Last week at the Hoxton Apprentice, the social enterprise community gathered to toast this year's UnLtd Level 2 award winners. Some 20 exciting and sutainable social businesses - including a healing harpist and a therapy programme for young offenders - have been awarded funding by UnLtd and the event was a celebration of their ideas, ventures and great work. Entrepreneur Oli Barrett introduced the winners, got the networking going and told a few brilliantly bad gags.
So, canape in one hand and mic in the other, we went along to chat to some of the winners to ask about the work that they do, what they plan to do with their money, what the next stage of development is for the business and also find out about the biggest challenges facing them in the year ahead.
(Just a note about the sound. If you're wondering about the background noise, it's all the schmoozing and networking that followed the presentations.)
Who we've been talking to:
Sean Gibbons, Food Aware - an organisation committed to food issue education and diverting surplus food from landfill.
David Babbs, 38 Degrees - a community of campaigners and suite of digital tools to support the collective which includes voting tools, online event organisation and mass e-petitions.
Mohammad Al-Ubaydli, Patients Know Best - a software platform that gives patients a copy of their medical records helping them to better manage their own healthcare.
Catherine Trillo, Lydia's House, training and employment for disadvantaged women through antique furniture restoration and production of products for the interior design industry.
These audio interviews were produced by Frederika Whitehead.
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