Adele Blakebrough

From an UnLtd bio:

Adele Blakebrough is founder and director of the Community Action Network, a relationship and Internet-based network of social entrepreneurs. Prior to this, she was director of the nationally renowned Kaleidoscope project in Kingston upon Thames. Adele is an ordained Baptist minister and is Chief Commissioner for the Home Mission Fund (for the Baptist church) in London. Adele has broad experience of the voluntary sector but is also a well-known social entrepreneur and a Common Purpose graduate.^[1]

From a Community Action Network bio:

Community Action Network (CAN) was a founder member of the Social Enterprise Coalition, and Adele has been a member of its board from the start. Adele was appointed Chief Executive of CAN in September 2004. She co-founded CAN in 1998, since when it has grown rapidly and successfully to become one of the UK’s leading organisations for the development and support of social entrepreneurs.

CAN has unique access to its over 700 entrepreneurial and social enterprise members who deliver high quality projects in almost every field of social change and service delivery, from homelessness to schools and from healthcare to recycling. CAN has been actively promoting the development of social enterprises, both amongst its members and more widely. CAN has run projects for the DTI SBS both on the development of social enterprise and on their replication and growth, particularly through franchising. CAN has also worked on social enterprise start-ups for the Learning & Skills Council and SES. Its Education and Health division are actively promoting the establishment of social enterprise in schools and NHS primary care trusts.

CAN has set up a unique project for helping the development and growth of social enterprise – ‘PrimeTimers’, which matches voluntary sector organisations seeking to build capacity and improve sustainability with highly skilled business executives seeking full-time or part-time jobs in the sector and who work with the organisations as, in effect, interim managers. Prior to the beginning of CAN in April 1998, Adele was director of the nationally renowned Kaleidoscope project in Kingston Upon Thames, a voluntary organisation working with 350 heroin dependants. Adele was also responsible for the growth and development of The Mezzanine – a co-located office for over 23 social sector organisations, based in Waterloo. This successful social enterprise, created by CAN, has now grown to become ‘Mezzanine 2’ and moved to a new location at the prestigious 1 London Bridge address, creating a home for over 40 social sector organisations.^[2]

Affiliations

• UnLtd
• Community Action Network
• Charities Aid Foundation

Notes

1. ^ Trustees, Accessed March 2007.
2. ^ http://www.can-online.org.uk/news/pressroom/documents/AdeleBlakebroughBiography.pdf