W Stimulating social enterprise in Argyll and Bute In 2014, Firstport delivered Beyond the Vital Spark was delivered in partnership Finish Line, supporting young people with InspirAlba, funded by Highlands and Start-up from the East End of Glasgow to develop Islands Enterprise, supported by Calmac their social enterprise ideas, regenerate Ferries, Scottish Government and the local high streets and create a social and Kilfinan Trust, with grant funding provided social enterprises economic legacy from the Glasgow 2014 to participants by UnLtd. Commonwealth Games. help our towns, villages Evaluation of the programme found that enterprises developed in a local community, This publication with a supportive structure, had more and cities to be great places potential for sustained growth and impact. celebrates the This informed Firstport’s decision to deliver achievements of the to work, live, learn Vital Spark in Argyll & Bute, an area with outstanding natural and cultural assets and Vital Spark participants vibrant community spirit, but also facing and provides learning and create. tough challenges, including social and geographical isolation, youth migration and FIRSTPORT STRATEGIC AIM 2 points to inform future an ageing population. initiatives within Argyll & Bute and throughout Scotland. Gordon Allen set up Wee Toon Environmental Solutions after being Being involved in Vital Spark has been A programme that encourages made redundant from Argyll and Bute Council’s Employability team challenging and exciting. I have been businesses to grow and be self-sufficient to fill the gap in local service provision. He soon secured a council able to take the business idea forward, I am is massively important for Argyll & Bute. I am contract to provide garden maintenance, landscaping, joinery work, much further on than I thought I would be and proud Calmac has supported Vital Spark from customised shed design and build. His enterprise has provided have learned loads. the outset, its success has been astounding. employment and training for people facing barriers to work: improving BRIAN FULTON, DIRECTOR OF COMMUNITY AND their confidence, communication, social and life skills. Vital Spark Cover: Gordon Allen, Wee Toon Environmental STAKEHOLDER ENGAGEMENT, CALMAC FERRIES LTD provided support in business planning, bookkeeping and fundraising. Solutions Funding from UnLtd and Firstport has enabled Gordon to secure premises and buy a van. He now plans to grow his social enterprise and provide more jobs and services to his local community. The Highlands and Islands is recognised as a region where communities take responsibility for shaping their future, where social enterprise as a sector is innovative, strong and growing. HIGHLANDS AND ISLANDS ENTERPRISE Vital Spark is an initiative based in Argyll and Vital Spark allowed us to deliver support Bute, delivered by Firstport in partnership in a rural setting, stimulating greater with InspirAlba. Vital Spark supported local awareness of social enterprise, encouraging ideas people in and around Dunoon, Rothesay and supporting individuals to take them forward and Campbeltown to develop ideas into and creating social and environmental benefits for enterprises and provide practical solutions to the communities involved. Working with Firstport social and economic issues unique to each area. and Unltd also brought a wider perspective and a broader scope of support. In 2015 we engaged with local people from the AILSA CLARK, INSPIRALBA Vital Spark areas, captured their views on the challenges their communities face and invited them to come up with enterprising solutions to Vital Spark was a new and novel way to those challenges. Over the past three years we stimulate entrepreneurship and innovation have stimulated and supported the best ideas in our rural communities, creating employment with 18 viable early stage social enterprises now opportunities by using business models to creating change and making a tangible difference address social issues. to their local communities. Many participants ANNE MACDONALD, HEAD OF POLICY AND were at a pre-start stage initially – they didn’t STRENGTHENING COMMUNITIES, HIGHLANDS AND ISLANDS ENTERPRISE know they had a business idea and wouldn’t have taken steps to access support on their own. InspirAlba played a key role in the development and delivery of Vital Spark. Their local research and needs analysis identified a lack of awareness Vital Spark did of potential opportunities through social enterprise. They provided tailored business what it said on the tin, support to participants across the three areas as well as their unique understanding and it sparked me to knowledge that informed ongoing programme evaluation and development. move forward. DAVID FEE, HOMESONG Lighting the Spark Vital Spark set up incubator spaces in each community which were used for drop in, learning, meeting, making and experimentation. These hubs enabled participants OUR LEARNING: to test their ideas, showcase their • Place-based programmes require • Incubator spaces are an important Keeping It Local Campbeltown products and services, and build rigorous ‘intelligence gathering’ and resource. Having a physical space Jason McCallum has first hand experience Jason received an UnLtd Start Up award collaborative relationships. They planning in partnership with local visible to the local community can of the difficulties traders face when trying and has now progressed further through provided a physical location where providers and local people help participants to see themselves to promote and grow their businesses. He is Firstport funding to offer additional spaces they could go to work on their • Programme objectives must align as social entrepreneurs and also aware that local people struggle to find including a workshop area for product testing enterprise, engage with Vital Spark with each partner’s vision and legitimise their ideas reliable quality trade services. This spurred and delivery. Jason’s service will extend to staff and unlock their potential as purpose and contribute to local and • These benefits could be delivered him on to open Keep It Local Campbeltown, a negotiation of fair leases for local start-ups social entrepreneurs. national priorities more cost effectively by sharing one stop shop for businesses and customers, when they are ready to commit to their own • We found a ‘multi-layered delivery with other complementary local enabling local start-ups to test the market premises. Over the next five years Jason Complementing this model and approach’ captured both national initiatives to maximise usage and without the financial and logistical would like to replicate his enterprise in other Firstport and InspirAlba’s support, and local resources, perspectives, connect developing enterprises with constraints of finding their own premises. His rural towns. funding from Unltd provided the knowledge and experience the wider community enterprise offers people from around Kintyre Without the Vital Spark programme final crucial component, enabling • This resulted in new resources being • Seed funding needs to be support to hot-desk and advertise their Keeping It Local would never be in the the Vital Spark participants to set leveraged to meet local needs in sympathetic to the early stage business on screens and on line. position it is in today - hopefully it will be a great sail on their journey. Argyll and Bute nature of participants’ ideas and community asset. • This approach reaches people flexible enough to respond to who may not see themselves as inevitable changes in funding having a business idea, stimulates requirements social enterprise activity in local Takeaway Creative communities and helps build local Takeway Creative is a portable hobby Vital Spark helped me with networks and national connections service offering innovative activities in and ideas to bring my idea to market in a • InspirAlba’s local knowledge was private homes and care homes. The idea good way, supported by a team of approachable invaluable in the development, came from founder Fiona Page’s personal and friendly folk. design and delivery of the experience as a carer unable to find quality programme while UnLtd provided home-based activities for her housebound grant funding to test very early mum. Takeaway Creative fills this gap and stage ideas reduces isolation and loneliness. Fiona • This partnership approach employs expert practitioners with strong developed early stage ideas into social skills to communicate with a diverse social enterprises, creating a pipeline customer base including carers, busy of previously untapped talent, which parents, people with long-term health in turn informed UnLtd’s decision conditions and the elderly. to deliver Resilient Communities in Argyll & Bute The Journey Vital Spark stimulated interest in In response to these challenges, InspirAlba coordinated three Firstport provided opportunities for participants to go on ‘learning social enterprise to address local Argyll wide social enterprise events, giving Vital Spark participants journeys’ using our Scotland wide network of social enterprises. issues and allowed participants the opportunity to build connections with a broad, well established This enabled them to connect with, meet and learn from other social to fulfil ambitions they previously network of social enterprises across the area. They also entrepreneurs and jointly share knowledge and experiences. A 34 ideas considered unachievable. Developing provided links to