(Part of the West of England Social Enterprise Innovation Partnership including Voscur's Kick Start programme)

Applications are open for the Community Business Trade Up Programme, run by the School for Social Entrepreneurs, in partnership with Power to Change.

This programme helps the leaders of community businesses in England. It focuses on growing income from trading, to improve impact and sustainability. It offers:

• A learning programme: 12 days spread over nine months (June 2019 to March 2020).
• A Match Trading grant of up to £10,000.

There is no cost to you at any point. The deadline to apply is 1pm on 14th February 2019.

Who should apply?

This programme is for community businesses who want to grow by increasing their sales (trading). A community business is run by and for a local community. Its profits are reinvested for the benefit of that community. They will be working towards these criteria:

• Locally rooted.
• Accountable to the local community.
• Trading for the benefit of the local community.
• Making a broad community impact.

The community businesses on this programme will have plans to grow trading (income from sales) by at least £10,000 in the next year. Find out more in the guidance notes.

The Match Trading grant

Students on this programme receive a Match Trading grant of up to £10,000, which can be drawn down over 12 months. The grant is linked to growth over the year. It incentivises social organisations to focus on increasing their income from trading, so they can build stronger futures.

Read more about Match Trading, SSE’s innovation in grant-funding.