Our next chapter: 100 entrepreneurs over 3 years.
The start of a new year is always a great time to reflect, reset and reconnect.
So many of us had a huge 2021. Here at ELP we celebrated one year with our new board, launched our new incubation and mentoring programs and welcomed Liandra as our co-CEO.
While our vision of empowering remote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people through enterprise has remained true since ELP first began, last year we also spent some time reimagining and redefining what our second decade supporting remote entrepreneurs will look like, with a new team and a new strategy. To put it simply, I guess we’ve reconnected to our ‘why’. And we wanted to share where we’ve landed with our community – with you.
In our sector, I think it’s fair to say that there’s a consensus around wanting remote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to be empowered to live the life of their choosing. In our modern times, and in a country like Australia, every individual really should be able to make their own choices.
But, too often, the pathway to achieving that outcome is based on top-down thinking and imposed solutions and driven by people from outside community. Even the most well-intentioned among us still assume power and responsibility, inadvertently or otherwise. It’s been crucial for me, and our team, to take time to interrogate our model, connect with entrepreneurs, reassess how we deliver support and in many cases completely invert that process so that we are confident about our new approach.
We want to support 100 entrepreneurs over three years.
Our long term impact goal is for entrepreneurs to become the future leaders and changemakers in their communities. And, over the next three years, we’re going to support 100 remote entrepreneurs to do just that.
In our programs, we start by shifting power, ensuring that entrepreneurs are in charge of their learning and business goals from the start and they continue to make all of their own business decisions.
Together, we create a tailored plan for each individual entrepreneur’s development in the program, highlighting business and personal skills, network opportunities and other key steps to take in order to achieve their aims. Entrepreneurs are supported by our team as well as expert facilitators, with the relevant cultural and professional knowledge needed to support an entrepreneur’s growth.
Importantly, much of the support is delivered on-Country, at the preferred pace of the entrepreneur.
We invest in entrepreneurs, who in turn invest in their communities.
We believe enterprise is the single most powerful tool for communities to self-determine their futures and effect generational change.
Entrepreneurs grow businesses that create local jobs and generate new income and opportunities for their communities. Our programs ensure that entrepreneurs are able to increase their skills and knowledge while staying on their Country.
Community-led businesses proudly share and strengthen cultural and family connections and entrepreneurs become mentors for the next generation. Their achievements inspire others to seek out new pathways for independence and prosperity and this results in embedded leadership that drives change at a local level. Over our decade in business, we have seen a 15-fold ripple effect from supporting one entrepreneur – a community creates its own eco-system for impact.
Throughout the program, we also work with each entrepreneur to build long-term relationships and meaningful networks outside of their community. Entrepreneurs graduate into our alumni network and become future program facilitators.
We are well underway with our first cohort of enterprise partners in our mentoring and incubation programs, and will continue to introduce you to these amazing entrepreneurs via our email newsletters, website and social media channels.
We know that our unique approach is working. We know this from our waiting list of entrepreneurs who are seeking out our style of support and from the constant referrals we get from other entrepreneurs.
We are committed to continuing to refine and adapt our approach. We will continue to learn and collaborate. And we will continue to assess and evaluate our programs to ensure they are achieving the right kind of impact.
And we need your help. Help us invest in 100 entrepreneurs over three years so that they can, in turn, invest in their communities and their own empowered futures.
If you are a remote entrepreneur interested in finding out more about how we can support you to grow your business, please contact us.
If you are also working in this sector, and want to connect, please join the (free!) Impact North network and get in touch. We’d love to hear from you.
We need help to achieve our vision and transform how remote entrepreneurs are supported. If you would like to support us, please get in touch with me at alexie@elp.org.au
Above: Ashlene and Samara Billy in Minyerri (photo credit: Kate Atkinson)
