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Scaling to Partner Organizations

Many community-based organizations operate social enterprises across our province and some of these businesses need developmental support. Choices for Youth’s (CFY) Education, Employment, and Social Enterprise (EESE) team has the tools and expertise to help scale those businesses into more successful social enterprises and has been doing just that across NL for the last several years.

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EESE has worked in partnership with several community-based businesses in various regions of our province. Past partners include SmartICE, Food First NL, Home Again Furniture Bank, and most recently, Mokami Status of Women Council.

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Over the past year, the strategy of extending EESE training to partner organizations has proven to be highly effective. EESE has leveraged its wealth of experience, encompassing the development of frameworks, training materials, and best practices accumulated over years of successful operation within CFY social enterprises. This knowledge has been intentionally adapted and customized for each partner organization, equipping them with the essential tools required to effectively manage their own social enterprises. This approach not only empowers these partners but also amplifies their capacity to make a positive impact on their communities by empowering vulnerable populations.

Mari-Lynn Taylor, Manager of Education, Employment and Social Enterprise

“The idea was: Why does Choices have to own everything given the intense amount of overhead in terms of dollars and people power when at the same time small organizations with a deep community need are chasing funding opportunities to do the development work that we have already done? And the other side is, we have a huge investment made in people power, so how do we share that wealth so that value shows up even though we’re not opening anything new? So, then we start looking at the social enterprise models themselves and the service offerings as social enterprises in and of themselves.”

The EESE team is eager to build on this success by further expanding their model to collaborate with partner organizations. This expansion involves exploring opportunities for deeper partnerships with community groups and potential funders.

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There are many advantages to CFY’s EESE team offering their training and expertise to partner organizations. CFY cannot operate every social enterprise in NL, nor should we, so instead we empower our community partners to enhance the work being done in other regions of the province. The partner organizations that EESE supports are not limited by CFY’s mandate, so by supporting them, EESE is also supporting a larger, more diverse population of youth.

Mari-Lynn Taylor, Manager of Education, Employment and Social Enterprise

“We do what I call ‘Extreme Makeover: Business Edition."

Learn how our partnership with Mokami Status of Women Council’s provided us the opportunity to support youth who do not fall within CFY’s mandate.

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By supporting partner organizations in this manner CFY is leveraging our federal investments and putting them back into the community. EESE’s goal when supporting a partner organization’s social enterprise is to adapt our materials to best suit the needs of that organization and its young people, and then take a step back, empowering them to take ownership of future training and business development opportunities. This method allows CFY and EESE to keep our capital investments down by leveraging the existing infrastructure of the partner organization, all while sharing the wealth and value of EESE.

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