#WhoKnew Five Rivers is a Social Enterprise?

Every second week of November, Social Enterprise UK promotes the hashtag #WhoKnew.  

It’s a good opportunity for us to talk about being a social enterprise and answer some Frequently Asked Questions…

How do you differ from being a charity?

We do not solicit or accept donations, we don’t have trustees and we don’t use volunteers. Our customers are local authorities and they want a reliable children’s service at a reasonable cost.

Our aim is to generate a trading surplus but we never want to profit financially from our activities. As a result, if we have any money left over we invest it back into training and opportunities for young people to get involved in our participation programme.

Why don’t we hear much about the Social Enterprise movement?

We built our reputation by delivering a great service over three decades, not through massive advertising and PR campaigns. Nevertheless, social enterprises do get drowned out by the big spending corporate world, that’s why we have to work collectively through organisations like Social Enterprise UK.

What difference does being a social enterprise make to your business?  

Our social purpose is to turn children’s lives around. That means we focus 100% on being child-centered.