$835k for youth social enterprise initiatives

Youth Minister Nikki Kaye is pleased to announce that three social enterprise initiatives for young people will receive a total of $835,000 funding under the Youth Enterprise Fund.

“This $2 million fund is all about helping today’s young people become tomorrow’s entrepreneurs, and encouraging initiatives that achieve good social and environmental outcomes is an important part of the fund’s aims,” says Ms Kaye.

The three successful social enterprise recipients are:

• Inspiring Stories Trust, who receive $500,000 to reach more people with their range of inspiring programmes aimed at growing the next generation of social entrepreneurs, including expanding their successful Live the Dream accelerator programme
• Creative HQ Limited, who receive $300,000 for their accelerator programme aimed at enhancing the entrepreneurial skills of young people in their first two years after secondary school
• Zeal Education Trust, who receive $35,000 to help launch their social enterprise café, which involves helping gifted young people launch their own small businesses in converted shipping containers.

“I was pleased to be able to tell the Inspiring Stories Trust of their success at tonight’s final showcase of Live the Dream in Wellington.

“This programme brings together commercial, social and environmental sector experts to mentor participants and help them transform their innovative ideas into reality.

“Tonight’s showcase provided an opportunity for the young people involved in the recent summer programme to deliver presentations on the diverse ventures they’ve been working on.”

“These include an initiative that provides free eyesight surgery in the Pacific Islands, based on sales of an environmentally friendly, organic mascara, to an online platform enabling young New Zealand and Chinese entrepreneurs to interact, share learning and create better economic ties.

“We live in a complex and fast-changing world, and it’s important to help young people develop entrepreneurial skills, such as leadership, problem-solving and innovation, to help them succeed in the future.

“The Youth Enterprise Fund plays an important part in this, and I look forward to announcing the recipients of business and technology related funding in the near future.”

See more information about the Youth Enterprise Fund here.

Note for editors:

What is social enterprise?
Social enterprise is about applying a commercial approach to solving social or environmental challenges.