Read the full article in Issue 56 - Winter 2016/’17 of ‘Changing Ireland’!
COVER STORY
COVER STORY
5 top Social Entrepreneurs in Dublin:
€45,000 handed out to spur on communities
Five thrilled winners were presented with €5,000 to €15,000 cheques as award winners in Social Enterprise on December 15. The awards were presented by Minister of State for Housing and Urban Renewal, Damien English.
Minister English didn’t go away empty handed himself - he was presented with a hand-made navy-blue ‘House of Akina’ dickey-bow by project co-founder Lye Ogunsanya. Ryan Tubridy already wears one.
The ceremony took place at the Hugh Lane Art Gallery in Dublin.The winners were: Re-create; The Yard at Solas Project; House of Aki-na; Aspire Productions; and Third Space.
Dublin’s Social Enterprise Grant Scheme Awards was established in 2015 to raise awareness and reward the important work being done by Social Entrepreneurs in the city.
At this year’s awards, a total of €45,000 was handed over to ve winning projects to further develop their operations and organisations.
Evanne Kilmurray, CEO, Inner City Enterprise, said that social enterprises in the City “play a key role in rejuvenating many of the local communities and have long lasting impacts in terms of job creation and provision of real social services.”
The awards help to showcase what social enterprise can achieve in our communities.
The scheme was launched “to address the gap for accessing funding for start up social enterprises” and Evanne said funding and mentoring makes “a vital di erence”.
Minister English praised the important work done, saying: “Social Enterprise is the up and coming way to give ownership back to a community by delivering much needed local services in an e cient manner using self sustaining enterprises.”
