Southpoint- Blackpool
Using social enterprise to make a project sustainable
 Background
Blackpool is in the throes of regeneration. Major physical changes are taking place throughout the town. An example of these changes is the headlands development on the seafront, recently highlighted as the celebration point for the homecoming of the successful football team. Thousands of people gathered to celebrate the promotion to the premiership. The combination of the people and the backdrop made for such a memorable event.
Young People - the town's future leaders
Physical regeneration alone is not enough to create a successful future. People make the town successful and the talents of young people need to be unleashed for regeneration to be sustainable.
This is where Blackpool's myplace project (Southpoint) comes in. As you would expect, it has a wide range of activities (with a strong emphasis on music and arts), with services behind the scenes. A theme running through the project though like letters through Blackpool rock is enterprise. If Southpoint can help identify and support young entrepreneurial talent, the future of Blackpool is in safe hands.
Enterprise - potential unlimited
So how does enterprise run through the project? A quick summary of what this looks like to date:
Business model: Southpoint is a Council led partnership with the aim of establishing the project as a Social Enterprise within two years.
Enterprise programmes for young people: Blackpool has an established enterprise education programme for young people - HERO. Several social enterprises alongside the HERO programme will provide a range of innovative enterprise programmes for young people. For example, if young people form a band, they will be encouraged to engage in a programme to help with marketing, publicity etc, helping them with business and life skills.
Engagement of the private sector: It has been amazing how many local businesses want to become involved in Southpoint (15 at the last count). Wanting to put something back has been important, but the emphasis on enterprise makes the sales pitch that bit easier. To date, it has been mainly in kind resources committed - a more formal strategy including a business board is to follow.
Involvement of social enterprises as delivery partners: Small, innovative social enterprises providing activities and services for young people are emerging across the town. A number have agreed to be delivery partners, providing a wide range of arts and music activities.
Involvement of social enterprises as strategic partners: Accordant and Social Enterprise Solutions are social enterprises whose remit is to nurture and capacity-build other social enterprises. Southpoint benefits in two ways from these organisations. Firstly, emerging social enterprises within Southpoint will be provided with support, acting as a potential hub for those who work with young people. If the social enterprises are successful, then Southpoint is successful: a win-win situation. Secondly, Accordant in particular is providing strategic support, crucially providing business acumen but with social values. The final business model for Southpoint will be influenced significantly by the role of Accordant.
Accordant - the role of a social enterprise as a strategic partner
Accordant Enterprise Partnership CIC are involved in this project both strategically and operationally. Their role working with the Southpoint project is to explore the opportunities for the creation of a business model (Social Enterprise) to build sustainability and viability into the project beyond the capital build project.
It is recognised that survival for Third Sector and community engagement projects within the future economic environment can no longer depend on continued funding and priming from public sector budgets. We have to move from a world and culture of acceptance and develop sustainable business models that can provide the revenue streams and profitability for re-investment that will be vital to the success of projects of this kind.
Accordant have spent many years delivering programmes of support for private enterprise, Third Sector organisations and social enterprises, helping them to develop the necessary business acumen and models to underpin financial stability - thus moving forward a commercially driven operation whilst retaining its' Social Goals' and objectives.
Contact:
Main contact:
Michael Taplin
Phone:
01253 476738
Email:
mike.taplin@blackpool.gov.uk
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Resources 
Southpoint Blackpool Case Study (
