Our Not Just a Community Enterprise programme is based on a simple model of offering groups of young people and community groups opportunities to create their own social enterprise groups.
But these are not just your ‘usual’ social enterprises. These are enterprises that engage directly in ethical trade with small producers in developing countries – contributing to strengthening their
business skills and promoting ethical trade.
Nor are these just your ‘usual’ young people. Our approach has been designed to work with young people who may not be academic achievers, who may come from ‘deprived’ areas, who may not go to the ‘best’ schools – but who may well be the ethical entrepreneurs of tomorrow.
Why We’re Taking This Approach
Awareness of ethical and fair trade hasn’t yet fully reached many marginalised communities in the UK. Young people from less affluent backgrounds – those who may also not have the best academic opportunities – often possess natural entrepreneurial talent; but they usually lack the necessary support to find out more about a career in ethical trading.
Only a few schools and colleges in the UK offer training on ethical enterprise – and they simply don’t have the business contacts and partner producer links that we have.
This means that the Not Just a Community Enterprise programme is highly unusual. It is about delivering ethical enterprise learning and opportunities and linking producer organisations with young people in the UK who wouldn’t normally have the chance to do anything quite as exciting or life-changing as this!
But we unashamedly have an ulterior motive. We also aim to raise the amount of ethical trading occurring in the world. We do this by stimulating awareness of, and demand for, fairly traded products amongst less affluent communities in the UK – whilst at the same time increasing innovation and enterprise in the sector.
The Programme
The programme began in 2009 with a group in Huddersfield, which we set up in partnership with the local Pakistani Youth Forum.
These young people have been learning about the principles of ethical and fair trading, about international development, and about business approaches which can benefit entire communities rather than just a few individuals.
The Huddersfield group have set up their own ethical enterprise group, have been working with us to develop rhe product range, have met with successful entrepreneurs, and are now building a strong reputation and profile locally.
Building the Programme into the Future
We are continuing to work with our group in Huddersfield, but with support from DFID’s Development Awareness Fund we have now also set up two further groups in Doncaster and Leeds, with further groups planned for 2012. This is a grassroots project – meaning that the young people are determining the learning elements, experiences and trading products themselves, and at their own pace. We’ve also created our new social enterprise to roll this programme out nationally and then globally – Not Just a Trading Company. Check out the website – www.notjustawebsite.org.uk
Young Enterprise Involvement and Support
If you share our belief that supporting young people in ethical trading is a way forward for marginalised youth – both here and internationally – then there are two ways that you can help us:
- We need more funding to create more of these groups. You can donate to us by visiting Support Us
- Entrepreneurs / Businesses interested in getting involved, Contact us and we can send you our full ‘Young Ethical Entrepreneur Prospectus and Business Plan’
