Ambassadors to champion social enterprise

By Paul Jump, Third Sector Online, 15 June 2007

A consortium headed by the Social Enterprise Coalition has been chosen to deliver a new Government programme to raise the profile of social enterprise by creating at least 20 ambassadors for the sector, third sector minister Ed Miliband has announced.

The consortium brings together various bodies from across the social enterprise movement with media training agencies to groom established social entrepreneurs to educate the public – especially children and mainstream business – about what they do.

Miliband said the programme had been motivated by the fact that one in four people already knows what social enterprises are. “But that means we are missing out on potential entrepreneurs, customers, and investors,” he added. “That has to change. Through their own stories and networks, the ambassadors will add momentum to the social enterprise movement and enable it to achieve even more.”

The consortium will find the ambassadors through “an open and transparent process”, and will give more details at the programme launch later this summer.

The initiative, which was first proposed in the Government’s Social Enterprise Action Plan last November, will be funded by the Office of the Third Sector.

Apart from the Social Enterprise Coalition, the consortium also includes innovation consultation consultancy ?What If!, the School of Social Entrepreneurs, campaigning think tank the New Economics Foundation, Hanover Corporate Communications Consultancy, communications training agency Media Training Masterclasses, Society Media and Social Enterprise Magazine.

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