We have recently become a member of Social Enterprise UK, the membership body for social enterprise. My Change is a Community Interest Company, which means any profit we make goes straight back into making our services the best they can be.
We applied for the membership to develop our social responsibility within the local communities we work in, and be able to access the tools in helping us achieve this. To join, we had to meet the five criteria including:
- Have a clear social and/or environmental mission set out in your governing documents: We do this by helping the schools we work with create community hubs for people to partake in food related activities like gardening, family cooking sessions or offering healthy eating workshops.
- Reinvest the majority of your profits: Every year we set aside some money which pay for staff to go to the community hubs and work with the local people.
- Be autonomous of the state: We have four Non-Executive Directors and one Managing Director. Each director gives their time on a voluntary basis to help grow the company.
- Be majority controlled in the interests of the social mission: Our social objective underlines all of our projects. Our aim is to provide people with the knowledge, skills and empowerment to make more informed decisions around health, fitness and wellbeing.
- Be accountable and transparent: As a Community Interest Company we must complete an annual report that showcases our activities and the benefits for the community. This can be found on Companies House.
