Category: Research

Crowdfunding in Portugal

Barcelos, Portugal: June 2018

The Dive Deeper into Social Entrepreneurship Programme, run by a consortium of 9 partner countries, concluded its fourth and final training on “Crowd Funding for Social Enterprises” between 22 -27 June 2018. The Intercultural Association for All, based in Barcelos (home of the Rooster), Portugual, successfully hosted this 5-day workshop which included facilitated sessions, expert guest speakers (one of whom was Alexandre Rodrigues, Belle and Co. Associate, speaking on Investment for SMMEs in South Africa), University panel discussions and cultural city tours and exchanges among participants. The workshop ended with participants designing real crowd funding campaigns which they will “go live” with back in their home countries.

The 9 partner and participating countries were: Macedonia (lead partner), Romania, Bulgaria, Portugal (host), Greece, Turkey, Costa Rica, Peru and South Africa (through Belle and Company).

Read FULL Report Here: Dive Deeper Report – Barcelos Portugal

 

Dive Deeper into SE: Youth Policy presentation in Bulgaria

Sofia, Bulgaria: May, 2018

Belle and Co. Associate Phokeng Setai and Director Belisa Rodrigues, participated in the Dive Deeper Programme focused on Youth Policy and Social Entrepreneurship. Belle and Co. presented an overview of South African youth policy, and learnt about youth policy initiatives in 8 other countries (Macedonia, Romania, Bulgaria, Portugal, Turkey, Greece, Costa Rica and Peru).

Training course focused on increasing the understanding of the participants on the importance of cooperation in youth sector and developing quality youth strategies, the participants developed their skills needed to prepare quality youth strategy, to network with various bodies representing youth, to effectively use manuals, guidelines on social entrepreneurship in youth field, to adjust tools, methods etc.

Belle and Co. participates in Creative Activism Workshop

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Tshisimani Activist Centre, Mowbray, Cape Town: March 2018

We were exposed to various forms of creative and cultural activism, read case studies, had a guest speaker from SWEAT sharing live campaigns, and we formed teams to pitch our activist campaign to others.

Our project centered around “community safety and security” where we came up with an innovative idea on how to utilise public spaces (especially street corners) to claim back or occupy the streets into productive community spaces.

We called it “The Triangle Project”. See video here.

Dive into SE: Cape Town Social Enterprise Study Tour

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Cape Town, South Africa: September, 2017

A 5-day intensive Job Shadow/Study Tour in Cape Town, South Africa, as part of the Erasmus + supported programme “Dive in Social Entrepreneurship” was arranged by Belle and Co.

Belle and Co hosted 2 of its partners (Turkey and Bulgaria) to meet local government, entrepreneurs and academics working in the social entrepreneurship space in Cape Town.

Visits included: Local Ward 57 Councillor; Observatory Community Improvement District; Mess Cafe Social Enterprise; Gangstar Gear Social Enterprise; Spinach King Social Enterprise; 18 Gangster Museum Social Enterprise; PASSOP Refugee NPO; Know Thy Farmer Social Enterprise; UWC Entrepreneurship Centre; visits with local entrepreneurs and students as well as exposure to a range of local heritage day (27 September) activities.

Read Report here: SE Job Shadow Report

 

Dive into SE: Romania Research Seminar

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Iasi, Romania: February, 2017

Belle and Co. Associate, Nobantu Nhantsi, attended the Dive into Social Entrepreneurship Research Seminar hosted by Eurodemos, project partner based in Iasi, Romania. She presented Belle and Co.’s preliminary research findings.

For 2 months leading up to the Research Seminar, each participating country had to conduct a local research study to better understand the Social Entrepreneurship realities on the ground by interviewing and surveying entrepreneurs and youth. Each participating country then sent a representative or two, to present their findings in a seminar.

See DiveIn_Report_Romania

   

Learning about Human-Centred Design in the USA

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Dartmouth College, New Hampshire, USA: June/July/August

Belisa Rodrigues, Belle and Co. Director, was awarded one of the 1000 coveted fellowship positions to be part of the Young African Leadership Initiative (YALI) or Mandela Washington Fellowship (MWF) class of 2016.

Each year fellows are divided into groups of 25 cohort and attached to a USA University. In this case, Miss Rodrigues was seconded to Dartmouth College along with 25 other fellows representing 17 African countries.

Core part of the educational experience was learning about Design Thinking with Prof. Robbie in the Thayer Engineering Department; as well as Design-Driven Entrepreneurship with Prof. Norwady; and Leadership Development at the Rockerfeller Leadership Centre.

The human-centred design process was mostly experiential, whereby teams were formed, business ideas developed and delivery of real-time pitches to investors who awarded grants of $25 000 to the best business idea/pitch.

Tools and methods used included: Empathy Maps, Stakeholder Maps, Poster Concepts, Pitch Decks, Personas, Field Research, prototyping etc