Social Enterprise Success - 10 Years on!

I had the honour this week of addressing 130 budding social entrepreneurs at the School for Social Enterprise’s residential course at Dartington College nr Totnes. 130 people committed to challenging some of the most intractable social and deprivation issues in this country and abroad through the use of entrepreneurship. They bring real energy, commitment and innovation to the issues and it was a real pleasure to meet with them and reflect with them on the journey that Green-Works has made over the last 10 years.

Right at the end I was asked a really astute question – “ How do you keep energized after 10 years?” I replied that taking the business into new arenas and breaking new barriers had fuelled the interest and regalvanised me in the low moments. As I talked, images from my first trip to Sierra Leone came flooding back to me. Memories of the school children with no books, of the people with no health care, of the constant battle with appalling poverty and of course the very obvious evidence of the recently resolved civil war. It had been a major struggle to organize the first shipment of basic school furniture to them so that they could store and keep books dry and of the first chairs we sent so that teachers could sit down at least sometimes during their 12 hour teaching shift. It was an emotional moment and one that crystallized my view that reuse can create real benefits in ways that can be truly amazing. Moreover, looking at those 130 encouraging , supporting smiles I knew I simply had to do more of it.

Colin Crooks CEO


There is many ways to get involved -

• You may know of a project abroad that is in need of furniture
• You may want to hold your our fundraising event
• You can donate money through our justgiving site

If you would like to get involved in the Green-Works overseas programme, have any ideas or want to find out more please visit the Green-Works website or get in touch info@green-works.co.uk

Building Bridges - Colin Crooks

This week I was invited to join the 800th anniversary of the City Bridge Trust, a brilliant organisation who have husbanded the tolls and fees from crossing London Bridge in the medieval period to fund the building of all the bridges into the City including Tower Bridge and most recently the millennium bridge. In addition to that they have been incredibly supportive of all sorts of organisations (including Green-Works!) that help develop a sense of social cohesion in the capital. A bridge is a powerful metaphor and it reminded me of the our ambition in Green-Works – to provide a bridge between the corporate organisation with lots of redundant furniture and the local community group or small business that is real need of decent reliable furniture at a sensible cost. This is our main mission but as we’ve done this we have seen that there is an even bigger bridge to build: the bridge that links the green movement to society. So many people think that being green is an altruistic and expensive commitment with little benefit locally or to the community. Green-Works sets out to demonstrate a very clear link: being Green actually Works and being Green creates Work. Over the last 9 years we have engaged with hundreds of unemployed people from all sorts of backgrounds training them and employing them. In this very direct way we have shown the connection and hopefully as this blog develops you will see other connections………