Cornwall School for Social Entrepreneurs Fellow comes full circle!

July 14, 2010 - PRLog -- Jane Jiwa (nee Opie), Cornwall School for Social Entrepreneurs (SSE) Fellow, came full circle this week as she delivered a study session to current SSE students and talked about her Social Enterprise Smart Savings.

This time last year, Jane was a student on the ESF (European Social Fund) Convergence funded Cornwall Programme which culminated in a graduation ceremony held at the Eden Project in February.

Smart Savings is a Community Interest Company that offers ethical financial services and training in Cornwall to help solve debt and financial difficulties. With the support of the Cornwall SSE programme, Jane has been able to develop her project idea into a social business.

Jane Jiwa, Smart Savings Founder said “I was delighted to be invited back to Cornwall SSE to deliver a witness session.  It was a key milestone in my own personal and business development; I can now confidently talk about setting up and managing a social enterprise, which demonstrated my ‘distance travelled’ within the last year. I wish all the new social entrepreneurs on the programme every success with their social enterprises, which are addressing important social and environmental problems within our community”.

Cornwall SSE Development Manager Sally Heard, said “Jane is an inspiration to students on the programme who are currently in the process of developing their businesses. Jane’s journey is impressive and it was great for students to hear about the development of Smart Savings and Jane’s plans for the future of the company”.

The Cornwall School for Social Entrepreneurs was established in June 2008 with investment from ESF Convergence through Jobcentre Plus and is part of the Cornwall Works for Social Enterprise Convergence ESF Programme. The programme has also received investment from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) .The Cornwall SSE is managed by Cornwall Development Company

Throughout July, Cornwall SSE are running a series of short summer sessions to allow budding social entrepreneurs to learn more about the field in general, and SSE in particular. These sessions will include advice and guidance on how to move your project forward, the chance to network with existing Cornwall SSE social entrepreneurs, and a chance to apply for the next Cornwall SSE core programme. There's no better way to get a sense of whether the SSE programme is right for you and vice versa.

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Smart Savings is a locally managed Social Enterprise that provides professional and ethical financial services, with specific focus on claims management and money skills training. We can reclaim the last six years of UK penalty charges for personal account (financial hardship cases), credit cards and mis-sold PPI (Payment Protection Insurance).