The Capacitybuilders three year Social Enterprise programme (2008-11) came to an end in March 2011. The aim was to build up business support in terms of resources, knowledge and support for social enterprises across the nine English regions. 

The Coalition contributed to this Capacitybuilders programme by running the innovative National Knowledge Management Programme.

Primarily, Knowledge Management is about learning from what we know by effectively sharing information and best practice. The National Knowledge Management Programme aimed to promote this concept in the social enterprise sector; making it aware of, and able to make good use of, the collective knowledge that exists.

An important part of the National Knowledge Management Programme is the Social Enterprise Knowledge Exchange; a community of practice where a network of the regional support bodies share good practice and insight. 

As well as facilitating the Social Enterprise Knowledge Exchange, the National Knowledge Management Programme also aimed to collect and disseminate learning from a selection of the business support projects; referred to as the National Learning Projects.

The National Learning Projects

The final review of the National Learning Projects, including the project challenges, insights and key learning summaries, can be found here.

Trading Know-how
The Trading Know-how project is managed by Social Enterprise West Midlands and aims to gather and share good practice from around the region. For more information visit Social Enterprise West Midlands. 

Social Enterprise Mark
The Social Enterprise Mark project is being managed by RISE and aims to develop the Social Enterprise Mark into the national brand for Social Enterprise. For more information visit Social Enterprise Mark, RISE or Social Enterprise Coalition.

Micro Coaches
The Micro Coaches project is managed by Social Enterprise East of England and aims to further develop in the region, a tested and structured programme of peer-to-peer business skills transfer. Development of Micro Coaches also forms part of the I-SEE programme. For more information visit Social Enterprise East of England.

Catalyzing Consortia
The Catalyzing Consortia project is being delivered by Selnet and Social Enterprise North West. It  aims to help social enterprises form consortium and secure contracts. For more information visit Social Enteprise North West or Selnet.

Selling Added Value
The Selling Added Value project is run in the Yorkshire and Humber region and is delivered by the Social Enterprise Support Centre. It aims to further develop an impact assessment training course. For more information visit the Social Enterprise Support Centre or  Social Enterprise Yorkshire and Humber.

Outcome Assessment for Social Enterprise (OASES)
The OASES project is managed by Social Enterprise London and aims to help social enterprises decide which impact assessment tool is most suitable for their business. For more information visit Social Enterprise London.

The SEASON Project
The SEASON project is delivered by Co-operatives South East, ESSEN and the SE² Partnership. It aims to improve support in the South East through the creation, establishment and development of a regional network for social advisors. For more information visit SE² Partnership, Co-operatives South East or ESSEN.

Multiplying Social Change
The Multiplying Social Change project is managed by Social Enterprise East Midlands and aims to establish a repeatable process for regional infrastructure bodies, so that they can play a profitable role in taking social enterprises to the marketplace. For more information visit Social Enterprise East Midlands. 

Growing Social Enterprises
The Growing Social Enterprises project is being managed by the North East Social Enterprise Partnership and aims to base the learning on opportunities for developing and growing social enterprises. For more information visit the North East Social Enterprise Partnership. 

 

The National Knowledge Management Programme forms part of the Social Enterprise Business Support Programme. Read more here.

For ongoing project information, sign up for the Social Enterprise Business Support Programme newsletter.

Previous issues of the newsletter can be found in the newsletter archive.

 

For more information please contact craig.carey@socialenterprise.org.uk or holly.brereton@socialenterprise.org.uk