Young Enterprise is an international charity that teaches business skills programmes in schools all around the world. K4 Innovations provides volunteer delivery support to the charity and are the proud sponsors of the K4 Cash Cup competition.

Each year students are encourage to start up a business and operate it in a safe environment with Young Enterprise. Throughout the business year a number of regional competitions are held to identify the best company idea and how it is being operated. The overall national winner would go on to represent the UK in a European competition.

All the regional competitions are completed before the beginning of summer break with the primary focus of the competition being on presentations of business proposal and operation plans. K4 volunteers noticed that the company that went on to earn the most profit at the end of teh year were not necessarily competition winners. Therefore to provide an continued incentive for all the other participating businesses the idea of sponsoring the K4 cash cup was born.

The Cup is awarded to the company that has made the most profit at the end of the business year. The prize is a Silver Cup engraved with the company name, school and the date. Each member is then presented with a replica cup with their name and the name of thier business. Further to this the winning team are also give £100 with their picture and an article on the business put in the local paper.

Link: www.yel.com

K4 Innovations donate time and expertise to the NSPCC including fund raising and public speaking on behalf of the charity.

Link: http://www.nspcc.org.uk

K4 Innovations Limited is an advocate of childrens charities. As a Social Enterprise business we provide both time and project delivery service for free.

This project was to support a local dance school in Antigua with the delivery of a 4 week summer programme for children between the ages 7 to 18. The primary purpose of the programme was to provide an activity during the summer school break that would be fun and allow the children to express themselves through the art of dance.

The instructors were recruited via a rigorous selection process from Jamaica and the UK. The instructors covered a range of dance styles such as contemporary, hip hop, stomp and Caribbean folk.

The students were from various backgrounds with a few visiting from other islands. In the first week some students experienced alienation and conflict. However this was resolved with the instructors joining the students for lunch each day and encouraging inclusion amongst the groups. 

The programme concluded with a full concert featuring all the dances the students learnt over the 4 weeks including guest performance by the Shiva Dance Troupe. The audience comprised of parents, family, local business sponsors and dignitaries.

Many positive lessons were learnt from this project regarding social interaction such as:

• Preventing isolating behaviour via team work.
• De-constructing  class barriers via art, music etc.,
• Young person’s re-integration initiative, during the breaks having open discussions, encouraging group interaction via games, discussions and support each other in learning the dance sequences.
• Re-establishing traditional ethics of community by providing a platform for social integration.
• Promotion of local business sponsors by raising their profiles and endearing them to the community.

The venture demonstrated that culturally different people can overcome social barriers and class boundaries through creative interaction, thereby nurturing community development.

Projects like these encourage us to continue to contribute in delivering social enterprise with consideration and respect.

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