Help4Wales Foundation wins Social Startup of the Year award

The winners of the awards were announced on 21 September at a
ceremony held at the Depot in Cardiff and hosted by BBC presented
Sian Lloyd. 

The awards – the only ones of their kind in Wales to recognise
new businesses that are less than three years old – saw over 200
entries from across the country with Cwmbran-based Freight
Logistics Solutions scooping the award for the best start-up in
Wales. 

WCVA sponsored the Social Enterprise of the Year award, with
Rhys Meredith of Social
Investment Cymru eventually presenting the award to Help4Wales
foundation. 

The Help4Wales Foundation is a community interest company based
in Caerphilly, set up to support those most in need across Wales.
Its main initiative is ‘Animal Safe Haven’, an animal fostering
scheme supporting victims of domestic abuse and homelessness that
places pets into a temporary foster home within the community where
they are cared for and loved as their own until the owner can have
them back.   

The other nominees were: 

• Awel Co-op – has over 1000 owners in the co-operative and has
  generated more than 10GW through its windfarm, leading to sales of
  over £1m and supplying energy to the equivalent of over 2500 homes.
  The profits generated from this venture will be used to tackle fuel
  poverty and develop innovative, renewable energy projects. 
   

• ShedNet – set up as a sustainable social enterprise with the
  main social aim of supporting groups of people establish and
  sustain shed facilities and activities. Men and Women Sheds are
  generally small self-managed community groups with between 20-50
  people linked to any one shed, and their aim is to open one in
  every town across the Heads of the Valleys region over the next 3
  years.  

• Up Side Down Circus – a community interest company that
  facilitates circus classes, team building and workshops in its
  training facility as well as external circus workshops for outreach
  and bespoke projects. It also provides entertainment and
  venue. 

Visit the Wales
Startup Awards website for more information on the winners.