19th Oct 2005
PROMOTING SOCIAL ENTERPRISE
Looking for new sources of funding? Interested in how to market your work better? Not sure how to develop a business plan? Becoming a ‘social enterprise’ might be the answer.
This successful one-day conference was held at Roehampton University and organised by the WestFocus Social Inclusion Network in partnership with the HEART project in Roehampton.
Social enterprises are businesses with primarily social objectives whose surpluses are principally reinvested for that purpose in the business or in the community, rather than being driven by the need to maximise profit for shareholders and owners. 
Over seventy delegates attended and heard speakers in the morning from Social Enterprise London, the Community Development Finance Association and the Development Trust Foundation talk about what it takes to become a social enterprise. The conference also heard from two social enterprises, Face Forward and FunkyGandhi on what it’s like being an ethical business.
In the afternoon, workshops were set up for delegates to learn more about how to start and run a social enterprise, as well as the best sources of finance.
6th July 2005
SHARING KNOWLEDGE: SAFETY AND VIOLENCE
A one-day workshop on child safety
This workshop provided an introduction to the WestFocus Social Inclusion Network for practitioners and academics involved with the socially excluded. The aim of the session was to begin dialogue between practitioners and researchers involved with the socially excluded, to see what benefits could accrue from such interaction; and specifically to see what the joint universities could do to help practitioners in terms of evidence-based practice, enhanced assessment, service-evaluation, continued professional development and dissemination of research-based knowledge
To read a summary of this event, click the 'Reports' link below and choose the 'Sharing Knowledge: Safety & Violence' pdf file.
