Hampshire and Southampton based company, ActiveMe 360, has been shortlisted in the UK Social Enterprise Awards, recognising it as one of the leading social enterprises in the country.
ActiveMe 360 is a finalist in the One to Watch Category at this year’s Social Enterprise UK Awards. It is a business whose mission is to change lives by improving health and wellbeing using the power of physical activity, sport and education. In the last year it has reinvested money back into its communities and engaged over 15,000 children and young people in its mission, providing accessible physical activity and sport sessions to improve their wellbeing. This Summer alone they have engaged over 5,000 children in their Active Holiday programme across the county, this includes supporting the Department for Education’s ‘Holiday Activities and Food’ programme which provides free holiday activities and hot lunches to eligible children.
ActiveMe 360 is just a few months off it’s third birthday, with plans to expand their mission and invest more money in local communities to support peoples wellbeing it is certainly ‘one to watch.’
Social enterprises are businesses which trade for a social or environmental purpose. There are 100,000 social enterprises in the UK contributing £60bn to the UK economy, each one being set up to tackle some of the biggest challenges we face from homelessness to the climate emergency.
The UK Social Enterprise Awards run by Social Enterprise UK, the national membership body for social enterprises, recognise the nation’s most pioneering social enterprises. ActiveMe 360 will be joining other shortlisted organisations at the prestigious awards ceremony held at London’s iconic Guildhall on 8 December.
This year the Awards featured two new categories one recognising a Social Enterprise Building Diversity, Inclusion, Equity & Justice and the other for the Social Enterprise Team of the Year – a category specifically acknowledging those teams which have demonstrated the strength, passion, and resilience so characteristic of the social enterprise sector over an extremely challenging year.
Previous winners have included a company set up to tackle furniture poverty, an IT consultancy employing people with autism and a community energy co-operative – demonstrating just how diverse the social enterprise sector is.
Commenting on being shortlisted, ActiveMe 360 Founder and Director Will Atterbury said:
“I am incredibly proud we have been shortlisted in the ‘One to Watch’ category at this year’s Social Enterprise UK awards. This nomination is a testament to the hard work, passion and dedication our team put in every single day to improving people’s physical, mental and social wellbeing.
When we founded the business it was with a single unifying mission, and with a belief that we can do things differently, and better. That is why we were founded as a proud Social Enterprise, it means when the business succeeds so do our communities, we exist to add social value and benefit those within the communities we work in. There’s no greater example of this than the Department for Education’s HAF programme, providing eligible children access to a safe, fun and inclusive holiday activities with hot meals and a positive atmosphere. As part of our successful application which is supporting over 5,000 places on our Active Holiday programme this summer, we pledged to go further and directly fund an additional 20% of places during future holiday periods not covered by the national programme to ensure children are provided more opportunities and are supported all year round.”
Commenting on the Awards, Chief Executive of Social Enterprise UK Peter Holbrook said:
“The UK Social Enterprise Awards are back, bigger and better than ever before. We have had a record number of applications this year, all of which have showcased the strength, dynamism and resilience of the social enterprise community through what’s been an incredibly difficult and uncertain period.
Over the course of the pandemic social enterprises have been going above and beyond the call of duty to support their teams, the individuals, and communities they work with, showing the grit, determination and innovation so inherent to this sector. They’ve been operating directly on the frontline of the crisis, launching new products and pivoting their business models to meet the needs of communities and society as a whole.
The Awards are all about celebrating the achievements of the UK’s social enterprise movement, which is showing us that another way of doing business is possible – one which has never been more important as we look to build back better and address the climate emergency.”