National Citizen Service provider looks for new ways to earn income

Finance | Tania Mason | 7 Apr 2011

The Challenge Network, the UK’s biggest provider of the government’s National Citizen Service programme, has secured an investment worth £700,000 to help it develop new ways of earning income.

The investment, a £100,000 grant plus £600,000 worth of business skills, is being provided by the Social Business Trust.

The project being funded aims to deliver a strategic plan with recommendations about identifying and shaping services to enable the Challenge to increase its earned income and reduce its reliance on grants and donations.

The Challenge Network aims to bring together young people from different social backgrounds and develop their skills in teamwork, leadership and communication. By doing so it hopes to increase their sense of responsibility and motivate them to improve their local communities.

It was one of 12 providers selected by the government to pilot the National Citizen Service for 16 and 17-year-olds and will provide 3,240 places in London, the West Midlands and Greater Manchester.

Craig Morley, chief executive of the Challenge Network, said the investment would enable the organisation to make a step-change in the way it operates “and generate income to ensure we are sustainable long into the future”.

This is the second investment by the Social Business Trust, a partnership of six global businesses who have joined forces to use their expertise to help support social enterprises. The first was in recruitment agency Women Like Us - a £200,000 grant plus additional business support.

The six founding partners of the Social Business Trust are Bain & Company, Clifford Chance, Credit Suisse, Ernst & Young, Permira and Thomson Reuters.

Comments

[Cancel] | Reply to:

Name *

Email *

Organisation

Job Title

Comments *

Verification *

* Please read our Community Standards

Close »

Community Standards

The civilsociety.co.uk community and comments board is intended as a platform for informed and civilised debate.

We hope to encourage a broad range of views, however, there are standards that we expect commentators to uphold. We reserve the right to delete or amend any comments that do not adhere to these standards.

We welcome:

Robust but respectful debate
Strongly held opinions
Intelligent relevant discussion
The sharing of relevant experiences
New participants

We will not publish:

Rude, threatening, offensive, obscene or abusive language, or links to such material
Links to commercial organisations or spam postings. The comments board is not an advertising platform
The posting of contact details for yourself or others
Comments intended for malicious purpose or mindless abuse
Comments purporting to be from another person or organisation under false pretences
Gratuitous criticism, commentary or self-promotion
Any material which breaches copyright or privacy laws, or could be considered libellous
The use of the comments board for the pursuit or extension of personal disputes

Be aware:

Views expressed on the comments board are left at users’ discretion and are in no way views held or supported by Civil Society Media
Comments left by others may not be accurate, do not rely on them as fact
You may be misunderstood - sarcasm and humour can easily be taken out of context, try to be clear

Please:

Enjoy the opportunity to express your opinion and respect the right of others to express theirs
Confine your remarks to issues rather than personalities

Together we can keep our community a polite, respectful and intelligent platform for discussion.