Pictured above: Ewan Cameron

EMB Ltd is helping to celebrate national Social Enterprise Day on Thursday 18 November 2010 by taking part in the 'It's time to meet your local social enterprise' campaign.

Stephen Smith, Chief Executive of EMB Ltd, the organisation responsible for local delivery of the Business Link service says, "We work with a number of Social Enterprises and are proud to support Social Enterprise Day.  We see this event as a way of celebrating success, increasing understanding of the work of Social Enterprises and raising awareness of the valuable contribution they make to their communities." 

A Social Enterprise is a business with primarily social objectives. Any profits are largely reinvested in the business or in the community, rather than given to shareholders and owners.  Well known examples of social enterprises include Jamie Oliver's restaurant Fifteen and fair-trade coffee company Cafedirect. Examples in the East Midlands include Genesis Dental Care, Shepshed Carers, Sherwood Energy Village and Unique Social Enterprise.

Social Enterprises contribute to the economy and to their local communities.  The annual turnover of all the UK's social enterprises is at least £18 billion and there are around 55,000 social enterprises in the UK, employing about 750,000 people.

In the East Midlands there are approximately 3,500 social enterprises including many different types of social enterprises such as community development trusts, housing associations, worker-owned co-operatives and leisure centres.

One East Midlands Social Enterprise that has benefited from working with Business Link is Derbyshire based Evolution Outdoors. People living in Derbyshire who wouldn't normally get the opportunity to try their hands at extreme outdoor pursuits might soon get the chance to learn climbing, abseiling or have a go at caving.

Thanks to Ewan Cameron, who runs Derbyshire-based Evolution Outdoors, Adventure Trust - the social enterprise will help those who wouldn't otherwise have access to outdoor activities like these due to physical or mental disabilities or their disadvantaged backgrounds.

"Evolution has been going for over four years, but it was becoming more and more apparent that there was a broad spectrum of people who were missing out on the thrill, excitement and enrichment that outdoor activities, like the courses we run, can bring," explained  Ewan whose social enterprise has secured official recognition.

Navigating the right course

Ewan's team now has the formal status they need to begin raising start-up capital and to explore other revenue streams that will ultimately make the business sustainable. But Ewan admits that without the support he and wife Hannah received from the local Business Link service to cut through all the red tape involved, setting up Adventure Trust could have been their most extreme challenge yet.

The ex-infantry corporal, who served with what is now 2nd Battalion - The Mercian Regiment for 11 years, said: "Business Link set us on the right track when I first set up Evolution, so once we were sure we wanted to go ahead with Adventure Trust, they were our natural first port of call.

"They put me in touch with a local Business Link adviser who was immediately able to point us in the right direction with all the agencies and individuals who could guide us because of their expertise in helping businesses through the bureaucratic hoops associated with this specialised area, which is complex to navigate and still in its relative infancy."

Giving us the confidence

Ewan added: "Business Link put us in contact with all the right people who could guide us - just getting registered is a mammoth task which includes four hefty forms to complete. Without their support and advice, I don't think we'd have got out of the starting blocks!

"Business Link provided access to an experienced social entrepreneur, who was able to give us the confidence to tackle the forms by reviewing them for us first and helping us phrase the information requested in an appropriate way."

Ewan is looking to target the corporate community offering high-end outdoor activities and teambuilding exercises with the aid of equipment such as the mobile climbing wall the Trust is looking to purchase. Cash generated will be used to finance the courses aimed at groups he's really keen to help. 

Adventure Trust is already talking to community police officers and the probation service and well as several locally-based charities.