Social Enterprise Development for Communities

      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.

      Community members from DLSU COSCA's partner communities in Leveriza, Manila and the Lasallian Social Enterprise for Economic Development (L-SEED) student fellows successfully completed Phase 1 (Community Immersion) and Phase 2 (Learning Sessions) of the LSEED fellowship program on March 2017.   These series of workshop  which was first conducted during the last quarter of 2016 introduced women community members (with  a number  of LSEED student fellows attended as participant-observers) among others to  two concepts:  1) Social Entrepreneurship  in the  Philippines  and  Characteristics  of  SEs, and 2)  Responding  to  Relevant  Community Problem/s and  creating the  SE idea,  establishing  partners  and  developing  the   SE idea.   The  program  inspired  a  number  of  student fellows to  share  this   advocacy on SE.

      DLSU COSCA  implementation of the series  of   workshop both  for  community members  and  key  student  “Champions “  on  social entrepreneurship  aims to serve  as vehicle to support  social enterprises in partner urban poor communities and in building capacities of promising urban poor women and out-of-school youth on social entrepreneurship (SE) and enabling these communities to develop SEs

     After completing the immersion and the necesssary learning  sessions on  social enterpreneurship,  women  partners and LSEED student fellows  started last April 25, 2017  "LSE Bootcamp 2017" which is a  three-week  formation  program  for  select  DLSU  stakeholders to be trained as  social impact  mentors and as "pro-bono' consultants for the  LSEED student Fellows.

      Speakers for the LSEED  Bootcamp 2017 include among others social entrepreneurs,  and development practitioners  from the  British Council Philippines and  the  "Big Spoons" as international  (volunteer) mentors and select local social entrepreneurs.  The main objective of the LSE Bootcamp 2017 is to enable students and  partner communities create social enterprises that are relevant, sustainable and  impact driven.