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Today is Social Enterprise Day – a moment to raise awareness of our pioneering business model and celebrate the more than 100,000 social enterprises in the UK working to benefit people and the planet. But what is a Social Enterprise? Social enterprises are businesses that trade for a social or environmental purpose. Like any other business, we look to make a profit (or surplus), but we then use the surplus to benefit the community and environment around us, from free places on our forest schools for low-income households, to donations to local ‘Friends of’ groups to help them improve the green spaces we access on our programmes.
In 2022, Social Enterprises in the UK reinvested £1bn to help communities and the planet – and Get Out More reinvested £8606 of that in local activities and groups. Its not just a financial benefit; last year 14 brilliant volunteers contributed 90 volunteer days on our projects, we supported 42 people to gain a qualification and 4981 people took part in our programmes – 95% of whom said they felt happier as a result.
To mark Social Enterprise Day this year, we are urging readers to think Social Enterprise this year and support business with social and environmental missions in any way you can.
Christmas is fast approaching. Are you feeling stuck for gift ideas? Why not support local communities and the environment by buying from a Social Enterprise this year? Social Enterprise UK has put together a handy gift guide where you can choose thoughtful gifts with purpose. Whether it’s creating jobs and opportunities for people on the margins, delivering people-powered public services or taking on the climate emergency, social enterprises are showing us that another way of doing business is possible – one that puts people and the planet first. We are proud to be a Social Enterprise and when you buy from Get Out More you are supporting the local community and environment too.
We’re officially still in spring but the hot weather is helping us look ahead to a summer of fun. There is plenty happening at Get Out More over the next few months, and in our June newsletter you can read about ways to get involved! In this issue:
- Holiday Forest School
- Wellbeing walks
- Outdoor volunteering opportunities
- Forest school training
- Staff Changes
Keighley-based social enterprise Get Out More is now recruiting new volunteers for the Outdoor Taskforce, a volunteering programme aiming to improve the green spaces around the Keighley and Airedale area. As part of the Outdoor Taskforce, participants learn new practical skills and develop team working skills, supported unemployed people and those looking for a new job with their employability. The group meets once or twice a month, typically on a Friday. Working alongside fellow organisations Yorgreencic, Aire Rivers Trust and Keighley Big Local on various conservation projects, the group will be planting trees, building dams, fencing, coppicing, dry stone walling, river clean-ups, balsam bashing, learning bushcraft skills and more.
Ryan Passmore – “We are pleased to be continuing the Outdoor Taskforce for the next 12 months, there is no end of opportunities to improve green spaces and organisations that could use some extra pairs of hands on their green projects. Our participants got a lot of personal satisfaction from doing something positive for the environment and helping local groups. Previous participants have found their confidence around other people and working outdoors have also improved through the social aspects of the group, we also hope that participants will gain the confidence in their skills to pursue a career outdoors.”
If you would like more information, or are interested in joining, please fill in the registration form below with your contact details. Alternatively please get in touch with Ryan Passmore at 01535 668588 or [email protected].
The Outdoor taskforce is funded by The Prince of Wales’s Charitable Fund founded by HM King Charles III
2022 has been an exciting year for Get Out More as we bounced back from the impact of the pandemic and celebrated our 10th anniversary with many of the people who have supported our growth over the years. As a social enterprise we are committed to supporting the individuals and communities we work with, so it was rewarding to be able to give back through our Anniversary Awards scheme and to get involved in more environmental projects such as extensive tree planting in our area.
Get Out More produced its first Impact Report, collected from data throughout 2021. The report highlighted the year’s achievements in numbers and showed what a difference taking part in our programmes makes to people’s wellbeing, social and nature connections, for example, 65% of people said they had made new friends and connections through Get Out More programmes.
The Forest Pathways, funded by Dept for Education as part of the governments’ Children and Nature programme, drew to a close in the spring this year. 16 schools from across Bradford took part, with forest school programmes for pupils from Reception classes to Year 11. 23 staff undertook accredited forest school training, leaving a project legacy that will reap benefits in their schools for years to come.
We were very proud to celebrate our tenth anniversary on 22 March with a big outdoor party and tree planting at Riddlesden St Mary’s School. On the same day, the Woodland Trust were launching a new woodland to commemorate Captain Sir Tom Moore, a scheme we to which we were pleased to donate. Read all about it the Keighley News
Hosting an outdoor away day for 65 employees from the Yorkshire and Humber Academic Health Science Network, was all in a day’s work for the Get Out More team this month. Their staff felt energised and inspired by activities on offer and delighted to get together again in the great outdoors after months of working apart during the pandemic. “To say the day was a success would be an understatement. The feedback has been overwhelmingly positive, we’ve seen an increase in team togetherness, people have formed bonds with others they had only previously seen on a video call and new staff feel immediately part of the team.
Wharfedale got its own Breathing Spaces booklet in May, the latest in Get Out More’s series of self-guided wellbeing activity booklets focusing on different areas of Bradford district. Thirteen social prescribers from Wharfedale GP practices attended one of Julia’s Breathing Spaces walks in Ilkley to understand how ‘green prescriptions’ can support patient wellbeing.
Get Out More team helped the Year 6 children from Beckfoot Allerton Primary to celebrate the end of SATS, during their residential at Blackhills Scout camp this month. Our practitioners led wild games, den building, crafts and campfire cooking, helping pupils to create happy memories of their final days at primary school. Read about our offer to schools here.
The summer holidays saw the first of our family trips with the Better Start Bradford programme, where families from Bradford got to explore some of the beautiful destinations within easy reach of the city centre. In total, Sam and team facilitated 63 children, 38 dads and 25 mums to take part in the trips, including one in Ilkley, where one of the families commented, “The location was also excellent, with wonderful views of the riverside near the park, whilst being peaceful and relaxed. I will definately be going back again with family and friends!!”
To celebrate our 10th birthday, we gave away over £5000’s worth of rewards in our Anniversary Awards, including training bursaries and forest school places. Interpretation business, Enable2 CIC were the deserving recipients of a Get Out More Wellbeing Day to allow their hardworking team a chance to recharge. On a beautiful autumnal day at Blackhills, they enjoyed a nature-based activities and campfire – read all about it on Enable2’s blog
Our new Outdoor Taskforce were in full swing by November, volunteering on projects to support the environment such as hedge laying, tree guard collection and woodland maintenance. This programme, is designed to support unemployed people into jobs in the outdoor sector and met weekly through the autumn. The funding from the European Social Fund is finished, but Ryan will be carrying on the Outdoor Taskforce into the new year and are welcoming new recruits.
Its been a very rewarding year for Get Out More. Not only were we finalists in the Social Enterprise Yorkshire and Humber Awards in Oct, we won the Big Impact category of Participate’s ‘Cheers for Changemakers’ Awards this month. Annie and Susan collected the award and werw humbled to have been chosen amongst such a great range of businesses and are displaying our trophy with pride
Thank you to all our participants, supporters, partners and funders who have helped make this year so special. We look forward to seeing you again in 2023.
We wish you a happy Christmas and a healthy new year!
From all the Get Out More Team
Get Out More is seeking new Directors to join our Board at an exciting time in our development. We are an award-winning social enterprise with a ten-year track record of running successful nature-based programmes in communities and are looking for two new Directors to join our dynamic team.
The social enterprise is led by a team of six non-executive Directors and a Board Advisor who bring their experience and skills to provide invaluable support to guide the organisation to success, including our strategic priority to secure new premises to enable the next stage of our development. The Board of Directors meet quarterly to review our strategic direction, measured against our key performance indicators. Directors also provide advice to the staff team according to their own expertise from their field of work or personal experience. We welcome applications from all sections of the community and are particularly interested to hear from individuals who meet any of the following criteria :
- Women
- People who live within Bradford district who have experience of our programmes
- People who reflect the diversity of the communities whom we support
One of our Directors, John Hamilton, is stepping down after five successful years as Chair of the organisation so as well as a vacancy for general board members, we have a vacancy at the head of the board and would love to hear from experienced professionals who would like to share their skills to lead the organisation to further success.
In a video message to others thinking of joining the Get Out More Board, John said,
“Joining Get Out More was an opportunity for me to put back into the community where I live. I work in a commercial job and I felt I needed to do something altruistic and help out where I can. I’ve been Chair of the Board of Directors for nearly five years now and I think there is a natural cycle to these positions. The time is ready for someone else to come in with some new ideas, new opportunities, new thoughts to help take Get Out More to the next level. The thing I most get out most from working with Get Out More is the opportunity to work with some great people and be close to the value they add to the community.
If you were looking to work with Get Out More you would be working with some really great people, who are dedicated to improving the lives of others. You’d have a lot of fun and you’d have another way of using your skills, talent and experience in a wholly different way than you might otherwise do. So if you are thinking about it, I’d say, go for it!”
Further details of the positions and how to express an interest are outlined in the Role Descriptions below.
Get Out More Board Director is a non-remunerated post but reasonable expenses will be paid.
Managing Director Annie Berrington would welcome a chat with anyone interested in applying for a board position to discuss the role, what we are looking for, the commitment and any further questions. Contact us to arrange an informal discussion.
Managing Director, Annie Berrington said, “It was a thrill to be a finalist in such as prestigious category, as it shows that we have established the organisation amongst our peers in the region. Get Out More is a successful business that has survived the pandemic and come out stronger, supporting communities to thrive through connecting with nature. In 2022 we celebrated our tenth anniversary, an 82% growth rate since inception and a positive track record of expansion to now work with people of all ages across Bradford district. We are so grateful to the support of staff, board and beneficiaries to help us get to this stage in our development.”
As a team we attended the awards ceremony at Shay Stadium in Halifax, a fun event attended by successful social enterprises from right across the Yorkshire and Humber region. Although we did not win, we were honoured and humbled to be selected amongst such high-achieving enterprises. Congratulations to all the winners, including Bramley Baths who won Social Enterprise of the Year.
A busy and eventful spring has led us to an even busier summer as we are heading into the holidays. The mix of warmer weather and longer days give us a sense of peace and relaxation, but also it gives us opportunities to spend more time outdoors and continue to run a whole host of outdoor programmes! You can read all about our latest news in July’s newsletter and find out how you can get involved.
We hope you are enjoying getting outdoors this summer
Annie and the Get Out More team
In this months newsletter:
- Holiday Forest School places!
- Annivesary Awards
- Wellbeing Wednesdays
- Remote teams getting out more!
- HAF Programme for summer
- A Summer forest school play project update
To celebrate our tenth anniversary, Get Out More invited people we have worked with over the decade to apply for one of our Annivesary Awards, by telling us what difference being involved in our programmes has made to them. We were delighted by the response and received a flood of entries. After the dust had settled from our tenth-anniversary celebrations, we began the difficult process of picking a winner from the 60 entries we received. Many entrants left glowing reports of their past experiences from Get Out More which were so enjoyable to read; thank you! It was an almost impossible task to pick the winners, but by a whole staff team voting system, we mangaged to select from the many fantastic responses. All the winner have been contacted and awards are in the process of being arranged.
Our Lady and St Brendan’s Primary School were delighted to win the hotly contested Schools and Nurseries Award.
“In June 2022 we were lucky enough to win a £500 voucher as part of the Get out more anniversary awards. We are just setting up our school site so this was so gratefully received. We bought a wide range of equipment including hand tools, ropes, tarps and much needed waterproof trousers. We have already received the items and our Year 6 class had great fun using the tools as part of their transition day. Thanks to you all for considering use for this award and the items will be used by the whole school next term. ” – Gill Evans, Our Lady and St Brendans Primary.
Pete Western first participated with Get Out More as a trainee on our Outdoor Futures course and since then has been working on setting up his own outdoor social enterprise, Wild Westerns.
“The Award would be life changing for me as it would mean that training would be able to be provided to essential volunteers as well as myself and ‘Wild Western’ would finally become a reality. Without Get out More helping me realise my potential and believe that that I am not worthless, none of this would have happened or be possible and for that I cannot say thank you enough”
The recipients of the prizes are as follows:
Community Groups
- Friends of Park Wood – a £1000 donation
- Friends of Bradford Moor Park – a £100 donation
- Cliffe Castle Support Group – a £100 donation
Schools
- Our Lady and St Brendan’s – £500 of Forest School Kit
- Feversham, Dixons Marchbank, All Saints Ilkley, Dixons Manningham and St Mary’s Riddlesden – Outdoor activity book
Organisations
- Enable 2 CIC – A full well-being day
- Better Place – A half well-being day
Practitioners, Volunteers and Trainees
- Pete Western of Wild Western – £1000 training bursary
- Ruth McBain – £250 training bursary
Children and Families
We also awarded £200 of forest school kit to one lucky family and 9 more families received free holiday forest school places on our Easter and summer holiday programmes.
Thank you to everyone who took part, and congratulations to all our winners and runners up.
Get Out More was ten years old this March. And we marked it in the most “Get out More” way we could, planting trees and celebrating in the woods!
We teamed up with fellow Keighley social enterprise YORgreencic for the session, with pupils at Riddlesden St Mary’s Primary. Following the planting, he held a woodland birthday celebration where friends, board members, and practitioners enjoyed cake around a campfire and were given a small tree or shrub to plant at home.
On the same day as the celebratory event, Get Out More donated £500 to the Woodland Trust to support the development of the new Captain Tom Memorial Wood – formerly Holme House Wood – in Keighley, renamed and being expanded in tribute to the locally-born charity fundraising hero the late Captain Sir Tom Moore.
If you’d like to read more, follow the link to go to Keighley News.
This year, Get Out More celebrates its 10th anniversary. Over the last decade we have worked with thousands of people and hundreds of community groups, organisations and businesses, on our mission to help people engage with nature to feel better in mind and body. For our 10th anniversary we’d like to collect the stories about the difference our projects have made and celebrate a decade of getting out more.
We want to continue to make a difference, so are offering a suite of ‘awards’ designed to help people get out more. We’re inviting individuals, groups and organisations we have worked with in the last 10 years to tell us about the difference Get Out More has made, to be in with a chance of claiming one of the fantastic awards below:
1. Schools and Nurseries
Award: £500 of outdoor equipment for your school or nursery
Runners up x 5: Outdoor activities books
2. Community Groups including Friends of Groups
Award: £1000 cash donation to your group
Runners up x 2: £100 cash donation to your group
3. Children and Families
Award: £200 forest school kit from Muddy Faces
Runners up x 10: 2-day place on one of Get out More’s holiday forest schools in Bingley, Ilkley or Saltaire
(entries can be from children 0-18 or parents/carers and children applying together)
4. Groups, Organisations and Businesses
Award: An outdoor wellbeing day for your group
Runner up: An outdoor wellbeing half day for your group
(up to 15 people)
5. Individuals including school and nursery staff, volunteers, freelancers and trainees
Award: A place on Forest School Level 3 training or other outdoor CPD course up to value of £1000
Runner up: A place on Forest school Level 1 course or other outdoor CPD course up to value of £250
(adults over 18 years old)
