Caroline Borge

A fashion designer featured in Vogue for her recycled saris, an east London entrepreneur who brings healthy food and nutrition education to a neighbourhood with little choice of cuisine, a businessman who left the finance world to found a forum providing health care information in a multitude of languages and formats.

These are all examples of social entrepreneurship that springs from or is targeted towards the Black Asian Minority Ethnic Community (BAME), and businesses that exemplify the range and reach of BAME social enterprises.

All will feature in Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic social enterprises – the business of opportunity and empowerment, a publication being launched by the Social Enterprise Coalition at an event next week. It shows that a majority of the case studies featured began as something other than a social enterprise. But as they continued to succeed, and in some cases expand, they outgrew their initial business models and found that being a social enterprise worked best for their needs.

Somali Development Service is one such example. Jawaahir Daahir, its founder, left Somalia for Holland in 1990 and in 1998 moved to Leicester. When she arrived, she felt that the needs of the large Somali community were not being met. She started Somali Development Service as a voluntary organisation whose aim was to be a first point of contact for Somalis needing guidance and advice as they navigated life in Britain. In 2003, with the help of the Social Enterprise and Co-operative Development agency, it was set up as a co-operative.

Social entreprenuers like Jawaahir Dahir find that social enterprise offers flexibility. They also allow them to generate an income from commissioning and contracts to avoid a reliance on grants.

We know there are many social entrepreneurs from the BAME community and at the event , Dr Rebecca Harding of Delta Economics will be releasing data from a five-year survey that will shed more light on the makeup and prevalence of BAME social entrepreneurs in the UK.

A misconception regarding BAME social enterprises is that they only serve their own communities, but that is a narrow and patronising view of what is already a powerful force in the UK. The Social Enterprise Coalition believes this is a momentous time for the social enterprise movement and that BAME social enterprises have a huge role to play in the coming months and years.

BAME social enterprises are successful in creating jobs, providing quality services and transforming lives and communities across the UK, yet few people know about them. The Coalition is committed to understanding and campaigning for the particular needs of BAME social enterprises.

Caroline Borge is senior press officer at the Social Enterprise Coalition

Social Enterprise and the BAME community takes place 9 July in London. For more information call 020 7793 2525 or email events@socialenterprise.org.uk.