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SENO's CoStarter program aims to help six organizations thrive

Karen Kerk hopes being the recipient of a Social Enterprise Northern Ontario CoStarter for Change designation will help the Willow Springs Creative Centre become self-sustainable.

Karen Kerk hopes being the recipient of a Social Enterprise Northern Ontario CoStarter for Change designation will help the Willow Springs Creative Centre become self-sustainable.

One of six recipients announced on Friday, Kerk said she plans to use the grant and business assistance to help extend the social engineering arm of the organization, which provides custom-designed art, therapeutic, gardening and food programming to people seeking a pathway back to day-to-day society.

“Willow Springs does a lot of unique work in our community and we really wanted to beef up the work we do and use it to support the work we do ongoing and really support the participants we support with intellectual and physical disabilities,” Kerk said.

“It’s really important. It helps us with our planning. We have lots of great ideas and lots of things in the works, but this allows us an opportunity to step back a little and plan a little and help gather all the resources and supports we have and put it into place.”

In addition to money, recipients, chose from applicants throughout Northern Ontario, will receive mentorship and business educations from current SENO partners, including the Thunder Bay Economic Development Commission, the Northwestern Ontario Innovation Centre the United Way and Copperfin Credit Union.

They were chosen with the help of the PARO Centre.

Others chosen for the program include the Beehive Cuisine, Cloverbelt Local Foods Co-op, Blue Sky Social Enterprise, Wild Blue Mar 4 Change and Boreal Journeys Sled Dog Kennel.

Aleksa Shermack, SENO CoStarter for Change executive director, said the idea is to help social engineers reach their goals and grow their organizations.

“Mostly we’re looking for early-stage, high-growth scalable enterprises. It’s kind of a business with a double bottom line or even a triple bottom line,” Shermack said.

“You’re looking to solve a problem in your community … but also you’re making money and growing as a business at the same time. It’s kind of like the typical business model with a social aspect to it.”

Shermack said they are at present taking applications for the second round of CoStarter for Change program at www.paro.ca.

 



Leith Dunick

About the Author: Leith Dunick

A proud Nova Scotian who has called Thunder Bay home since 2002, Leith is Dougall Media's director of news, but still likes to tell your stories too. Wants his Expos back and to see Neil Young at least one more time. Twitter: @LeithDunick
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