Social Enterprise shorts - 25/08/10

First woman president elected to Divine shareholder

Divine Chocolate’s largest shareholder, Kuapa Kokoo Farmers’ Union, has elected a new president.

Christiana Ohene Agyare was elected at the co-operative’s annual general meeting, attended by 2,600 delegates in Kumasi, Ghana, earlier this month.  

Ohene Agyare, a cocoa farmer with an 11-acre farm, is the first woman president of the Kuapa Kokoo, which is the major shareholder in Divine Chocolate Ltd (UK) and Divine Chocolate Inc (USA).

The organisation bought 28,000,000 tonnes of cocoa from its members this year and turned over nearly $50m across the whole Kuapa Kokoo group. 

Sophi Tranchell, MD of Divine Chocolate Ltd, who attended the annual meeting, said: ‘Christiana is a great example of increasing numbers of women now taking responsible and senior roles within this thriving co-operative.’

Ohene Agyare's tenure runs until 2014.

Semantics guide for social enterprise in the NHS published

A paper on the role of social enterprise in Big Society has been published today by the NHS Alliance.

The paper, Semantics of the Big Society, is the first in a series on social enterprise and its role in the NHS.

This first paper is a guide which explains the difference and similarities between the social enterprise, mutual and co-operative models.

Mo Girach, special advisor on social enterprise and co-operatives to the NHS Alliance, said: 'While we don’t want to be bogged down by the jargon, these words will be around for a long time to come and having a guide to help people to make sense of them is the very first small step in a path that could change the way we see and organise the NHS.'

The paper, and others from the NHS Alliance, can be downloaded HERE. 

Treasury asks for votes on the best way to cut spending

The Treasury is asking the public to vote for the best money saving ideas from over 44,000 submitted to the Spending Challenge website.

The top ideas will be taken forward as part of the spending review process, which will set budgets for public services for the next four years. 

Voting is only open until 31 August 2010 and the spending review concludes on 20 October.

The ideas and chance to vote can be found at http://spendingchallenge.hm-treasury.gov.uk/

Scrap idea from US comes to UK social enterprise

The popularity of car donation schemes in the US has inspired the new UK social enterprise. Giveacar was started in January this year by Nottingham University graduate Tom Chance and sees an average of £80 made per car for the charity of the donors choice.

Chance compares the scheme to donating clothes to a charity shop and it appears to be as popular here as in the US with the company growing from processesing nine cars a week when it started to 65 cars a week now. www.giveacar.co.uk