Building partnerships: a bridge for corporate impact
14 April 2022 - Impact Hub London

How can social enterprises and corporates work together to create greater social impact? Find out how we achieved this through our recent programme delivery.

Impact Hub King’s Cross has supported social entrepreneurs for the last 15 years and delivered business support programmes to 700+ entrepreneurs in the last 6 years.

Meanwhile, Wates is a leader in the construction sector. In order to achieve greater impact and encourage more environmental and social business in this industry, Wates’ ‘Creating Opportunities Social Value’ strategy set an objective to support 5 social enterprises to achieve national scale by 2025.

Last year we decided to combine our knowledge and experience by partnering together. This led to the creation of ASSETS (Assisting Social Entrepreneurs to Succeed), an innovative 6-month programme that supports social enterprises in the construction industry supply chain to scale their operations and impact.

The pilot programme ran in the second half of 2021 and supported 5 social enterprises from across the UK. All of these businesses had an inclusion focus: from offering opportunities to unemployed groups, to providing essential services to those who cannot afford them.

Over the course of the programme, the cohort had access to a business diagnostic and development plan, mentors, expert-led workshops, peer support, and a global impact-driven network.

We’re pleased to be able to share the goals and outcomes of the programme in the ASSETS Impact Report 2021.

Participating businesses were able to improve their business skills and strategic decision-making, make useful contacts, and think about their entrepreneurial wellbeing and resilience through the programme. Wates employees also had the opportunity to engage as mentors. The experience helped them understand their own skill sets and increase their confidence.

Overall, the success of the partnership has contributed to Wates’ wider social value goals, through Social Enterprise UK’s Buy Social Corporate Challenge.

We’re pleased to be able to run a second edition of the programme, which has been developed using the learnings from the pilot.

 

Are you a corporate looking to increase your positive impact? Learn more on our partnerships page and get in touch today to speak to our team.