County Durham social enterprise Stanley Events, secured funding from a national programme to give community programmes a boost.
We received £10,000 from the Community Business Trade Up Programme – designed to help early-stage businesses grow.
Securing this backing for Stanley Events is important and already showing benefit, as we have been able to significantly increase employee hours and stage more events in Stanley. We applied for the scheme because we thought it would make a difference to our community – which is exactly why Stanley Events was created.
Originally, Stanley Events grew out of demand for a summer festival. Seven years later and we organise countless summer fun days and music events, as well as the fireworks display which brings 10,000 families into Stanley every year.
The town has a great community spirit and we were able to harness that and turn it into something brilliant. The funding will make a huge difference and will create the potential for more jobs and more events, which can only be a good thing for the future of the town.
As the firm has grown, we have recognised the need to recruit more staff, launching the Stanley Events training programme in 2014. It has delivered training for over 300 local people, helping many long-term unemployed residents find work.
The Community Business Trade Up programme is supported by ‘Power to Change’ and ‘School for Social Entrepreneurs (SSE)’, which allocates funds for businesses with ambitious growth plans that work for the benefit of their communities.
As well as the funding, Stanley Events is benefitting from 12 days of expert support and advice centred around developing its income.
Stanley Events now has over 60 casual event and SIA staff, alongside directors, a manager, leisure staff and community volunteers.
Stanley Events isn’t a one-man band. Its success is down to a team of dedicated hard-working people behind the scenes, who share my passion for Stanley.