Success can be a Catalyst into Europe

The European Social Innovation Competition, launched last year by the European Commission, named Harrogate-based Community Catalysts as one of the three winners.

Set up in 2010, Community Catalysts works with local partners, such as local authorities, health trusts and other voluntary and private sector organisations, to support the development of sustainable local enterprises, mainly in the social care and health sectors.

Its competition proposal was to extend the reach and impact of its existing work with micro-enterprises by establishing a managed network of business mentors via an online platform.

Sian Lockwood, chief executive of Community Catalysts, which was awarded a prize of 20,000 euros, said: “We have partnerships with some big businesses, Clifford Chance, Lloyds Banking, BNY Mellon, who are prepared to provide pro bono mentors who are mentoring on a voluntary basis community entrepreneurs.

“Those big partners at the moment are doing face to face mentoring and the EU prize is going to help us to set up a platform that can deliver that on a virtual basis so that we will be able to deliver support to community entrepreneurs across the UK, even in the areas we are not working, with the ambition of extending this across Europe.”

Community Catalysts wants to establish local mentoring support hubs as well.

The community interest company was among more than 600 organisations to submit proposals to the competition. The company is currently working to support micro-enterprise in 28 local authority areas in England and is also working with health trusts in Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Ms Lockwood said: “Any surplus we make has to be reinvested in the company or in ways that deliver community benefit. Our aim is to enable local people to use their gifts and talents through enterprise broadly in the fields of social care and health that benefit other local people in their community.

“So this is about community enterprise and we are particularly interested in supporting people who have great ideas, great talents, but who wouldn’t necessarily make it without a bit of help and support.”

This could include people with disabilities, elderly people or those with mental health issues.

Community Catalysts, directly or through a partner, sets up a local support agency, employing a local ‘support co-ordinator’ who uncovers and engages with any micro-enterpreneurs operating in the area, alongside their key task of stimulating and supporting new enterprise.

Community Catalysts, which turns over around £500,000, employs four core staff members, with another seven running projects for it in different areas, as well as about 20 self-employed associates.

“Our business model is to keep a very light infrastructure and to work through self-employed people which allows us to develop and manage the flow of work more effectively”, said Ms Lockwood.

“We are not interested in becoming a mega company, what we are interested in is influencing and enabling this way of working across the UK and across Europe now with this Europe prize.”

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