Durham social entrepreneurs scoop fast growth awards

Two Durham-based social entrepreneurs have been scooped “Fast Growth” awards in the Santander Social Enterprise Development Awards (SEDA).

Bethany Ainsley, founder of Nouveau Dance & Fitness and William Marley of The Employability Trust.

Ten Fast Growth awards are made each year to the social entrepreneurs in the UK who show the greatest potential to grow their organisation.

SEDA offers social enterprises funding and business support, with the aim of helping them increase their impact in the local community.

The ten award winners each receive a £20k cash award and a year-long programme of support to help them grow their ventures.

Nouveau Dance & Fitness provides affordable fitness programmes to people in areas of high deprivation.

The programmes help tackle health inequalities by encouraging people to improve their physical and mental health. Founder Bethany Ainsley set up her venture after seeing the impact that sedentary lifestyles and obesity has on communities.

The Employability Trust helps disadvantaged young people to become job-ready by providing training in manufacturing related work. William Marley has a background in manufacturing and set up the venture after noticing a gap between the skills employers desired and the training options available to young people.

John Williams, head of Santander Breakthrough, said: “The SEDA Fast Growth Award winners are entrepreneurs who have identified a social problem and have a scalable solution for it.

“By providing both monetary and business support we hope to give both Bethany and William the best chance to realise their ambitions and grow their ventures.”

The Fast Growth Awards are part of Santander’s £2 million SEDA fund which helps social enterprises to grow. The bank also provides funding for UnLtd’s ‘Spark’ scheme, which enables social entrepreneurs to share their knowledge and inspire others to set up a venture; and Social Enterprise UK’s SE Places programme, which is promoting areas of the UK where social businesses are thriving.

Albert Chong, Fast Growth lead at UnLtd, said: “We are looking forward to helping The Employability Trust and Nouveau Dance & Fitness to develop over the coming year through the Fast Growth programme which will support Bethany and William in increasing the benefits they bring to their local communities.”

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