Building Peace Through Entrepreneurship in Cyprus

We've just concluded the 1st quarter of an exciting new year and we're thrilled to share our first quarterly impact report of 2023, bringing you up-to-speed on amazing moments that have occurred in this special space we have built together!

With your great support, hundreds of young entrepreneurs and innovators from communities across our divided island continue to benefit from hackathons, diverse panels and hands-on trainings, networking, coworking space, podcasting, and more that has helped them in building skills as well as creating lasting relationships and potential collaborations, or what we refer to as sustainable peace through entrepreneurship.

In this quarterly update, we'll bring to the forefront a few key moments that have contributed to this impact since our last report, including but not limited to:

• Fostering island-wide collaborations via our coworking, with new resident teams, and community events of 100+ participants
• A 3-day weekend Food Waste Hackathon with UNDP, the European Commission, and various local Embassies that brought together 50+ social innovators and experts from across the island to build innovative solutions together
• The recording of multiple podcast series in our studio with diverse guests

Our ongoing operations as a community space also helped us support other amazing initiatives by local organisations who, in partnership with us, hosted activities at The Base. These initiatives included but were not limited to:

• An interactive workshop on financial management for new or aspiring young Cypriot social entrepreneurs just starting out
• A half-day tour and panel Q&A with Radbound University on intercommunal relations
• A social innovation training with participants from multiple European countries focusing on skills necessary for social enterprise

We are also excited to update you on significant milestones that happened during this time:

• Welcomed our newest team member, Alexia, as our Community Manager leading day-to-day operations, programming & fostering our vibrant community (she's already making a huge impact)
• Featured in UN Peacekeeping's global Action for Peacekeeping story series
• Received the Stelios Bicommunal Award for promoting lasting peace in Cyprus via business
• Launched our first SDG campaign around World Water Day and offered in-kind coworking resources to intercommunal water projects

We have many exciting things in the pipeline for the rest of 2023, including more startup training, more panels and events, new upgrades to the space, and more mentorship! Your support helped make all of this possible. So, once again, we sincerely thank you for your belief in our vision.

Links:

• Wrap up video of the Food Waste Hackathon
• Our feature in UN Peacekeeping's Global Story Series
• View/Download our Full Mar 2023 Quarterly Donor Impact Report

As we approach the end of an amazing 2022, we’re really excited to present to you our third quarterly impact report and bring you up to date on the wonderful things that have taken place in this one-of-a-kind space you helped create!  

With your great support, we continued to accomplish our mandate of bringing together hundreds of young entrepreneurs and innovators from communities across our divided island to benefit from workshops, bootcamps, panels, networking, podcasting, coworking, and so much more, helping them build skills and foster strong collaborations – something we like to call sustainable peace through entrepreneurship.

In this quarterly update, we’re proud to shine light on a few key highlights that have contributed to this impact since our last report, including but not limited to:

• Fostering island-wide collaborations via our coworking, with our resident teams, and a another large-scale networking event that hosted 250+ business & society representatives
• Training the next generation of agrifood entrepreneurs during a 2-day intensive bootcamp for youth across the island, including pitching and industry networking
• Hosting of the Technical Committee on Economy to discuss measures and initiatives to promote and facilitate economic contacts and trade between our communities

We've also supported amazing initiatives by other local organisations who, in partnership with us, hosted activities at The Base. These initiatives included but were not limited to:

• An interactive workshop on sustainability, leadership, and social impact for Cypriot youth
• A technical skill-building course for youth on the 4th industrial revolution and cybersecurity
• Hosting of a STEAM peace summer camp for youth aged 10-13 with an inspirational talk

We are also excited to update you on some major milestones that happened during this time:

• Received the UN SDG Action “Connect” Award as one of the top 3 initiatives tackling the SDGs
• Presented in Bonn, Germany, the judges noted that we demonstrated “the power of ideas to alter the course of progress and sustainability as we know it and the power of this approach to be replicated in other countries and regions with divisions – a true example of transforming the way we do things, that others can learn from”
• Opened applications for a new Community Manager position to grow our team and create new jobs in our communities
• Launched our new highlight video showing a "day in the life" of our space
• Featured in Babson Magazine "Problem Solvers"

We have more exciting things planned for 2023, including more mentorship, more multi-day trainings, a new team member, and more events! Your support helped make all of this possible. So, once again, we sincerely thank you for your belief in our vision.

Links:

• Our featured in Babson Magazine's "The Problem Solvers"
• Our new highlights video of "a day in the life" at The Base!
• View/Download our Full Nov 2022 Quarterly Donor Impact Report