Piloting organizations
Newcomer Network / Relationing, Frankfurt (Germany)
The organization: Our purpose is to make life in the Frankfurt-Rhein-Main region easier for Newcomers from all over the world. For over 20 years the Newcomers Network is providing valuable advice and insider tips! Meet fellow Newcomers and Business Contacts, share and gather information. Newcomers Network supports you and your entire family with useful information. We help you to meet and stay in touch with the network of more than 120.000 expats from over 100 countries.
We have been publishing the annual Newcomers Guide for many years now, invite the international community to the Newcomers Festival every year in September since over 20 years now and run a series of International Stammtisch every month to meet and mingle in Rhein-Main. This year we are extending our activities to include new and early stage migrant businesses in the Newcomers Network. Welcome to Frankfurt, Newcomers and New Business!
For more info, please visit www.newcomers-network.de
Working group “Business growth”
Pilot action: Coaching and support programme for early-stage migrant businesses, culminating in a newly established Business Forum at the annual Frankfurt Newcomers Festival (2000+ visitors); to present businesses to a wider audience of consumers (B2C) and investors (B2B). The pilot also includes follow-up support for participating entrepreneurs on business contacts and leads.
CoDeL in cooperation with Scottish Refugee Council, Glasgow (UK)
The organization:
CoDeL – Community Development Lens, a social enterprise in Scotland, challenges outdated perspectives on, and supports enterprising initiatives among young people, groups facing challenges and peripheral communities.
CoDeL’s Directors have long experience in delivering enterprising workshops to enable communities and groups to enhance their economic literacy and identify enterprising opportunities. CoDEL started piloting such workshops for refugee groups in Glasgow, with the Scottish Refugee Council and CEMVO, just before Covid-19.
CoDeL’s Director Thomas Fisher was engaged by the Scottish Islands Federation in delivering the Erasmus+ funded Blue Social Growth project for refugee and island entrepreneurs, including developing enterprising resources that enhance inclusion.
CoDeL has a close partnership with the Social Enterprise Academy in delivering one-to-one coaching for social business and, as we emerge from Covid-19, sessions for communities and young people to vision positive futures. CoDeL has also facilitated visioning for Irish islands under EU LEADER funding.
For more info, please visit www.codel.scot
Working group “Refugee businesses”
Pilot action: The pilot will deliver 3 workshops to 20 refugee potential founders, to improve their economic literacy and support them in identifying business opportunities. It will establish a new way of working that could ultimately be scaled into national good practice across Scotland. Simultaneously, by leveraging good practice and learning from TERN’s delivery in London the pilot will establish a feedback loop between the two cities.
Stiftelsen Ester, Stocholm (Sweden)
The organization: The Ester Foundation/ Stiftelsen Ester is a not-for-profit charitable foundation started in 2012 with the purpose to support immigrant women to become financially independent. Immigrant women have important past experiences and knowledge that the entire society can benefit from. The foundation offers a holistic training and coaching program in entrepreneurship where principles from the micro-finance sector in developing countries are translated into a welfare-state context. In 2016 Ester became an EU reference project for the pilot project, where 80% of the participants became financially independent. We believe that women and mothers are agents for change and when given the right tools and opportunities, they can put their family and the whole community in a better place.
For more info, please visit www.stiftelsenester.se
Working group “Women-run migrant and refugee businesses”
Pilot action: Drawing on existing experience, the pilot will build a community ecosystem that better fits and supports the needs of women migrant and refugee entrepreneurs and will collect best practices from the target group, to inspire future entrepreneurs by highlighting role models. It will as well raise stakeholder awareness of the migrant and refugee situation, encouraging their engagement.
a|cube, Milan (Italy) (in cooperation with NyföretagarCentrum, Stockholm)
The organization: a|cube is the first incubator in Italy providing comprehensive advisory to startups with high potential for creating social, environmental and cultural value. a|cube has been founded in 2011 and now is wholly owned by Avanzi, a leading think tank and consulting firm working on sustainable development and innovation. We select, provide early and later stage assistance, support and relaunch ventures which consider sustainability their main strategic asset. We are a low profit, low dividend and community interest company. Equity, transparency and sustainability for the long haul are the core principles of the company.
For more info, please visit https://acube.avanzi.org/
Working group “Access to finance & capacity building”
Pilot action: As accessing credit is a major difficulty migrants face when running a business, the activities aim to tackle the challenges and facilitate access to heterogeneous forms of financing through capacity-building and enhancing knowledge, competences and networks. The action is addressed to migrant entrepreneurs running micro and small businesses with a social impact.
REVEIL
REVEIL is a non-profit organization that was born in 2013 with the objective and goal of promoting the exit from the informal sector and contributing to migrant socioeconomic integration through the creation, the formalization and the development of sustainable economic activities. The nonprofit organization works on bringing new approaches and collective solutions for pooling and cooperation. REVEIL provides migrant entrepreneurs with the opportunity to test their collective activity around shared places of experimentation (kitchen, third places) and adapted responses to the expressed needs. In 2019, The association co-founded with NGO Meltingcoop, Migracoop Program that experimented a five month temporary culinary cooperative and then in 2020 a five month textile craft cooperative .Currently we are working around a shared textile workshop.
The NGO also has an international solidarity component. It supports migrant association in setting up economic development projects and in the search for funding. NGO REVEIL works on double space, in France and in the Region of the Senegal basin, and in particularly with Mali, Senegal and Mauritania.
Working group “Women-run migrant and refugee businesses”
Pilot action: The Migracoop Program has innovated a shared place for textile production, a space for sharing equipment and for pooling skills and resources. The action comes as a follow-up to a temporary textile craft cooperative, to provide renewed entrepreneurship guidance and support. The final goal is to help entrepreneurs to formalize their activity, while growing their skills, autonomy and professional networks.
