Mentis CIC
Big Issue Invest, the social investment arm of The Big Issue Impact Loans England programme is aimed at enabling social enterprises to access loan funding of between £20,000 and £150,000.
Daniel Wilson-Dodd, Head of Lending at Big Issue Invest says, “A lot of great organisations struggle to access small and medium-sized loans, so we wanted to provide support for those exciting social enterprises and charities.”
The programme is funded by Access – The Foundation for Social Investment, with finance being provided by its partners Big Lottery Fund and Big Society Capital.
One of the first organisations to take advantage of he new finance scheme is Mentis CIC, a community Interest company, providing counselling and mental health therapies to people in East Anglia. It also provides training learning and development opportunities for individuals wanting employment within the field of wellbeing and mental health. The funding is available to organisations keen to do more of the good work they do – whether it’s buying equipment, hiring new talent, or progressing with business development plans.
“This loan has given us the opportunity to develop our business plan to providing digital online services. It will enable us to expand our workforce so that we are better placed to work collaboratively with partner organisations, not only with social enterprises and charities, but with the private and statutory sector too. This offers MTCIC the security to build for the future.” says Sue Jay MBE, Managing Director at MTCIC.
Through the loan finance, Mentis has been to enabled to move to new premises in Bury St Edmunds. The Big Lottery, St Edmundsbury Borough Council and Suffolk Community Foundation Trust provided grants to enable us to equip our therapy and training rooms. All client areas are on the ground floor, with easy disable access.
For more information on social investment, please contact Sarah Lomasney, 07391 419887 [email protected]