After months of planning and application, the ExSel project was up and running on the 30th November with the first of a number of learning events featuring Leicester Startups CiC founder, Ben Ravilious. Ben described his journey from businessman to ‘accidental social entrepreneur’ and talked about the creation of the Phoenix Yard based co-working space and the highly successful accelerator programme the CiC now runs..
An acronym for Expand Social Enterprise in Leicester, ExSel is funded initially for 18 months via Leicester City Council’s UK Shared Prosperity Fund. The project’s primary objective is to promote and support the local social economy, including cooperatives, social enterprises, and community-based initiatives. It aims to create awareness, facilitate networking, and provide resources to empower local social economy actors.
The project will be managed and delivered by staff from Leicester Social Economy Consortium, and Ethical Business Exchange will undertake project monitoring and evaluation as well as help to develop the Leicester Social Economy Network (LSEN), the springboard for the project.
A key feature of the project will be the creation of the Leicester Social Enterprise Annual Symposium which will attract social enterprises from the City and strategic social enterprise development agencies, social investors and other funding bodies, from across the UK.
