Sports trust Link4Life has been awarded the prestigious Social Enterprise Mark.

A growing list of hundreds of companies have joined the movement launched at the beginning of the year. The Mark sets out to identify businesses which are leading the revolution for a better way of doing business. It aims to demonstrate to customers an organisation that is committed to social and environmental objectives and is trading for people and planet.

Craig McAteer, Managing Director at Link4Life, explained why he wanted to be involved: "We have successfully introduced a new way of delivering crucial public services throughout the borough of Rochdale, and obviously Rochdale is deeply rooted in the Co-operative movement and social enterprise model and this is something as a company we want to promote to our staff and customers.

"Link4Life balances financial stability with clear social objectives that adhere to the principles of equality, co-operation, and concern for community, democratic governance and appropriate use of surpluses. Recognition from the social enterprise mark helps us to effectively underpin this commitment.

"Every time someone uses our cultural facilities and services they are investing back into the community and that has got to be a good thing. As a company, with partners we have embarked on a £33m investment programme with over £19m of investment from Link4Life.

"Success in this area has played an important part in achieving other positive improvements of increasing participation in sport, improving local health and well-being, developing new and innovative cultural activities and providing quality services that show continuous improvement.

"Our partners from the NHS, Police and VCS recognise the model and ethical trading and staff awareness continues to grow around ownership and value the contribution the company makes into its diverse communities.

"We are at the heart of the community we serve and "The Social Enterprise Mark demonstrates that Link4Life is well placed to respond to the government's Big Society agenda and I for one am extremely proud that we have been awarded the mark."

Speaking on behalf of Social Enterprise, Communications Manager Lesley Foster said: "With more and more opportunities opening up every day for social enterprises to join up and work together to deliver public services, the Social Enterprise Mark has an important role to play in helping people understand when their leisure provider is genuinely socially motivated.

"With the Social Enterprise Mark now available across the country we hope to see it as the next 'Fair Trade' type success story in helping people buy in a more 'ethical' way."

Developing new and improved facilities in the borough of Rochdale is a key objective upon which Link4Life is based delivering a £34m three-year capital investment programme. Success in this area has played an important part in achieving other positive improvements of increasing participation in sport, improving local health and well-being, developing new and innovative cultural activities and providing quality services that show continuous improvement.