Worcestershire Local Enterprise Partnership is delighted to announce that it has been awarded the ‘Aspire Award’ by Social Enterprise West Midlands.
The Award was presented at the Social Enterprise Awards ceremony in Birmingham on Thursday 13 November. Margaret Gray (who is a member of WLEP’s Business Board and Head of the Midwest Rural Enterprise CIC) was on hand to pick up the trophy on behalf of the LEP, beating off competition from Birmingham Social Enterprise Zone, School for Social Entrepreneurs and the Black Country LEP.
The Aspire Award recognises individuals or organisations who are ‘social enterprise best practice exemplars’. In particular, Worcestershire Local Enterprise Partnership has taken a strong lead in brokering joint working between social enterprises and networks and for developing a coordinated and collaborative way forwards.
The Worcestershire LEP has recognised the importance of social enterprises right from its formation nearly three years ago by including four representatives from the ‘third sector’ on its Business Board.
Peter Pawsey, Executive Chair at Worcestershire LEP says: “Over the summer, we have been preparing our draft Strategic Economic Plan (SEP) for submission to Government. Integral to this plan is greater involvement of the LEP with social enterprises. Claire Bridges (our Operations Manager) and Margaret have been working closely with other members of our Business Board to facilitate a number of workshops with social enterprises and the outcomes have fed into our draft SEP. I am very grateful for their hard work and delighted to see that their effort has been recognised by Social Enterprise West Midlands.”