Community Impact Conference

June 4 to 6 saw a group of 21 delegates from all over Eastern Europe and the UK descend upon the town of Alfreton, UK, to attend the Genesis/ Proton Community Impact Conference. The conference is aimed at helping to cast vision and provide the knowledge and skill to create social enterprises which will impact communities in a positive and needed way, and specifically how to target funding for such enterprises.

The conference began with Steve Holmes of the Genesis Enterprise giving a tour of the Genesis Facility, which includes a family entertainment centre, business centre and conference facility. The overall facility is incredibly impressive. The family entertainment centre includes a child care and soft play area, gymnasium, bowling alley, area for gymnastic clubs, cafeteria and more. The business centre caters to the incubation, housing and coaching of new businesses with all the necessary foundational systems to support these. The conference centre supports many different types of functions such as weddings, training events, conferences, etc.

The reality of the facility became all the more impressive as Steve shared the story of how the centre came into existence. It really began with just as a dream, with little to no initial resource to speak of. Through faith and determination, Steve learned the art of writing grant applications to various foundations in a way that presented a compelling vision for positive social impact on the community. Through this process, they were able to access significant levels of funding and the momentum began to grow. Not only do these facilities provide a real service to their communities, but they are also run as business which create revenues which are in turn pour back into the charity to expand the overall objectives of the foundation.

The purpose of the conference was to share the Genesis story, to spark entrepreneurial creativity, to inspire delegates to dream of seeing similar kinds of enterprises birthed, particularly in those Eastern European nations. In these nations, EU Funding is targeted at building ‘capacity’ and social infrastructure within communities which are still developing in their post-communist reality. As well as encouraging delegates by seeing a real model, they also received very practical training to begin to move the vision forward, such as how to develop and articulate your dream, how write a business plan, how to apply for various grants, etc.

The delegates left the conference feeling inspired and encouraged by the Genesis story and were challenged to look ‘outside their box’ for new resourcing methods to see their dreams and visions for their communities become a reality. Over the next two months, each delegate was instructed to clearly articulate their dream and to put together a sample grant application for Social Enterprise that will become the basis for grant submissions for EU funding. The delegates will reconvene in late October to move this process forward and to potentially develop some proto-type projects for Eastern Europe.

Community Impact Centres

Just a few weeks ago the founders of Proton Foundation and Genesis Social Enterprise Ltd, Ian Green (above left) and Steve Holmes (above right) respectively sat down to discuss the potential of partnering together to plan Community Impact Centres across the continent of Europe.

The outcome of the meeting was that together we are looking to set up centres in socially and economically challenged areas of Europe that would include some if not all of the following facets:

1: Counselling Clinic
2: Pre School
3: Nursery
4: Economic Development & Enterpreneurial Centres
5: Job Skills Training
6: Entertainment Centres
7: Assistance/Support to Solo Parents

At the heart of this concept is that each centre would bring a level of economic and social development, employment opportunities and a sense of purpose and belief in personal potential to the individuals and community.

The Chief Executive Officer Steve Holmes was personally invited and attended a meeting with British Prime Minister, Tony Blair to explain why they had been so successful in their social enterprise projects. The Genesis Group have assisted in 90 Social Enterprise projects across the UK and have a good reputation that they already have with the European Union.

Watch this space as this exciting project develops over the coming months.