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We hope that you will be inspired, encouraged and motivated through the ministry of Ian and Judith Green. Thank you for your support.

Building Collective Momentum

On January 5, sixteen representatives from eight organisations came together at Grovelands House, home of the Proton Foundation to connect, share stories and discuss issues relevant to our collective work of social enterprise in the United Kingdom.

Despite the snowy weather conditions, visitors travelled from as far as Manchester in the north and Wembley in the South to consider and discuss some of the common issues facing social enterprise and third sector organisations as they look to develop and expand their community services. The following key themes emerged from the discussions:

Awareness/ networking opportunities. The day heightened awareness of what others are doing. This is a great result as there is a clear desire to ‘network’ and benefit from contacts made, however, the question as to whether this should be formalised and ‘centres of excellence’ was identified and will be considered in the future.
Value-adding Partnerships. A sense of being ‘unable to do everything alone’ and the quest for partners who could add value was voiced.
Advice & Support. The groups expressed a desire to share intellectual capital, including sources of ‘know how’ and specific information such as accessing funds, etc.
Resources. There is a challenge to identify and acquire resources, including personnel with competence as well as funding and finances.
Success. The question was raised of “What is success/how should it be measured?” which raised deeper questions like ‘what are we trying to achieve’? ‘How do we measure the the impact we are having’? How do we preserve the integrity of our ‘mission’?
Vision / Mindset. There is an aspirational spirit at work but some evidence that vision needs to be more focused/ specific. There is certain preoccupation with ‘how’ which is not always accompanied by a clear and strong ‘what’.

The group were encouraged to communicate and continue to exchange intellectual capital with one another with an opportunity being presented by the Proton Foundation to come back together later in the year to explore a particular theme in more detail. We at the Proton Foundation were encouraged and envisioned by this significant time together. It is axiomatic that there is immense need in our communities but also as clear is the fact that we cannot do it alone.

We know that this was the first step towards encouraging connection and empowerment of a collective group of social enterprise organisations to build synergy and collective momentum to make a larger, more definitive socio-economic impact.

To see more images from the day, click here to check out the Gallery .

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During the week of January 16 the NLI staff gathered in the International Office in Coventry, UK for a time of inspiration, information, dreaming and team building.