Commonweal selected for Spring Impact’s Scale Accelerator
Commonweal Housing have been selected to take part in this year’s Scale Accelerator, joining a cohort of five UK change-maker charities and social enterprises, with an ambition to scale their impact.
Backed by The National Lottery Community Fund, Spring Impact’s Scale Accelerator is a unique programme which helps UK charities and social enterprises to scale their impact and change more lives, by providing vital support, skills and perspective. Taking place from now until September 2020, participants will benefit from an intensive programme of support, using Spring Impact’s five-stage replication process to develop a strong scale strategy.
Drawn from across the UK, this year’s Scale Accelerator cohort all share a commitment to taking a systematic, person-led approach to support those on the extreme edges of society. Commonweal Housing works to investigate, test and share housing solutions to social injustice, in partnership with expert charity organisations across the UK. Its long-term approach to supporting housing-based projects and research allows it to take on extensive action-learning, which the organisation then promotes to encourage further replication and learning by wider organisations.
As part of its mission to foster a more enabling environment for scale in the UK, Spring Impact is trialling a new tailored and targeted Scale Accelerator, to develop and share learnings with others in the sector around this field of social innovation.
Joe Kallarackal, Director at Spring Impact said: “With marginalised people rarely facing just one issue, there is a growing need for a more systematic, person-led approach. We know that effective approaches, practices and projects that help adults facing multiple disadvantage have great potential but face unique challenges in scaling their impact. We want to focus on how these challenges can be overcome to unlock greater impact for the sector.”
Ashley Horsey, Chief Executive at Commonweal Housing said: “We are thrilled to have been chosen to take part in the Scale Accelerator Programme for 2020.”
As we prepare to take our action-learning model forward in the new decade, we are keen to see how we can, with Spring Impact’s help, further enhance the scale and impact of the projects we support targeting the most marginalised and overlooked people in our society.
Ashley Horsey, CEO Commonweal Housing
The announcement comes as Spring Impact expands its Scale Accelerator, thanks to £1.5 million in additional funding for a further three and a half years, from the National Lottery Community Fund, the largest funder of community activity in the UK.
Since 2015, twenty-four ambitious UK charities and social entrepreneurs at the frontline of addressing key societal issues have participated in the Scale Accelerator. As a result, many have increased their reach and impact, and gained funding for their next phase of growth.
John Knights, Senior Head of UK Funding at The National Lottery Community Fund, said: “We are delighted that National Lottery funding is continuing to support the Scale Accelerator, as it develops new ways to help organisations to grow and increase their impact. Thanks to the money raised by National Lottery players, ambitious projects across the UK will be able to scale up their effects, enabling more people and communities to thrive.”