The Hub Was Full. So Was the Conversation.
There’s a difference between a room full of people and a room full of people who actually mean what they’re saying. Last month, iSE’s Women’s Enterprise Hub had both.
We brought together businesses, social enterprises, community organisations and leaders from across Birmingham and the West Midlands for our Social Economy Breakfast, and the energy in the room said everything about where this sector is heading. Not politely. Not performatively. Honestly.
Watch a glimpse of the morning here.
What the Room Actually Said
During the interactive discussion, the priorities were clear. Less competition, more collaboration. Stronger partnerships with funders and corporates who genuinely share the sector’s values, not just its language. Real investment in sustainable income, not one-off grants that leave organisations starting from zero every year. And a clear need to reach more people, particularly younger adults and disabled communities who are too often left out of the conversation entirely.
The challenges were just as honest. Funding remains the biggest barrier for almost everyone in the room. Capacity, staffing and low citizen engagement followed close behind.
This is exactly why spaces like this matter. Birmingham’s social economy is full of people doing extraordinary work, often with limited resources and even less recognition. Mornings like this remind us that we move further when we move together.
Five Voices From the Room
We didn’t just want to tell you what happened. We wanted you to hear it from the people who were actually there.
“iSE Are a Nucleus for the Region”
Thomas Bostock, Investment Manager at Big Issue Invest, summed the morning up simply: the third sector is all about collaboration and community, and iSE sits right at the centre of that for the region.
Tom works on Big Issue Invest’s partnership with the West Midlands Combined Authority, deploying social investment into the third sector to help organisations build financial resilience and sustainability. Big Issue Invest has invested over £100 million into social enterprises and charities working to end poverty and inequality since 2005, the kind of capital that turns good intentions into real, lasting impact.
Hearing that reflected back to us, that spaces like this genuinely help people share best practice and learning, is exactly why we do this.
“Birmingham’s Social Economy Is…”
We asked Gavin Dell, Founder of LEAD WITH STORY, to finish one sentence. What he said stopped the room.
Gavin uses real-time data and his LEAD framework to help funders, corporates and social enterprises see exactly where community investment lands. With over 20 years in transformation, project management and marketing, he knows what growth actually looks like, and his answer was clear: Birmingham’s social economy isn’t just surviving. It’s growing.
The conversations are happening. Younger generations are being brought in. The work is real, it just hasn’t always been visible. That’s changing.
The Work Nobody Else Wants to Talk About
Razia is CEO and Founding Director of Himaya Haven CIC, based right here at the Women’s Enterprise and Community Hub. Since 2017, she’s supported families from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic communities whose loved ones are navigating the criminal justice system.
The family members left on the outside. The ones carrying the anxiety, the stigma, the silence. Razia calls them the silent victims, and she’s built an entire organisation around making sure they’re not invisible.
In her words, community collaboration means sharing work, sharing resources, promoting each other. Not competing. Building. That’s the social economy at its best.
Building Relationships That Matter Later
Most networking events feel like a room full of business cards and small talk. This wasn’t that.
Noor Yafaie, Fundraising and Social Impact Officer at JERICHO, came to connect with organisations she hadn’t met yet, not to pitch, not to collect contacts, but to build the kind of relationships that matter later.
Jericho is an award-winning Birmingham charity and family of six social enterprises, providing supported work opportunities alongside training and wraparound support for people facing extreme challenges in getting a job, primarily marginalised young people and survivors of modern slavery. The work is serious. The partnerships they need have to match that.
Noor put it simply: having that contact, even if collaboration isn’t right now, is still valuable. That’s the long game. That’s how a social economy actually grows.
People Need People
Zehir Kadra, Founder of Birmingham Impact Football Club, didn’t come to talk about himself. He came to listen, and what he heard was the same message from everyone in the room. People need people. People need advice. People need support.
Zehir uses football as a tool for community development, combining professional coaching with life-changing opportunities and a legacy built on resilience. After everything he’s been through, he still shows up, for his club, for his community, and for rooms like this one.
That’s what the social economy looks like in practice.
Why We Keep Bringing People Back to the Table
None of this works if it stays a one-off. Birmingham’s social economy doesn’t need another isolated success story, it needs rooms like this to keep happening, again and again, until collaboration stops being the exception and becomes how the sector simply operates.
That’s what the Social Economy Breakfast exists to do. Not networking for the sake of it, but the honest, sometimes uncomfortable conversations that lead to real partnerships, better funding relationships, and a sector that finally reaches the people it’s been trying to reach all along.
If you were in the room, thank you for showing up, speaking honestly, and connecting with someone new. That is what the social economy looks like in practice.
If you weren’t, our next Social Economy Breakfast is coming soon, and there’s a seat at the table for you too.
To find out more or register your interest, get in touch at info@i-se.co.uk or visit www.i-se.co.uk.
Birmingham’s social economy isn’t waiting for permission to grow. It’s already doing it, one honest conversation at a time.