Swindon Social Enterprise Network (SSEN) will hold its fourth “networking” event on Wednesday 5th June in Metro Bank, 1 – 4 Regent Street, Swindon, SN1 1JQ. The SSEN will be premiering its latest short movie produced by local social enterprise; Create Studios which focuses on the work of the Swindon Night Shelter and Becky Davison from the organisation will talk about their expansion in recent years.
The event will commence at 4.30pm with an opportunity to mingle with other attendees over tea/coffee/juice and biscuits. At 5pm a formal welcome, introduction to the event and update about the SSEN’s work will be delivered by a member of the steering group.
Becky Davison, who was one of the founders of the Swindon Night Shelter back in 2008, will talk about the work of the charity with the homeless and those in financial need. The organisation has grown rapidly in recent years and it now runs a hostel on a Friday night, the Haven day support centre, a busy warehouse, two “in the community” cafes and their latest venture: The Hub shop & café.
Becky realised some time ago that the charity needed to move towards becoming more financially self-supporting and initially set up two community café’s. The most recent venture: “The Hub”, shop & cafe was set up last year and James Phipps, of the SSEN steering group has been working with Becky to further develop and optimize the business over the past few months.
Becky says; “It’s been a blessing working with James. We now employ a part-time shop and a part-time café manager and alongside all the wonderful volunteers we now make an ongoing profit which makes a significant contribution to the costs of our outreach activities. Our experience has been such that we would encourage any charity to investigate creating a trading income stream”.
The event will finish with a further opportunity to network and informally talk to Becky and members of the SSEN steering group closing at around 6-6.15pm.
Places for the event are free and can be booked here:
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/swindon-social-enterprise-network-meeting-tickets-61684202109
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