognisable figures
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existing networks and campaigns must be engaged to maximise the impact of
the programme
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ambassadors should be chosen in an open and transparent way – if possible
making PR capital out of the process of choosing them
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people should not be excluded from being a social enterprise ambassador
because they could not afford to be one – this applies in particular to
young social entrepreneurs operating businesses on a shoestring
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ambassadors should be encouraged to use their own initiative and to
create their own opportunities to spread the messages
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the contractor providing infrastructure to the programme should provide
appropriate co–ordination and back–up support, to enable the ambassadors
themselves to get on with the outreach work with the best intelligence,
briefing, case studies and practical help and to ensure that leads and
opportunities to promote the social enterprise movement are actioned
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delivery of the programme should be steered by the sector (in partnership
with government).
Office of the Third Sector
March 2007
