Archive for March, 2014
Inverurie Community News
Jenny McBain discovers a community newspaper put together by people with disabilies. It is a busy editorial meeting in Aberdeenshire and the paper’s contributors are keen to pitch their ideas for the next edition of Inverurie Community News. It is a scene that is replicated at newspapers and magazines across the entire British Isles. However, […]
AltGen
Heralding with joy the first funding of £40,000 given to her new initiative by Co-operatives UK, Rhiannon Colvin, 24, a recent graduate and social entrepreneur, shares her journey so far and explains why she decided to start a co-op social enterprise. “Internet encourages collaboration but the co-op movement in the UK has not been quick […]
Three Avocados
By Danielle Aumord: “It had been a long day. We were all tired and eager to get back to the comfort of our hotel in Jinja (Uganda). And then it happened,” explains 33-year-old Joe Koenig, as he outlines how the not-for-profit organisation, ‘Three Avocados’, that he started, came into being. They sell coffee with 100% […]
Arts Alive
“I was in living Parker Street supported hostel. They call it the drugs den,” 51-year-old artist Lanre Olagoke tells Danielle Aumord, as he explains how the charity ‘Arts Alive’ was set up. Olagoke began painting at the tender age of 5, and set up ‘Arts Alive’ as a prison and community based arts organisation in […]
Wates Group
‘Answers from Big Issue’ had a brief chance to catch up with Louise Hyde, Group Community Investment Manager from the Wates Group, following on from their scoop at the Social Enterprise UK awards ceremony last year November. Although the Wates Group are not actually a social enterprise within themselves, they work with a network of […]
Fresh Start
Everybody needs a roof over their head but human beings have other requirements too, Jenny McBain discovers. Edinburgh based charity Fresh Start strives to help recently housed people to create a home and to feel more connected to their community so they can make a success of their new lives. And they have been the […]
VIP Childcare
Jenny McBain discovers a social enterprise that provides a holistic childcare service. A very special pre-school nursery is operating in Elgin in the north of Scotland. In the baby room at VIP Childcare, carers spend a considerable amount of time carrying their charges around in baby slings because that is known to enhance feelings of […]
Maternal And Child Health Advocacy International
By Jenny McBain: Technology can easily be employed to bridge geographical distance but it takes a special combination of compassion, imagination and determination to bridge a cultural gap and bring about positive social change in far flung communities. A small Highland based charity headed run by two medical doctors, who contribute their time for free, […]
Galgael
Jenny McBain discovers a thriving community of master craftsmen and women in the heart of Glasgow. You don’t expect to come across a shop front with a sign depicting a Viking longboat here in Govan; a place once famous for shipbuilding but now more readily associated with the travails of fictional BBC character Rab C […]
The Glad Cafe
The Glad Café on Glasgow’s south side has many hidden aspects; aspects which are not immediately apparent as you step through the doorway away from the rumbling traffic of a busy main road, writes Jenny McBain. The large coffee bar has a rather industrial aesthetic of exposed pipe work and rough concrete flooring, softened by […]
