Chris Hill, one of our directors, reminds you that there is a large opportunity for Housing Associations to move the social enterprise agenda forward in a meaningful and sustainable way in his latest article in Social Enterprise Magazine. I think the opportunity is summed up well in the following comment by Chris:
[Housing associations] are ideally placed to act as "ideas factories" and partners in social enterprise development…
Why? Because they have the assets to leverage, the scale to test, and the diversity of services required within their own organisations to seriously look at socially motivated enteprises. Some things potentially holding back Housing Associations, thus far, have been the risk adverse culture and lack of entrepreneurial staff. (this in itself is not necessarily bad–given the nature of the business, but times are a changin’) However, IMPACT appears to be an example of how even mature housing associations (they formed in 1975) are taking a more pro-active approach to social entrepreneurship and risk in general. Alison is their New Initiatives Director and her story appears on the front page of the Impact Housing website…but this sentence gives you a flavor of the direction Impact is headed:
She defines her role as a social entrepreneur through being part of a highly entrepreneurial organisation that ‘gets things done’, under strong leadership from the chief executive and an entrepreneurial and risk-friendly senior management team.
Got an idea for a social enteprise? Think about how it might be supported within a Housing Association context.
Related posts:
It’s a massive area, Todd, and an interesting one. One point I would make is that social entrepreneurship can come from both ends, as it were: not only from the leadership of housing associations (in the example above), but also from the residents.
We’re working with several housing associations on helping their residents start projects/organisations through providing SSE-type tailored support and development.
Be happy to discuss our approach with you on this.