Gordon Brown speech for Community Links Charity

Gordon Brown speech for Community Links Charity; - Social innovators pioneering new ways of addressing today's social challenges / Men and women who have seen or experienced a need and responded often in an extraordinary way / By going first, taking risks, braving disapproval and standing up to entrenched interests - Today, nearly a month after taking up this new position as Prime Minister, I am here to pay tribute to the people who represent the very best of Britain / People who inspire us all, the thousands of Britain's everyday heroes - With their achievements in mind, I want to recognise and celebrate a growing spirit of service in our country - And today as a government we want to show our commitment to those who every day show their commitment to our country - So the Minister for the Third Sector and I want to explain how we will to do more to back thousands of small community led projects with greater access to small grants / Examine, following consultation to end on August 9, how a new social investment bank might help support charities with limited access to mainstream finance / Champion social action and innovation through a new Council on Social Action / Establish in Britain because we pioneered modern civic society, new annual forum on social leadership to bring together people with ideas and who are changemakers from all over the world / Embrace the new multimedia for community action and encourage it as a forum for social action by creating our Awards for Social Technology / Scale up youth volunteering into a national youth community service for Britain / Invest in building capacity in voluntary and community organisations and in social enterprises and reform our honours system to recognise far more widely the great contribution to civic society of so many of our citizens - And I believe this is all possible because in my journeys around Britain, I have been seen and been inspired and uplifted by so many people who give willingly of their time ...