Caroline Downey on behalf of MERCi
I am the Executive Director of MERCi, which is a social enterprise and one of the Northwest's leading sustainable development charities. We deliver a number of services and projects ranging from renting conference and office space, to delivering sustainability audits.
Communication and creativity within the sustainability field is my passion and I have worked as a graphic designer, planning assistant, magazine editor, community enabler, researcher, policy maker and environmentalist, in various fields such as recycling, agricultural extension, environmental education and sustainable development - both here in the UK and abroad in China, Africa and India.
Over the years Caroline has had experience of working at Trustee/Director level in many sectors such as the international charity Village Aid, VSNW and MEEN. Her experience also ranges across sectors and she has worked for local government, national governmental departments, private businesses and now for the First Sector (known by some as the Third!). She believes Together Works is an excellent way to network, promote and support the sector, especially through the turbulent times that lie ahead, and as a Director of TW she will continue to champion social enterprises and the social enterprise model.
Dave Dawes on behalf of Unlimited Potential
Dave Dawes is a nurse and has been a founding member of 4 social enterprises over the last 8 years. He currently runs the Nurse First programme which is a UK-wide development programme creating social innovation in health. He is the first nurse to be elected to the Council of the Social Enterprise Coalition and the first social entrepreneur to be elected to the Council of the Royal College of Nursing. He was one of the youngest Chief Executives in the NHS (East Manchester Primary Care Group) and had held a number of NHS management posts in Health Authorities and Hospital Trusts and have published extensively in nursing and management journals. He is a frequent speaker at national and international conferences on social entrepreneurship, e-learning and leadership.
He has worked with a number of PCTs to explore different organisational and governance options such as Community Foundation Trust, Social Enterprise, Care Trust, etc as part of the Transforming Community Services and Right to Request initiatives. He advises NHS organisations, established nonprofit organisations and start-up entrepreneurs on governance models, engaging with clinical staff, raising finance, business planning and developing strategy. He also served on a number of boards including Social Enterprise Coalition Council, Unlimited Potential, SELNET, European Nursing Leadership Foundation, Brook Advisory Centres, RCN Council, East Manchester PCG and the North West Board of the RCN. At the the NHS Leadership Centre, he was the Primary Care Co-ordinator and developed and supported nurse leadership at Board and Executive level in Primary Care Trusts. He jointly led the e-learning programme which won the Institute of IT Training Award for e-learning project of the year in 2003.
Jonathan Atkinson on behalf of OpenSpace Co-op
Since completing a degree in Environmental Science Jonathan's career has crossed boundaries and disciplines. He worked at two research co-ops, Ethical Consumer and Corporate Watch. In 2002, he co-founded UHC Collective, a multidisciplinary project working to effect social change through the creation of art, design and research. In 2007 he left to start his consultancy, lowwintersun, working as a social enterprise marketing specialist, researcher and developer of new innovative creative, co-operative and environmental projects.
Clients include New Economics Foundation, Department for Energy and Climate Change, NESTA, Co-operatives North West, URBED Co-op, and OXFAM..
In 2008, he co-founded OpenSpace Co-op, a co-working project based in Hulme, Manchester for freelancers and small social enterprises. His interests lie at the point where urban development, art and design, community and politics meet. Throughout his career he has explored the potential for co-operative and collective action to create change.
The focus of his work is now the development and set up of Carbon Co-op.
More info at http//:www.lowwintersun.info
Mike Bull, from MMU( co-opted)
As well as sitting on the TogetherWorks board, Mike is also a Director of SENW (Social Enterprise North West). He work for Manchester Metropolitan University, he works 2 days a week as a lecturer in the Business School, which includes an undergraduate final year module on Social Enterprise. He also work 3 days a week within the Centre for Enterprise as a Social Enterprise Research Fellow, which includes academic projects to support the development of the sector and to write and publish, towards closing the gap in the academic literature on social enterprise. He has published extensively in the Social Enterprise Journal and have had several projects, that includes Balance – the diagnostic tool (www.socialenterprisebalance.org), Engage – SE/NHS engagement project (www.business.mmu.ac.uk/engage/). He co-authored a book relea in January 2011, entitled ‘Understanding Social Enterprise: Theory and Practice, which has been written with Rory Ridley-Duff of Sheffield Hallam University (www.uk.sagepub.com/books/Book233472).
Ruth Rosselson on behalf of Gap Unit
Ruth has spent most of her working life working with organisations whose central purpose is about making positive changes to the world around them. She worked at Ethical Consumer for ten years in a range of roles, managed Blue Ventures Expeditions in Madagascar and has worked for the past four years as a freelancer, offering her skills to social enterprises, co-operatives and the not-for-profit sector. She also trained and worked as a life coach, specialising in confidence building and stress management as well as career development. She remains involved in Ethical Consumer as a director.
The variety of the roles that she has held has meant that she has a wide range of skills, including communication skills (she is a writer and researcher), business and project management, as well as training and facilitation.
As part of her current portfolio of projects, Ruth is facilitating, training and mentoring refugee communities in Salford and Manchester as an associate for the Gap Unit. Gap is a Manchester-based Community Interest Company which specialises in participatory training, research, advocacy and consultancy on gender and equality issues. It works with marginalised communities, in particular supporting women and grassroots women's groups to develop their potential, have a voice and effect change.
Ruth brings her wide variety of skills and her strong briefs in the principles of social enterprise and the power of social enterprises to make a positive impact on communities and on society as a whole.
