Cultural Social Enterprise
Sunlight Community Enterprises - from healthy living to thriving centre
Sunlight Community Enterprises CIC .....
- An example of how social enterprises can evolve to reflect their local community.
- Creating a thriving internal market that ensures money is used to maximum benefit.
- Using the freedom of surplus profits to invest in local people.
Sunlight Community Enterprises runs a number of thriving social enterprise businesses. Surplus income is given to “sister” organisation the Sunlight Development Trust, which promotes social justice and provides opportunities for change in deprived neighbourhoods in Medway.
New projects development manager Neil Grayshon says: “There are strong links between the Trust and Sunlight Community Enterprise – we share Board members but more importantly we share an ethos.”
This ethos includes local solutions to local problems, developed by local people.
Initially “Project Sunlight” was developed as a healthy living centre, with lottery support. Part of that initiative trained up residents as community researchers. They secured a phenomenal 70 per cent response rate to their survey work, outlining what people wanted from the healthy living centre – including a GP surgery, a café, charity space, a place to relax, learn, train, socialise…
Some of the resulting services are being provided by social enterprises under the Sunlight banner. These include a café, web and graphic design, recording studios and community station Radio Sunlight. There are flexible offices and spaces that are let out to arts and community organisations. The walls are covered in artwork from community projects based there, and there’s a real sense that the centre is a cultural and community hub. The diversity of people meeting there reflects that of the surrounding community.
One of the advantages of being a social enterprise, says Neil, is that the organisation can take risks. “RROAR, for example, was a 13 week initiative with young people just out of a young offenders institution. They were trained in the recording studio, radio station and our café. One year on there has been no re-offending.”
Community groups deliver around 70 per cent of the work at Sunlight. But they are supported by the social enterprises – who help them get off the ground by providing low cost or free rooms, cups of tea, help with funding bids etc. Once they’re up and running these same groups will hire rooms, buy in consultancy maybe or use the café… so there is a thriving internal market. Importantly all the surpluses go into the Development Trust to create new services for local people.
Sunlight Community Enterprises has secured work from the local council and the PCT – carrying out community research, providing self-advocacy for people with learning difficulties, and running community cafés across other locations in Medway. Being a social enterprise is important when marketing to the public sector, and they are very upfront about their values when bidding for work to a local authority.
But, says Neil, they aren’t tied to a specific local authority agenda. “We can support individuals and invest resources in a very targeted way, for instance negotiating housing for a homeless young person. Most of our income isn’t tied to specific projects as it would be with grant funding, so there is more flexibility with our spending. Eighty per cent of running costs comes from earned income.
“The key is providing exactly what local people want and we do this through community research. Training local people as community researchers keeps money in the local community, but it also builds social capital.”
And it means they are providing what local people need, want and will sometimes pay for.
www.sunlighttrust.org.uk
copyright © 2008 Cultural Social Enterprise