Kibble Podcast Network

For our first episode we caught up with ASI, and social enterprise guru, David LePage on the sidelines of the Social Enterprise Summit to talk about the definition of social enterprise, government policies in SE, the need to communicate the stories behind social enterprises and the importance of networking and sharing knowledge at conferences.

With episode two we take a look at the Social Enterprise in Education Awards, as we talk to some of the children about the social enterprises and what they did to win such awards, and also featuring speeches from Social Enterprise Academy chair Neil McLean and Social Enterprise Academy tutor Jay Lamb.

With episode three we return to the Social Enterprise Summit and have a chat with Irene from Citizens Online, Ducan from Social Enterprise Scotland and Ellidh from the North Highland Initiative to talk about podcasting and social enterprise issues. We uncover a concern for a lot of businesses in the sector: availablity and visibility of funding.

Mark has a chat with Jonny Kinross, CEO of the Grassmarket Community Project, to discuss what the project does and how he didn’t know what social enterprise was when he began his own business.

Mark catches up with Post Creative director Scott Ogilvie to talk about the business, its ethos and changing from a PLC to a social enterprise.

Social enterprise support agency Firstport are the focus of this week’s podcast, as Mark speaks to Karen McGregor, the company’s Chief Executive, about the focus of the organisation and the struggles that social enterprises face.

Bad Idea have quickly risen to prominence in the Scottish social enterprise scene, so with that in mind Mark had a chat with CEO Anthony Gerrard to see what they do, why it’s important to inspired creativity in young people, the effectiveness of support organisations and how Americans really understand the ethos behind Bad Idea.

One of the great benefits of conference events is the deluge of information on offer. Even away from the presentations and seminars, the amount of things you can learn from the sidelines through networking adds to the educational richness of these kinds of events. There was one such conversation that I had back in June, […]

Jonathan Bland is a world renowned expert in social enterprise and we had a chat with him about his social enterprise history and the genesis of E3M.

There aren’t many social enterprise media companies out there, so Mark had sometime to really get to know the ins and outs of Media Co-Op and the mission of a social enterprise media company

In our never ending quest to show the best of what social enterprise offers, we speak to Neil McLean, Chief Executive of the Social Enterprise Academy, whose work is helping people in the social sector to realise their potential.

Gerry Higgins has been at the forefront the UK’s social enterprise strategy for a number of years, and has been instrumental in developing the sector. It was a great honour to chat with him about his social enterprise journey, the positive vibes in the sector and the excellent results of the recent Social Enterprise in Scotland Census 2015.

Vox Liminis are an organisation who assist prisoners with their rehabilitation by using the creative arts to recreate themselves and their lives. We sat down with director Alison Urie and manager Graeme McKerracher to discuss the meaning of justice, rehabilitation, how prison affects the lives of more than just the prisoner themselves and the genesis of Vox Liminis.

Daniel Rous talks to us about social enterprise, grant funding vs. loans, how his journey began and TSIs.

We had a chat with Tamra Ryan about social enterprise, employablity and empowerment of impoverished women.

We had a brief chat with Louisa Taylor about Fablevision Studios, social enterprise and media production, employablity and her social enterprise journey.

Continuing the media theme from the last epsiode, we chat to Robert Jacobs about grassroots community media, and using media to support local communities.

We had a lovely chat with Robbie from Lingo Flamingo about the nature of the project, starting a social enterprise, the inspiration behind Lingo Flamingo and lots more.

We have a brief chat over Skype with Alastair Davis from Social Investment Scotland about the importance of the SE Census and what SIS do.

The story of D.N.D.P. is a fascinating and inspiring one, and I sat down with Managing Director (and ranconteur) Bruce Gunn to talk about the genesis of D.N.D.P., the assistance they received, measuring growth, the drive towards sustainability and much more.

The Grameen model of micro-credit is a fantastic, innovative way of helping people out of poverty. We talk to Kevin Cadman from Grameen in the UK to discuss Grameen and why it’s vital.

We sat down and had a chat with Keith from RSM during an E3M event to talk about social impact measurement.

We cover the opening of Kibble’s latest social enterprise – The Experience. A themed entertainment venue and young workforce development centre.

Gregory Chuvet is the managing director of The Bike Station in Glasgow and we had a great chat about the culture of his social enterprise and more.

This episode contains a lengthy, albeit brilliant, conversation with SCRT chief executive Pauline Hinchion. It may very well be our best episode yet. We talk about her social enterprise journey, the work SCRT do and why it is so important to the sector.

We return to January’s E3M away day with two interviews from June O’Sullivan, from the London Early Years Foundation, and Danny Dickson, from Charity Bank.

Jacqui’s experience and insight into Lifelink is engaging and inspiring in the latest episode of Social Enterprise Conversations.

We have a cracking interview for you this week – Owen Cook from Space Unlimited talks about the power of having young people and adults work together.

This week we sit down with Douglas from the Glasgow Homelessness Network about social enterprise and raising awareness of homelessness.

A fascinating insight into the kind of information you get at an E3M session, with Rodney Schwartz from ClearlySo.

See Think Make provide Arts Award training, and is another fantastic example of the great diversity one can find in the social enterprise sector.

The first in a series of interviews with Chief Executive of Kibble Graham Bell, and Marketing, Funding and Communications Manager Lesley Fuller. In this episode we cover Kibble’s history and briefly touch on how, and why, we became a social enterprise.

We had a lovely chat with Geoff from Young Enterprise Scotland, speaking about the entrepreneurial mindset and helping young people fulfill their potential.

We take an excursion to Hampden Park to chat about charity, community, football and health with Nicky Reid, General Manager of the SPFL Trust.

The second in a series of interviews with Chief Executive of Kibble Graham Bell, and Marketing, Funding and Communications Manager Lesley Fuller. In this episode we cover Kibble’s social enterprise journey and the power of having a good relationship with a diverse board.

Empowerment – that’s what I think about when I think about social enterprise. Empowerment! It also happens to be the thing that ties many social enterprises together. It’s the theme that embodies nearly all of the work of almost every social enterprise featured on this podcast. This takes many different forms. It could be empowering […]

If you’re Scottish and have even an inkling about charities then Sense Scotland need little in the way of introduction. Sense Scotland just celebrated its 30th anniversary, and has spent all of that time providing support services to thousands of disabled people and their families, through a number of different projects across Scotland. Created by […]

In my last blog I spoke about how empowerment is a running theme in this podcast. In part one of my interview with Andy Kerr, Chief Executive of Sense Scotland, we very briefly touched on stories of empowerment, and the things that Sense Scotland have done for their service users. In this episode we delve […]

Kibble Education and Care Centre has existed in Paisley for 175 years. That’s a long time. As stated in part one of this interview, it could be argued that Kibble has in fact been a social enterprise for that entire time. However, as we briefly discussed in part two, 2004 was a landmark year for […]

The diverse landscape of social enterprise is always somewhat surprising to me. Perhaps it shouldn’t be. There are businesses out there that do everything one can possibly imagine. It should be no surprise that social enterprise, which at the end of the day is just a different kind of business, is the same. For this […]

This year, 2016, the Glasgow Women’s Library (GWL) celebrates its 25th anniversary. Friends of mine have been talking about the GWL for a couple of years, so naturally I’d heard about it, but I had no idea it was a social enterprise. The model makes sense for business such as theirs (arguably, it makes sense […]

In a week where the BBC has reported on “rogue landlords” in Glasgow’s Govanhill area, it seems only fitting to share this interview with Jennifer Paice from SafeDeposits Scotland. ‘Rouge landlords’ are not common, and the truth is that the vast majority of landlords are reputable, and most of the time there are no disagreements […]

In our last episode we spoke to Jennifer Paice from SafeDeposits Scotland. In the show notes for that episode, I linked to a couple of articles which discussed the housing situation in Govanhill, and more specifically highlighted the action that Glasgow City Council were taking on ‘slum landlords’ in the area. As it would happen, […]

The CEIS Policy and Practice Conference is always a highlight of the conference calendar, and this year was no exception. 2016’s conference marked the tenth such occurrence, and this year they had a number of international delegates attend through the British Council, from places such as Canada, South Korea and more. The conference itself was […]

At the CEIS Policy and Practice Conference this year there were four breakout sessions in the middle of the afternoon. The one I attended was about the creative industries, and the session opened with a staggering statistic – 14% of the social enterprise sector is made up of businesses that operate in the cultural and […]

David Cook has been involved in many different social enterprises over the years. Initially, he was involved without knowing it; something which he expands on in this interview. He has worked for WASPS and the Cultural Enterprise Office, amongst others, and has recently become freelance with his own firm Cook Creative. David was one of […]

This episode is part one of a two-part interview featuring two inspiring guests. Earlier this year I covered the CEIS Policy and Practice Conference, and the threads of that have permeated every episode since. The day after the conference however, I hosted James Dunbar from New Start Highland and Bill Morris from Blue Star Recyclers […]

This is the second part of my interview with James Dunbar from New Start Highland and Bill Morris from Blue Star Recyclers. Whilst it’s not essential that you listen to part one in order to follow this episode, we do begin with a thought which ended the last episode, so it would certainly be beneficial […]

A milestone 50th episode for our Social Enterprise Podcast, and in it we have a compelling chat with Rachael Brown from the Cultural Enterprise Office.

Amreeta from Bridges Out of Poverty popped along to The Experience to talk about education people about poverty in order to overcome it.

I sat down for a lovely chat with Jeremie about what inspired Power A Life, the difficulties of being a social enterprise tech company and more.

We sat down with Peter Levelle from Glasgow Wood Recycling to talk about social enterprise, employability, empowerment and making a difference.

Jim and I took to the conference room in The Experience and had an interesting chat about his storied social enterprise history and SKS Scotland.

We live in interesting times for social enterprise, but to some people the support available hasn’t changed in as many ways as some would have you believe. In the second part of my interview with Jim Bennett, he quite rightly points out the things which have and haven’t changed over the years, particularly as it […]

We connect with Lucy-Rose via skype to talk about Entrepreneurial Spark, accelerating social enterprises and more.

Following on from a great 2016 where Tracey was nominated for a Social Enterprise Champion award, I caught up with Tracey on Skype to talk about social enterprise and more.

Calum from Positively Scottish had an idea to create a news website that focused on the positive stories that come from Scottish communities all over the world. One could say that he succeeded. This is the story behind that website.

In part one of our coverage of SCLD’s Young Scotland’s Got Talent event, we speak to some of the exhibitors and attendees.

In part two of our coverage of Young Scotland’s Got Talent, we speak to SCLD CEO Chris Creegan, and VIAS CEO Norma Curran.

We went down to the relaunch of the Spoon Cafe in Glasgow to talk to CEO of Unity Emma Soanes about the cafe, unity, social enterprise and much more.

Melodie talks to us about what PEEK does, her experience working for the organisation, the way it has changed and how it empowers young people.

The DWIC is an institution in Dundee, and it was wonderful to catch up with CEO Caroline to chat about social enterprise, empowerment and more.

I caught up with David via Skype for a fascinating chat about Mydex, data protection, privacy online and, of course, social enterprise.

Andrew from the student run social enterprise consultancy FreshSight popped through to Glasgow to talk about the business, social enterprise and much more!

Hamilton is responsible for creating sustainable fashion from recycled bottles and the results are great. This Skype interview is a real treat, and so inspiring. It was a pleasure to talk to him and hear how his company was formed.

In part one of this conversation with Scott Duncan from LEAP we talk social enterprise, environmental concerns and how LEAP works.

It’s always a delight, and a surprise, when an interview goes on for longer than expected. As you may have noticed, I generally like to keep interviews to between 20 and 30 minutes, but sometimes the guest just has a bit more to say. In the instance, I was happy to keep talking to Scott. […]

Matt and Peter from the Australian Centre for Rural Entrepreneurship joined Neil from the Social Enterprise Academy, Graham and Lesley from Kibble, and myself to have a chat about social enterprise, the differences between the Scottish and Australian approaches to it, and much more.

Transform Creative is an organisation that helps other third sector design organisations with their design and communications. In this interview we speak to Head of Design Ana Soldatenko as she talks us through the history of the business, from the kernel of an idea suggested by their parent company, Transform Scotland, right through to the present day.

We launch our brand new Child and Youth Care podcast and our first episode features a chat with Martin Stabery, current editor of the CYC-Net website: a repository for articles and advice for all child and youth care practitioners.

We sat down with Leon Fulcher to talk about the importance of continued development as a CYC worker.

The Big YES Programme is a youth employment initiative funded by the Big Lottery and operated by Kibble at our themed entertainment venue The Experience. I spoke with two people involved in the programme about their experiences working in child and youth care.

Everyone likes a good story. From those family members with the seemingly innate skill of injecting life into a party through a well told anecdote, to the easy Scots charm of Iain Banks’ fiction. Whether it’s the Big Yin’s fanciful yet all too real tales of comedy found in the mundane, or the easily accessible […]

What does it mean to grow up with someone? Usually, it’s something we say when we talk about the people who were our friends in our formative years, the childhood and teenage friends that helped shape our upbringing. Adam and Craig might be from different backgrounds, but their friendship has taught them a lot about growing up and what it is to become an adult.

Friendship comes in all shapes and sizes, in a variety of different situation. In this episode, we speak to three women about their workplace friendship, and how their bond helps, and sometimes hinders, their working practices, whilst also extolling the virtues of how important these friendships can be.