Pick of What's Hot in the Media
Former teenage tearaway up for Young Builder award
Jane Gething-Lewis, 24dash
A tearaway teenager who managed to escape his criminal past is now in the running for a prestigious national award. Wayne Melvin is celebrating after reaching the final of Youthbuild UK’s Young Builder of the Year. The 19-year-old, from Shelton, has turned his life around with the help of PM Training – the Stoke-based training provider which tackles worklessness among young people.
….PM Training, a social enterprise and part of the Aspire Group, is the most successful training provider in Staffordshire.
Tories outline £6,500 “green deal” for homeowners
James Murray, Business Green
Proposed allowances and green building skills programme to help drive domestic energy-efficiency improvements. The Conservatives will today set out plans for a “green deal” that would provide homeowners with an allowance of up to £6,500 to make energy-efficiency improvements to their home while also providing increased funds to help train green builders.
….”We’re going to put a big emphasis on opening up the market not only for energy companies but for social enterprises, charities and trusted brands,” Clark said. “And we’ll be talking about green apprenticeships to go with it, a programme to get people trained to do this.”
Natasha Faith and Semhal Zemikael design jewellery for Prime Minister’s wife
Mhairi McFarlane, Guardian Series (North East London)
BUSINESS is booming for a creative duo who started making jewellery from a house in Walthamstow and whose necklaces have since appeared in Vogue and on the necks of high-profile celebrities – including the Prime Minister’s wife. Natasha Faith and Semhal Zemikael, both 23, launched their jewellery business, La Diosa, meaning The Goddess in Spanish, just two years ago with the help of the Prince’s Trust and now count celebrities Leona Lewis and Alicia Keys and several high-profile politicians among their client base.
….They have both been working hard from their own homes, but are about to launch a showroom in Hatton Garden in November and are due to start a social enterprise project in Africa where locals will make their jewellery for a fair wage.
Charities should help run prisons, say Tories
Paul Jump, Third Sector Online
Voluntary organisations must have a ‘greater role’ in public services, Francis Maude tells Conservative Party conference. Third sector organisations would play a much bigger role in running prisons and other public services under a Conservative government, according to Francis Maude, shadow minister for the Cabinet Office. Maude told delegates at the Conservative Party conference in Manchester yesterday that the prison system was a “disgrace”. “As in so many other areas of social policy where neither the state nor the market has provided the solution, there has to be a much greater role for the voluntary sector and social enterprises,” he said.
Business Model: Oromo Coffee Company
David Ainsworth, Third Sector Online
The Oromo Coffee Company is a Fairtrade Foundation-certified social enterprise, set up by refugees in the UK to sell high-quality coffee imported from their Ethiopian homeland. In the six months since the Oromo Coffee Company was first conceived, the organisation has gone from strength to strength. It has brokered a deal with growers from the Oromia Coffee Farmers Cooperative Union in Ethiopia to ship coffee to the UK, where it is roasted. It has so far sold it in a small number of churches, cafes and specialist fair-trade shops.
