Social Entrepreneur of the Year Award

Dear Laurence,

We are delighted to announce the finalists for this year’s Social Entrepreneur of the Year Award (SEYA). As a fellow social entrepreneur it would be fantastic if you could help support the finalists by voting in and sharing #SEYA15 with your networks and on social media (tweet to @SchSocEnt with #SEYA15).

Over 230 entrepreneurs applied for the 42 places on this year’s Scale Up Programme and the finalists have beaten off tough competition from their peers to be in contention for the award. The award comes with a top prize of £10,000, with second and third places receiving £6,000 and £4,000 respectively.

Click this link to Vote now or visit www.the-sse.org/SEYA.

You are also able to vote for by text. You can do this by sending SEYA + finalist name to 67076. This is a free text.

To watch the meet the finalists video click here: https://youtu.be/1XFWfieyL2E

The finalists are:

Nick Green, West Yorkshire. Incredible Farm: A community project based on 1 acre of land. The farm may be small but £5000 worth of vegetables is sold each year. In addition, volunteers, children and apprentices are educated how to deal with food security issues and environmental damage

Michelle King, Peterborough. Little Miracles: An enterprise that supports families that have children with additional needs, disabilities and life limiting conditions. Little Miracles supports over 1,500 families and 5,000 children.

Simon Short, Grimsby. Inspiring Intelligence: Helps those released from prison overcome their social and economic difficulties by offering training and support, delivered by reformed offenders.

Jem Stein, London. The Bike Project: Provides second-hand bikes to refugees in and around London. By attending workshops and helping to fix their own bike, all refugees get actively involved in the process as much as possible, teaching them basic bike maintenance and forming long-term supportive relationships.

Caroline Tomlinson, Wigan. My Life: Supports children and adults with disabilities, people with ill health or age-related problems as well people who generally feel lonely or isolated within their communities. Workshops, meeting areas, outings, fun days and training opportunities are provided as part of the programme to combat loneliness through community activity

Voting closes on Friday 30th October.

The winner of the Social Entrepreneur of the Year 2015 will be announced on the evening of 4^th November at a ceremony at Lloyds Banking Group HQ in London.

Best wishes,