UK: SPARK, tackling homeless through social enterprise

Spark, a £1.5m (2m euro) funding programme, is an innovative project calling for social enterprises to submit innovative project in tackling or preventing homelessness.

The programme, developed by Communities and Local Government, The TREES Group, Big Issue Invest, and Eastside Consulting, aims to support the growth of social enterprise in the homelessness sector providing finance and coaching.

Social enterprises, avoiding the dependency on grants and donations, can offer a long term service in the sector and support more homeless people to leave the street through training and employment.

The project is calling for people and organisations working with rough sleepers to submit their activities and share more than £500,000 (670,000euro) of investment.
The organisations should describe what they would do if they were to receive £200,000 (270,000euro) of investment. Once received the applications, a shortlist of the top 15 applicants will be announced.

The finalists will benefit of coaching and advice to be ready for the final competition, scheduled in April. Each one will present their business case to a panel of expert: just the top five ideas will share the prize of £500,000 (670,000euro) funding provided by the Department of Communities and Local Government.
In addiction they will have the chance to receive mentoring from the panelist and to win one challenge each. The challenge is the real possibility to work for two days on a specific challenge that the enterprise is facing.

At the end of the challenge, the corporate teams will present their recommendations to the social enterprise.

www.sparkchallenge.org