Interview With Cope Ltd – Social Enterprise of the Year 2015
Posted: 20 June 2016, in Blog
Interview with Cope Ltd – Social Enterprise of the Year 2015
Scotland’s annual awards for innovation and success in social enterprise are now open for applications! Apply here – deadline Monday 11 July.
Cope Ltd, an employment and skills development social enterprise in Shetland took the Social Enterprise of the Year Scotland crown in 2015. Cope operate a range of highly successful enterprises such as the Shetland Soap and Shetland Kitchen Companies, motivated by their vision that everyone regardless of disability should have the opportunity to work if they so wish.
By constantly growing their loyal customer base, winning competitive service contracts and using these successes to support employment and deliver hundreds of skills development sessions per month, Cope perfectly fulfilled the criteria of Social Enterprise of the Year.
Having operated successfully for 17 years, Cope is a thriving and established social enterprise. Despite their longstanding reputation, Cope’s Ingrid Webb describes how last year’s Social Enterprise Awards recognition has had a huge impact on her, the Cope team and the social enterprise as a whole.
“We were delighted to have been awarded the accolade of Scottish Social Enterprise of the Year 2015. Since then we have enjoyed making new connections with other organisations and hosting visits from other social enterprises from all over Scotland. We have recently been accepted the ASDA supplier Development Academy and are really excited about the possibilities ahead.
The Award has raised our profile within the social enterprise sector but also assisted us to gain recognition further afield. Our achievements were recognised at the Institute of Directors Awards recently which allowed the wider business network in Scotland to be aware of what Social Enterprise is doing.
The Award has also brought our team closer together. We enjoyed the celebrations but more importantly we recognised that our success is due to each one of us working together to support people with disabilities to gain valuable skills. We have grown in confidence and ambition to do more.”
The search for this year’s Cope Ltd is now underway, with applications for Social Enterprise of the Year, as well as a range of other categories, now open. The deadline for award applications is Monday 11 July 2016 – apply now at: www.socialenterpriseawards.scot