The Socent Connection

Our mission is to promote social enterprise to people and give them the opportunity to connect with the many amazing companies within the sector. We want to inspire the next generation of change makers, whether as consumers, employees or entrepreneurs. Commited to Growth 100 % Passionate 100 % Friendly 100 % The Founders Story Meet Anthony Veluz The journey so far… Summer 2012- National Citizen Service EBP My social enterprise journey started in 2012. At the end of my Law and Business degree, I worked as a Mentor on the National Citizen Service (NCS) for their summer programme. I supported and coached a group of young people, through a programme of personal and social development, which culminated in a social action project in their local area. This programme consisted of team-building activities at an outdoor activity centre and skills development week at a University. For social action, my group carried out a project in their local community, providing a positive impact. Although NCS encompasses social impact, I wasn’t aware of social enterprise at the time. I didn’t even realise that the NCS provider I was working for, The Education Business Partnership (EBP), was a social enterprise themselves. It was only during the following year that I realised EBP were a social enterprise. I worked for them on NCS as a mentor across 13 different programmes over the years. 2013 – Elephant Branded It was during my Masters that I came across Elephant Branded, the first social enterprise I actually knew about! I had an interest in ‘good business’ and it was whilst I was watching ‘Be your own Boss’ on BBC3 that I discovered Elephant Branded. They make these amazing products out of recycled material, which in turn funds school kits in Africa and Asia. They also support the communities who make these products. I researched them online and discovered they had a student rep program. This is where the journey began. I started doing events on campus such as talks, lectures, pop-up stands, promoting Elephant Branded online and offline. This caught the eye of James Boon, Elephant Branded’s founder who offered me further opportunities across the country. Opening doors to lectures, talks, workshops and events in places such as Nottingham, Boston, Cardiff, Surrey and London. I really enjoyed what I was doing. I was able to meet many other social enterprises at events and learn more about social business. I gained new contacts, new skills and newfound confidence. Working For Other Social Enterprises Elephant Branded got the ball rolling. Other social enterprises were seeing what I was doing which led to me promoting them. I started working for GiveMeTap and LSTN Sound Co in addition to Elephant Branded. The skills I obtained with Elephant Branded were transferred to my newly appointed roles. I was offered a unique opportunity to represent all three social enterprises on the NCS programme, which I had previously mentored on. I delivered the Business Challenge on NCS across the East Midlands and Yorkshire, representing Elephant Branded, GiveMeTap and LSTN. It was The Apprentice meets Social Enterprise meets NCS. I had great fun promoting social enterprise to the young people on NCS. The challenge encouraged them to think about social enterprise ideas in their local areas and pitching new business ideas. During Global Entrepreneurship Week, again I represented all three social enterprises at an event hosted by Enterprise Zone and UnLtd at Boston College, celebrating social enterprise, Go Social. It was at this event I met people from UnLtd and discovered they funded social enterprises. I looked into this and eventually pitched for both pre-start-up funding and start-up funding. In between, I also successfully pitched for start-up funding from my University in Lincoln, leading to the next piece of the puzzle, setting up The Socent Connection.