
Established in 1990, Alternatives Activity Centre (AAC) is a registered charity that provides support for adults with learning disabilities in the city of Derby, in the form of an activity-based day centre, a training shop (which offers training workshops as well placements within their own charity shop) and community support.

Outside the Box Café is an inclusive community café based in Ilkley, Bradford. Their mission is to enable young people and adults who have learning disabilities to have more fulfilled, independent and healthier lives.

Miss Macaroon, founded by CEO Rosie Ginday MBE, sets aside its profits to fund the store's MacsMAD (Macaroons that Make a Difference) programme. Producing over 2.5 million tasty macaroons inn 50 different flavours, Miss Macaroon has helped improve the lives of 82 people, all aged 18 - 35 years old, over the past decade.

Autism Plus supports adults and young people with autism, learning disabilities, mental health conditions and complex needs. They attract referrals from local governments and Clinical Commissioning Groups on a case-by-case basis. Autism Plus employ over 450 people across the north of England in care support services, employment support and social enterprises.

IRIE! dance theatre is the UK's leading dance theatre company delivering creative, educational and artistic activities in African and Caribbean dance. Based in the historic Moonshot Centre in South London, IRIE!'s mission is to support the personal wellbeing and community cohesion of the diverse population in its local area through dance.
The organisation has two distinct but interrelated strands of activities: a wide-ranging community offer across diverse dance styles for young people, adults, families, and older people; and a comprehensive education, training, and professional development offer spanning schools workshops, a degree programme, masterclasses, and residencies for emerging dance artists.

Located at the heart of Perry Barr, Birmingham, Eidgah Academy is a community hub providing educational, recreational and social activities for economically disadvantaged children and young people. In Perry Barr, 60% of the population belongs to people from ethnic minority groups and 15% of the populations first language is not English. Eidgah Academy engages 130 predominately Muslim children and young people of Pakistani, Bengali and African backgrounds with opportunities through structured personal development programs and playing games.

RSBC provides a range of services in London and across England and Wales for blind and partially sighted children and young people, their families, and the professionals who work alongside them.

Our Digital Marketing Officer Festus spoke with the creative Faith Johnson who founded Caramel Rock. In this podcast we talk about her social enterprise supporting young and vulnerable people in London through fashion and employability. We look into the importance of lived experience but also how Faith valued inexperience when it came to turning her idea.. into a reality.

This #AChangingWorld episode features Pranav Chopra, a social entrepreneur who founded Nemi Teas. This podcast definitely goes down even better with a cup of tea as he talks about how social investment has played a part in his journey and the potential ways to scale up.

When Julius Ibrahim became increasingly more interested in tackling homelessness, he opened Second Shot Coffee, a social enterprise café in East London.

We are a CIC based in Kent, supporting people with learning difficulties to speak up, make choices and become powerful and influential. We are people with and without learning difficulties and/or autism, working and learning together.

At Special iApps, we develop educational apps to support children with special educational needs, including autism and Down syndrome. We took on social investment, in the form of blended finance (loan and grant), from Northstar Ventures to help develop our work.