Home

Social Enterprise

Coronavirus (COVID-19) Click here to read information on the status of Community Action Norfolk's Services. As well as links to other information and advice
This website uses cookies. You can read more about how we use your personal data in our Privacy Notice

We believe that social enterprises have an increasingly important contribution to make to our communities. We can provide you with support to make that increased contribution a reality.

Social Enterprise, whilst it is not a universal solution, offers important new ways of overcoming the challenges we face in our communities alongside this it provides a welcome disruption to tradition models of delivery that will help us all improve.  

Often we find there is a misunderstanding between legal structures and the business model. For us social enterprise is fundamentally a business model; taking an enterprise based approach to deliver a social benefit through one or a mixture of ways; directly through the product or service that is traded, through those involved in its deliver (as with many who use work as a model to develop the skills and confidence of beneficiaries) or through how the income is used. 
Although sometimes a specific legal structures will be the best way to do that, we think it's the approach, combined with a primarily social motivation that is most important.

We have worked with a wide range of community and social enterprises from community shops and village halls to on-line advice providers and skills development organisations.

As a social enterprise we can help you with a range of practical support including:

  • Identifying Needs – Helping you to engage with your community effectively as well as using data to understand their needs.
  • Operations - Support you to run your day to day activities well by helping you to develop the systems, processes and policies that mean your organisation operates efficiently, safely and legally.
  • Governance - Helping you to manage your organisation well, understand its legal purpose, structure and rules enabling you to make decisions effectively
  • Planning and Project Development - Support for you to plan effectively, so you can budget and schedule projects, identify the best options for delivery and relate these to the needs of your community
  • Funding and Resources – Help you to access the income you need and use this efficiently, maximising the use of your assets and minimising your expenditure
  • Skills and Knowledge – Support the people involved in your organisation understand their roles and develop the skills and knowledge they need through training and support.
  • Engagement – Help you to involve the people you need either as volunteers or participants in your organisation's services and activities.
  • Partnership – Support you to develop relationships with other organisations to enable co-operation and effective partnerships.
  • Strategic Planning – Help you develop your vision for the future and know where you want to get your organisation to.

​Be part of a wider community and gain access to additional services and resources and regular information updates by becoming a member of Community Action Norfolk.