Social Enterprise Development for Communities

            The series  of   workshop both  for  community members  and  student  “Champions” on  social entrepreneurship  (SE) aim  to support budding  social enterprises of potential urban poor women and out-of-school youth.  After completing their immersion, learning sessions on SEs and the  SE Bootcamp,  women  partners and LSEED student fellows coordinated with their mentors to  revisit project implementation targets and business proposals  developed during the Boot Camp.  The SE teams also established a depository account for their respective projects.

            Community members of  each SE team joined the discussions on the following SE related sessions facilitated by volunteer  DLSU mentors: 1) Social Marketing,  2) Financial Management, 3) Resource Mobilization  and 4) Bridging Leadership as they  progress in the implementation of  their  business proposals.  

            Team Kalid currently implements their capacity-building sessions (product development) for the mothers of Leveriza, Manila.  The team is in the middle of developing their marketing and operation plans for the SE.2.   Team Casalo, on the other hand is preparing all the equipment and materials needed for their SE and is establishing its network for possible suppliers of organic ingredients. The third team, Team Takamin undertakes preparations, discussing the possibility of coming up with a new product to complement their sticky rice products. Lastly, Team Lumina made initial negotiations with potential suppliers and planned to conduct site visit to have a clearer appreciation of the products that they plan to  sell.  The team also expressed plans to undertake a learning session (sales training) for women members of team Lumina.

             As part of the preparatory phase for enterprise development, the following series of learning session on key topics on business and leadership were facilitated by the LSEED Committee members: a) Capacity-building activities  from August 19- August 31, 2017,  b) Consultation meetings with the  women and student entrepreneurs, August 18 & 25, 2017 and  consultations with Teams Takamin and Team Lumina  on August 22 to 26, 2017, in addition to the special learning session on Operations Management Part 1 undertaken on August 24 and  25, 2017.

      DLSU’s advocacy on Social Entrepreneurship through COSCA - LSEED makes headway with the  completion  of the  formation  program  for partner LSEED Community  Core  Group -  with  women  members  participating  in  special  topics on business management,  introduced  to community  members.   The latter is  a run-up series of capacity building sessions on business management for women  members during  business  incubation.

      The  formation session for  community  members was  undertaken alongside Phases 1-3 of the LSEED Fellowship  Program with  18 aspiring social entrepreneurs participating  in the   April 25, 2017  to  May 13, 2017   Lasallian Social Enterprise  Boot Camp 2017.   The series  of   workshop both  for  community members  and  key  student  “Champions “  on  social entrepreneurship  aim  to support  social enterprises in partner urban poor communities and to build  capacities of potential urban poor women and out-of-school youth on social entrepreneurship (SE) - enabling them to grow and nurture their respective  social  enterprises.

      Business proposals  developed  during  the   Boot Camp  by   community  members and  student  fellows, with volunteer  faculty members  and  international  volunteers from  The Big Spoons as  mentors,  were  reviewed and revisions are currently being undertaken in  preparation  for  full project implementation.

      Moreover, DLSU-COSCA  aims to  advance its social entrepreneurship advocacy by its inclusion in a coalition comprised of  reputable institutions  / organizations in the social enterprise sector.