Big Issue Invest to host social enterprise event in Brixham to support social businesses in the South West

Big Issue Invest (BII) is calling on social enterprises across the South West to sign-up to a social enterprise networking event, taking place in Brixham in Devon next month. ‘Network, Share & Learn’ is taking place from 10.30 – 14.00 on October 3^rd, 2019 at YES Brixham and is free to attend.

The event will allow social enterprises across the South West of England to go along and share their experiences. It will be comprised of workshops on finance, running community businesses and social investment. There will also be talks from expert speakers from South West Mutual, Social Investment Business, Cooperative & Community Finance and Big Issue invest giving talks throughout the day.

BII has a strong track record investing in the South West of England, having invested over £1m in five organisations. One investee is YES Brixham is based in Torbay.  YES Brixham borrowed £600,000 to acquire and renovate three buildings into eight flats which are rented as affordable homes.

Natalia Fernandez, Regional Investment Manager at Big Issue Invest, said:

“If you are a local social enterprise looking for expert advice or investment, our event is for you! Our key goal at Big Issue Invest is to ensure that social investment reaches charities and social enterprises which have in the past found the process of applying challenging or off-putting. By attending, you can not only explore the potential for investment from us but also share experiences and hear expert speakers on subjects including raising finance, community banking and coops and community business.

The event is part of the Impact Loans England Social Investment Fund. Impact Loans England is available to organisations across England looking for unsecured repayable finance between £10k-£150k. The funding is available to organisations keen to do more of the good work they do – whether it’s buying equipment, hiring new talent, or progressing with business development plans.

The programme is funded by Access – The Foundation for Social Investment, with finance being provided by its partners Big Lottery Fund and Big Society Capital.

Register Below

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Access – The Foundation for Social Investment exists to help make charities and social enterprises in England more financially resilient and self-reliant so that they can sustain or increase their impact.

Access does this through two main strands. The first strand is the provision of blended finance and the Growth Fund is the first such finance programme. Made possible through grant funding from The National Lottery Community Fund and loan finance from Big Society Capital, it is focused on enabling the provision of the simple and affordable investment products that charities and social enterprises tell us they need. The second strand is Enterprise Development, through which a number of grant and support programmes are provided for charities and social enterprises who wish to develop earned income and start to investigate the possibility of accessing social investment.

Website: www.access-socialinvestment.org.uk

Twitter: @si_access

Phone: 020 7084 6833

The National Lottery Community Fund – We are the largest community funder in the UK – we’re proud to award money raised by National Lottery players to communities across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Since June 2004, we have made over 200,000 grants and awarded over £9 billion to projects that have benefited millions of people.

We are passionate about funding great ideas that matter to communities and make a difference to people’s lives. At the heart of everything we do is the belief that when people are in the lead, communities thrive. Thanks to the support of National Lottery players, our funding is open to everyone. We’re privileged to be able to work with the smallest of local groups, right up to UK-wide charities, enabling people and communities to bring their ambitions to life.