Our latest research into the potential impact of social enterprise aims to better understand how a social enterprise incubator can contribute to regional economic diversity and sustainability.
Our research in 2019 undertaken through Get Social, the social enterprise partnership we create with Manifold Co-Working, involved engaging with our social enterprise community and wider regional stakeholders. We first wanted to understand the impact we already had through our meet-ups and clinics and create a base from which to explore appropriate next steps to accelerate our work of cultivating people and place through social enterprise in Taranaki. Our research strongly suggests that an incubator programme is the most appropriate next step as it most closely meets the needs of our local impact entrepreneurs.
We have since evaluated a number of existing programmes inclduing Startup Onramp, Prince’s Trust NZ, Social Shifters and Co.Starters. Our analysis indicates that the Co.Starters approach, and in particular its Causes Programme, is the best fit for Get Social and the Taranaki social enterprise ecosystem. We will now enagge in more detail with Co.Starters with the aim of being able to offer a pilot programme during 2020. Initially we anticipate bringing together a cohort of entrepreneurs once or twice a year to run the programme from Manifold. We believe the outcome of this will be resilient, investment ready, entrepreneurs and business ready to tackle some of the biggest problems in our communities and environment.