We met this week with our Social Enterprise Strategic Partners and our discussions focussed on how we might raise awareness across Defra of the role social enterprises play in the delivery of the Defra’s strategic objectives. We talked about the many examples there are of this but one struck a particular chord with me. Sarah Flood from the Plunkett Foundation said that the number of community shops established in March and April this year had reached an all time high of 10 and that the level of enquiry was also at an all time high. Now, part of this is due to the fact that people running rural shops for a profit are struggling, to an even greater extent, in the current economic downturn and rural people are looking at alternative ways to keep retail services in their communities.
I followed this conversation up today with Mike Perry at the Plunkett Foundation. He said that the social/community enterprise model of retail was proving to be particularly resilient with communities responding to changing economic conditions by increasing or decreasing the level of volunteering for example. Mike also pointed me to these two recent press releases:
One Comment
I think its brilliant that a sense of community spirit still survives! We recently had a street party in one of our neighbours back gardens which went down really well. I wish more of us could stop and get to know our physical community more.