Blogs

Here at the Divine offices, we're very excited to report that Teacher's TV will be showing 'Chocolate makes the world go round' - a 15 minute film about Divine and social enterprise - at 7.15pm this evening. The programme aims to show how social enterprises are changing the face of business and looks at the future of cocoa production in Ghana. For those who miss it, the programme will be available to download from the Teachers TV website here: http://www.teachers.tv/video/46581 Do comment and...

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I first started to do some mentoring in 2000, supporting the government’s network of IT centres which were being opened up across the country to help get people online.  They wanted mentors to help organisations develop their ideas and business plans.  The first assignment was to drive through the snow to Longtown on the border with Scotland in early March to help a stressed out school development worker submit a funding application.  I let her know that it wasn’t really what ...

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Mentoring a number of individuals representing many different route ways to the sector (including volunteers, undergraduates, private business owners and post graduates) recently left me with an interesting dilemma that I have been thinking about. Individuals with social ideas are being pushed into ‘social enterprise’ as a way of getting funding even though they do not understand the implications of joining the sector is about income generation not funding.  This particularly seems to b...

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  When Gordon Brown is not so busy crying on Piers Morgan’s shoulder or allegedly shouting at his staff, he should spend some time thinking about his impending old age.  He is almost eligible to the subsidised rate my social enterprise business, Angels Housekeeping, charges to the over 60’s and if he was in Leeds we'd look after him beautifully. In recent weeks the news has been full of older people being the politically contentious hot topic of the moment.  According t...

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