Scheme aims to breathe new life into our county

Feb 17 2010 by Ian Hughes, Denbigh Visitor

A £1.3 MILLION project is to breathe life into communities across Denbighshire.

The new campaign hopes to encourage a new breed of entrepreneur in the county.

WINSENT (Wales, Ireland Network for Social Entrepreneurship) aims to identify and encourage those who can use their business skills to reduce poverty and social inequality.

Vona Law, the Project Development Officer for Denbighshire and Anglesey, explained: “The traits of a social entrepreneur are vision, energy, passion and doggedness.”

“These are all the qualities you see in straightforward business entrepreneurship but applied to this kind of work.”

Mrs Law added:Š“WINSENT will look at the social entrepreneur and see if they need any support in developing their skills.

“We want to help them fulfil their potential and help the social enterprise as a whole. A social enterprise is a business with a social ethos.”

The aim is to create a network of new social enterprises like childcare facilities and arts projects. Work could also include the re-opening of village stores which are of benefit to communities.

The launch of the scheme took place at a special event in Cardiff, which was attended by over 1,000 delegates.

Mrs Law explained the kind of ventures they are looking for: “A social enterprise can be any number of things – a person looking to transform a derelict building into a community hub, people looking for a place to exhibit arts and crafts or youth projects or a childcare scheme.

“We’re looking for social entrepreneurs who can make ventures like this sustainable and generate enough income to keep going.

“To do that you need to run these enterprises in the same way as you’d run a mainstream business – it has to be entrepreneurial and it has to be to the benefit of the community.”

WINSENT is taking a great deal of inspiration for the project’s lead Irish partners, Partas, who have extensive experience working with social enterprises in South Dublin.

Other members of the partnership include BASE, South Dublin County Council, Fingal County Council, Denbighshire County Council and the Isle of Anglesey County Council.

For more details contact Vona Law on 07786 171125, by email at vona@winsent.eu or visit www.winsent.eu