County Derry business wins ‘Social Enterprise of the Year’ award

The Workspace Group, a social enterprise based in Draperstown has been named ‘Social Enterprise of the Year’ at this year’s UK Social Enterprise Awards.

The Workspace Group was established in 1985 to stimulate social and economic regeneration in the local area.

Hosted by national sector body Social Enterprise UK, the awards are the UK’s biggest celebration of social enterprise success, recognising excellence and innovation across 15 categories. There are an estimated 131,000 social enterprises in the UK. Workspace faced stiff competition from hundreds of entries across the UK to take home the top award.

The ‘Social Enterprise of the Year’ award is for a social enterprise that has a clear vision, excellence in impact, and that has demonstrated and promoted social enterprise beyond the sector.

Workspace’s commercial businesses generate surplus profits, which are then gifted back to the parent company, to enable Workspace to carry out its social mission.

This reinvestment of surpluses enables Workspace to deliver projects and provide facilities to the Draperstown community and surrounding areas which would not otherwise be available without their intervention.

These projects include Workspace Community Hub, Sperrin Foodbank, a new purpose-built youth club, the Workspace Recreation Centre and 3G pitch, and an After School Club.

In addition, they provide over £90,000 per annum in free space to local community/voluntary organisations and have distributed almost £150,000 in grants to local groups through the Workspace Community Fund.

Upon winning the award, Georgina Grieve, Chief Executive of The Workspace Group, commented: "To win Social Enterprise of the Year in Northern Ireland earlier this year was fantastic but to win overall UK Social Enterprise of the Year tonight is an absolute honour.

“We celebrate our 40th anniversary next year and this award is a testament to our staff, directors, local community and everyone who has been involved with Workspace over the years."

Laurence O’Kane, Chairman of The Workspace Group, added: “I am so proud of what the Group and our local community has achieved over the last 40 years. To be recognised as the best social enterprise across the whole of the UK celebrates what a group of like-minded individuals from a small rural village can achieve by working together.”