One of the best ways you can support a social enterprise is to help them become self-sustaining by paying for their services. A simple way to do so is with venue hire. Here’s a list of just a few of the excellent organisations you can help out by paying to use their spaces.
St Luke’s Community Centre, London
A Community Centre on the edge of the City of London; in an area containing extremes of wealth and poverty. St Luke’s provides a space for local people to gather and socialise, and for other organisations to deliver services for the local community at little or no cost. They even have a fully-equipped Cookery School, which can be hired out, with all the income going back into classes to teach the local community about healthy home cooking and avoiding food waste.
Brigade, London
By dining at Brigade or booking one of their meeting spaces, not only will you get to sample some Great British food, but you will be supporting Beyond Food CIC, an organisation whose mission is to end the cycle of homelessness by providing United Kitchen apprenticeships, providing free courses to help gain sustainable employment in the hospitality industry.
Toxteth TV
Toxteth TV is a multi use media and training venue based near Liverpool City Centre. It is available for hire as a working TV studio space equipped with lighting rig, green screen facility, floor cameras, Avid Adrenalin suite and gallery. Toxteth TV works with the local community – particularly those who may not be in training, school or employment – on media projects and is committed to working with vulnerable or excluded groups of young people and adults to offer a safe, accessible and forward thinking training and creative space. Contact them if you have an idea for a creative event you’d like to host in Liverpool.
Glasgow Women’s Library
In an aim to get the Glasgow Women’s Library on every one of these lists….Not only a lending library, the Glasgow Women’s Library is a “treasure trove” of historical and contemporary artifacts and archive materials that celebrate the lives, histories and achievements of women.
They support thousands of women across Scotland every year to improve their lives through our services and programmes, including support and activities that tackle a wide range of issues from poverty and women’s health, sexuality and surviving violence. The revamp of their Events Space was completed in November 2015 as part of a major refurbishment project. Formerly the ‘Gentlemen’s Reading Room’, it’s the perfect purpose built space for conferences, workshops, exhibitions and more.
[more to come, please get in touch if you know of a project you’d like to see featured on this list]
*when it works smallprint. These lists will be regularly updated. If I find a project that I think has a really nice idea behind it, I’ll share it. If I later find out something really icky out about said project, I’ll take it down if I think it’s not worth sharing anymore.