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A programme created to develop stronger and more sustainable social enterprises in Bristol has issued a final call for applications to phase two of its programme, offering repayable loans, business development, mentoring and coaching to accelerate their growth and impact.

Last chance for Bristol social enterprises to apply to £1.3 million fund

A programme created to develop stronger and more sustainable social enterprises in Bristol has issued a final call for applications to phase two of its programme, offering repayable loans, business development, mentoring and coaching to accelerate their growth and impact.

The Bristol Local Access Programme was created with initial funding from Access: the Foundation for Social Investment to develop better and more commercially sustainable social enterprises in Bristol, with this recent second round of funding offering £1.3m in the form of repayable investment, business support and training for social enterprises based or operating in Bristol.

The Bristol LAP is underpinned by a partnership of local organisations bringing a range of expertise: Voscur, Black South West Network, School for Social Entrepreneurs, ACH and Street2Boardroom, with the lending scheme managed and supported by leading South-West place-based impact investor Bristol & Bath Regional Capital.

“The Bristol Local Access Programme provides much needed access to investment and business support to social enterprises that they might not otherwise get,” said Bristol LAP chair Sally Britton.

“The programme has demonstrated real impact locally, so we want to ensure everyone that could potentially benefit from it knows about it before the current scheme closes in March 2025.

“After it closes, we hope that the Government will continue to support our region with future schemes. Last month, the Government announced that the new Dormant Assets Scheme is expected to release £87.5 million between 2024-25 in England to social investment wholesalers, so we will be advocating for programmes like ours to have a key role to play.”

The Bristol LAP runs until March 2025, with the remaining money set to be deployed as a mix of repayable finance and business support provided by the delivery partners. In the last quarter alone, three of the five partners reported on the local impact the programme has had:

  • Black South West Network, within its health and social care accelerator programme alone, has organised six core programme sessions and nine support mentoring sessions, delivering over 41 hours of support which saw five organisations sign up to become available for contracts and four register on CQC.
  • The School for Social Entrepreneurs has seen great success with its Trade Up Programme, which provides high-quality training and a £5k match funding grant to develop enterprises, with 10 organisations benefitting.
  • Voscur has provided 1:1 support to 12 organisations along with over 13 days of enterprise consultancy delivered by its team of experts, focused on growing business confidence and competence, with 100 per cent of those receiving consultancy rating it as extremely or very useful.

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