Welfare to Work

Social ventures to receive £1 million in Government funding boost

 Social ventures to receive £1 million in Government funding boost

The first awards from the £10 million Investment and Contract Readiness Fund were announced on Thursday by Nick Hurd, Minister for Civil Society.

The Investment and Contract Readiness Fund has pledged almost £1 million to eight small social ventures to help them scale up and do more for society. The grants will allow them to buy the top quality specialist support that will make them more attractive to investors and commissioners, and which they hope will enable them to raise £23 million in further investments and contracts.

Last week Big Society Capital announced £37 million of commitments into social investment finance intermediaries to support new projects that will benefit society. Some charities are not yet ready to take on repayable finance from Big Society Capital, which is why the Government has established the Investment Readiness Programme. The programme will give ambitious charities and social enterprises access to money so that they can grow and better serve communities and people most in need.

Nick Hurd, Minister for Civil Society, said:

We are committed to growing the social investment market, and the money we are announcing today will go a long way to helping us achieve this goal. These social ventures are already doing inspiring work, and this money will allow them to step up, and develop the services they offer. Not only is this expected to grow the market, we know that it will improve the lives of hundreds of people in need.

The social ventures who will receive grants from the Investment and Contract Readiness Fund include:

  • Centre at Threeways, a newly formed Community Trust, supported by Calderdale council, in its bid to take on the largest community asset transfer in England. It aims to turn the former Ridings school in Overden into an enterprise development hub which will be for and owned by the community.
  • Reds10, a social business which supports disadvantaged, young and unemployed people to find jobs on local construction sites while helping local authorities, developers and contractors meet their local labour and apprenticeship targets. This grant will help scale up its successful London operation into a national social business.
  • Shared Lives Plus, the UK network of small, community-based care and support solutions for older and disabled people, and this grant will allow it to expand in ten new areas across the country.
  • Abundant Life, a new social enterprise that is being built on the Dartington estate and this grant will allow it to develop plans for a new, self-sustainable residential development for older people based around the historic listed buildings on the estate.
  • West Itchen Community Trust, which tackles economic and social disadvantage in deprived areas of inner-city Southampton. The grant will help them to bring a dormant building into its portfolio which can be turned into an improved enterprise hub.
  • ‘TLG The Education Charity’, an award winning charity which has successfully developed unique Alternative Education Provision (AP) for young people at risk of exclusion from school or in crisis. The grant will help them scale up education provision.

For more information about the Social Investment Bank visit here

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