Kent Enterprise Trust

Kent Enterprise Trust (KET) is a charitable organisation set up to provide meaningful work and training opportunities for people in need of support to help them re-build their lives. 

There are a wide range of people that benefit from this, including people with disabilities, ex-drug users, young offenders, refugees and those in long term unemployment. 

Originally established in the 1980s, KET continues its invaluable work today through projects that aim to build skills whilst creating benefit for local communities and opportunities for education within the wider community.

Through these projects, such as Appleseed and Hambrook Marshes, KET generates some of its own income by providing services, such as landscape and garden design. 

The charity also has a sister organisation, Enterprising Opportunities, a Community Interest Company that gift aids excess profit to KET.  Enterprising Opportunities was developed by KET, created out of the vision of the charity’s founders back in the 1980s and today demonstrates the powerful reality of social enterprise in action.

Under the umbrella of Enterprising Opportunities are two social enterprise companies, Learn to Care, a training provider supporting learners and employers within Health and Social Care, and All Seasons, a Domiciliary Care provider. 

In addition to generating profits for Kent Enterprise Trust, Enterprising Opportunities is able to provide further employment opportunities and personal development for the individuals and communities that KET supports.

Sustainability can therefore be seen throughout these operations, from the financial sustainability of generating income, through to the sustainability of the personal and professional development of individuals, and even the environmental sustainability built into the projects carried out.

In true social enterprise style, Kent Enterprise Trust recognises that collaborative working leads to better services for more people and a healthier environment.  Their response to this has been to create a Hub for social enterprises and other third sector organisations. 

Kent Enterprise House provides flexible office space and conference facilities for like-minded organisations with a specialist support infrastructure, designed to help third sector organisations to grow. 

In this way KET can share its experience and grow in partnership with others, allowing the meaningful work experience to emerge in all sorts of ways for different people. 

For Nikki, a volunteer at Appleseed whose newfound confidence has enabled him to apply for jobs he never would have thought he could before his experience with the project, the advice he has for others like him is ‘don’t be scared, give it a try’.

www.enterprisetrust.org