Opp2mise Programme

Opp2mise is a capacity building support programme for social economy organisations in North Ayrshire. The programme is managed and operated by the Community Regeneration Unit at Cunninghame Housing Association in Ardrossan and funded by North Ayrshire Council.

AIMS

The programme aims to:

Help create and move existing social economy organisations on the journey to becoming successful social enterprises, increasing their employment potential and diversifying their funding base.
Explore new ways of working and delivering services and improve networking, joint working and exchange of information and ideas.
Move the social economy on as a vibrant and expanding sector within North Ayrshire and develop links between the public and private sector in support of the social economy.

SERVICES

The Opp2mise programme is delivered by qualified social economy advisers, who specialise in providing organisations with access to a full portfolio of business start up and support services. The programme aims to meet the needs of individual or organisational circumstances and will equip staff and board members with the skills and knowledge to manage and operate a successful social enterprise.

ELIGIBILITY

Our advisors will work with organisations that intend to, or are currently working to not-for-profit aims and objectives. To access support through Opp2mise organisations should meet at least one of the following criteria:

Operating within key growth sectors, such as housing issues, care, employability/training, childcare or financial services.
Turnover of £100,000 per annum.
Currently employing, or have the potential to employ staff.
Earning at least 20% of their income from sales.

EXAMPLES OF INTERVENTIONS

The programme provides a range of services tailored to the individual needs and circumstances of social economy organisations, including diagnostic reviews such as business health checks, action planning, financial and business planning support, funding and development, procurement, legal structures for social enterprises, roles and responsibilities of board members; HR policies, ideas generation and marketing amongst others.

EVENTS

Opp2mise runs a series of local events and training programmes, such as Capacity Building Workshops, Seminars, Study Visits and Networking Forums. These help our clients to exchange best-practice and keep up to date with local and national policy developments.

An evaluation of the Opp2mise programme was undertaken by IBP Strategy and Research in early 2011.

A Copy of the report is available here.