Project: SIMPL. Plymouth (Social Investment Market Place Links) 2.0

Grant: £30,000

A collaborative project across three infrastructure organisations (CoLab Exeter, Plymouth VCSE and Torbay Community Development Trust) to support the growth of a robust local social economy across Devon. The three organisations are working in partnership to utilise each other’s respective skills and strengths, while amplifying the learning and best practice across local networks to develop a cross-county consensus on more integrated and efficient funding approaches for complex social issues.

The project aims to increase enterprise development services available to VCSEs, strengthen the voice of the sector and create strategic partnerships with social investors and commissioners. The project will focus on the collaborative development of new solutions, leading to fundable propositions, to address three themes identified as complex problems. The project will select the three focus areas at the outset of the project, with consideration given to those sectors and potential solutions that will be able to sustain the cost of social investment.

The project will establish better connections between funders, VCSE service providers and business support services. It will enable stakeholders to understand the value of social investment and increase the skills and capacity of VCSEs to access existing finance opportunities. There will also be a deeper understanding of how financial process and products can be designed to produce collaborative behaviour and the benefits of working in partnership to address complex issues.