A new project aims to help housing associations support other social enterprises
Building Enterprise is a two-year European-funded project by Community Housing Cymru.
Following on from the official launch by Jane Hutt AM at the National Eisteddfod in August, the launch of the framework for the project took place on October 16 during the Wales Co-operative Centre’s social enterprise conference.
The tender process for organisations to join the framework closed on the September 11, and this event enabled the project team to demonstrate the significant skills, abilities and expertise that they will be able to draw on to provide tailored support packages to both housing associations and social enterprises through the organisation who’ve signed up to the framework.
Building Enterprise is a real opportunity to think differently and do differently. In addition to maximising the ability of housing associations to support and create demand, the project will be creating and maintaining jobs in local communities, raising skills and confidence levels of local people and creating a sustainable cycle of investment and growth in these areas.
Housing associations are mature social enterprises in their own right; they are not-for-profit organisations who provide services and invest in the communities they serve. These strengths and capabilities mean they are ideally placed to support other local social enterprises. The aim of the support packages is to develop capacity to engage with social enterprises through their procurement to maximise the community regeneration benefit of their spending.
CHC and The Charity Bank have worked together on developing a range of financial support packages that can be made available to both housing associations and social enterprises who are working with the Building Enterprise project.
Building Enterprise would like to hear from you if you are a housing association or a social enterprise and feel you would benefit from the professional support of the project.
For further details visit our website http://www.buildingenterprise.org