People who know me know I’m not someone to crow about accolades. I’ll happily big up projects I work for and the difference they make but other things come less easily. But friends have persuaded me to get out here about the invitation I’ve received to 10 Downing Street to celebrate Social Enterprise Day with the Prime Minister and a large cohort of other leaders in the field.
And I’m looking for your help.
Most people might be single-mindedly thinking about what they could make of the opportunity. I’m mostly expecting either that I’ll get struck down by swine flu or some international disaster will put paid to the event altogether. I have form on the latter point.
At The Big Issue we spent the first year of my time in London planning its tenth anniversary. It became a focal point for each department in the organisation, pulling together after years without cohesion or much of a shared vision. I banked a lot on it. We lined up a series of three special editions, organised the launch of a Midlands edition and won the favour of news outlets both local and national. The BBC had promised a news segment every night of the week we reached double figures.
There was a real buzz but we feared something would screw it up. What was the killer headline we had to avoid? It was 2001 and the weekend before festivities, every member of staff was under instruction to pray for the good health of the Queen Mum, who’d just turned 101. In fact, we were so concerned, the Big Issue editor asked a respected news journalist whether there were whispers of her demise... which in turn launched a rumour there were fears for her health.
By the date of the anniversary, the Queen Mum was fine. September 10th went tremendously but, for obvious reasons, from the next day on, the rest of our celebrations were somewhat subdued.
So, canapés with Gordon...
While I’m assuming the worst about getting there, I’m not assuming for a moment I’ll have any kind of audience with the PM. But what if? Surely everyone in the room will want to make an impression even though it’s unfeasible any business can be done except between the entrepreneurs in the room. But what if?
How do you think I would make an impression? I’m imagining a 60 second window to reply, profoundly, to one of a number of killer questions. It’s a short list of possible enquiries: What do you do? How did Clean Slate come about? What is the single thing the Government could do to make the biggest impact on social enterprise?
The conversation is a fantasy scenario but I’m intrigued about what YOU think. I think I have the first two covered but what would transform the lot of those of us in business to make a difference? Or for that matter, to change the lives of the people we work with?
Answers on a postcard please, click COMMENT below. Lines close on the 18th November.
Saturday 7 November 2009
Saturday 10 October 2009
Good Vibrations
It seemed like a good idea at the time. It is a good idea. But sometimes you have to be careful what you wish for.
What we’re wishing for is two or three employers to take on a couple of unemployed people. This has been a long time in the planning. Six years or more during which we’ve piloted one business that employs people who are homeless, in recovery, ex-offenders or just long-time out of work. We’ve raised the funding, written the plan, done the research. In that order. Arse upwards. It’s what social entrepreneurs call ‘organic’.
Anyway, the research meant we could prove that we knew what we were talking about. We gathered responses from people with so-called workless backgrounds in the Bath area. We know about their job aspirations. And we know what is holding them back. (Download the report, Aspiring to More, at http://www.cleanslateltd.co.uk)
Our big idea is to be a temp agency for unemployable people. So we need to know what employers think. Would they ever in a million years take someone on with a history of offending, homelessness or drug misuse? Or in what circumstances? We really believe many jobless people will step up to the mark once the opportunity is placed before them.
The feedback was encouraging and a couple of possible employers emerged and, slightly greedy for more, we asked those contacts to ask their contacts.
It was difficult to tell whether one email response was apologetic, sympathetic but frustrated or a simple ‘no’. It was a shame because warehouse work is probably a good place to start for some of our guys. And it would be great to have our first employer placement in the hard-nosed, no-nonsense private sector. Someone to stand on a pedestal and sing our praises. But the UK Sex Toy Superstore?
It’s not what I imagined.
Luckily or unluckily, the ‘no’ was still a ‘no’. It turns out that not only would they not want to take someone on with a criminal record, they were still smarting after their own robbery a year ago. ‘Thieves create a buzz’ was the headline after burglars swiped ‘six boxes of used sex toys’. I know, I know, that’s too much information but the salient point I wanted to make is that it goes to show that employers are already contending with the issues that some of our Temp Workers will have. This one may not be the best example but how many businesses already unwittingly employ ex-offenders, problem drinkers, and staff with mental health problems. Why does it seem like such a leap to knowingly take someone on with any of those issues, especially if it’s confronted and dealt with?
What we’re wishing for is two or three employers to take on a couple of unemployed people. This has been a long time in the planning. Six years or more during which we’ve piloted one business that employs people who are homeless, in recovery, ex-offenders or just long-time out of work. We’ve raised the funding, written the plan, done the research. In that order. Arse upwards. It’s what social entrepreneurs call ‘organic’.
Anyway, the research meant we could prove that we knew what we were talking about. We gathered responses from people with so-called workless backgrounds in the Bath area. We know about their job aspirations. And we know what is holding them back. (Download the report, Aspiring to More, at http://www.cleanslateltd.co.uk)
Our big idea is to be a temp agency for unemployable people. So we need to know what employers think. Would they ever in a million years take someone on with a history of offending, homelessness or drug misuse? Or in what circumstances? We really believe many jobless people will step up to the mark once the opportunity is placed before them.
The feedback was encouraging and a couple of possible employers emerged and, slightly greedy for more, we asked those contacts to ask their contacts.
It was difficult to tell whether one email response was apologetic, sympathetic but frustrated or a simple ‘no’. It was a shame because warehouse work is probably a good place to start for some of our guys. And it would be great to have our first employer placement in the hard-nosed, no-nonsense private sector. Someone to stand on a pedestal and sing our praises. But the UK Sex Toy Superstore?
It’s not what I imagined.
Luckily or unluckily, the ‘no’ was still a ‘no’. It turns out that not only would they not want to take someone on with a criminal record, they were still smarting after their own robbery a year ago. ‘Thieves create a buzz’ was the headline after burglars swiped ‘six boxes of used sex toys’. I know, I know, that’s too much information but the salient point I wanted to make is that it goes to show that employers are already contending with the issues that some of our Temp Workers will have. This one may not be the best example but how many businesses already unwittingly employ ex-offenders, problem drinkers, and staff with mental health problems. Why does it seem like such a leap to knowingly take someone on with any of those issues, especially if it’s confronted and dealt with?
Still, I think we got off lightly. The sex toy warehouse might not have been the most advantageous first placement. But still, I can’t help feeling we got told where to stick it.
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