Community Hubs Impact Accelerator

Impact Accelerator empowering CH’s to become self-sufficient social impact organisations so realising their cultural & commercial potential

As Impact focused experts we run high growth coaching & mentoring programmes from tech startups, through to Global businesses & Universities. 

This is a continuation of our funded MVP for the F7 Accelerators and Mentors challenge, in our Impact Innovation Accelerator project. 

[IMPACT]

CA summary

The Developing Nations Leveraging Brilliance Programme

Our goal is to support Community Hubs through developing an integrated modular pathway that will enable them to:

·     become self-sufficient,

·     Revenue generating,

·     Social Impact Organisations*

·     Offering well defined professional service products both to local national and international markets.

We will do this whilst promoting their position within their local communities:

·     As education and impact enablers and innovation technology specialists

·     By acting as a channel connecting Cardano and Catalysts to their local stakeholders, and

·     By initially working within the professional services sector

*Where a Social Impact Organisation refers to an organisation that is:

·     Positively aligned on being both: Return on Intent and Return on Investment focused.

·     One that is self-sustaining: equally at home funding its operations from grant funding and Commercial operations. And with a strategy and capability to do both.

·     One that is capable of measuring and managing both the Cultural and Commercial value that it provides to its stakeholders.

Introduction

Our objective is to fast-track a valuable outsourcing sector within the communities and nations whose hubs utilise the approach described in this proposal.

We will enable Community Hubs to offer productised solutions to other Catalyst driven services, including:

·     SPO services,

·     Accelerator services,

·     Tech Dev support,

·     Local Community Advisor services, and

·     Rapid Product Development collaboration

…within Catalyst and for separate country markets.

Our aim with this ‘Hub as Channel’ approach is to actively support decentralisation across all areas.  And by leveraging the benefits of the Local* to Global, Global to Local systems approach to enterprise sustainability and growth.

Leveraging Brilliance Through Community Hubs, Programme detail:

This proposal is one of several discrete but interconnected feasibility studies and MVP’s that will research, and produce blueprints for:

·     Delivering real world business use cases and solutions in the context of Cardano blockchain, Community hub and business capability.

Each will result in a blueprint for the steps for tech, business and community dev’s to scope delivery of

·     The technical, business and community platform requirements necessary to develop a series of future, proof of concept MVP’s

·     Followed by product rollout and implementation.

We will achieve this through collaboration with partners such as WADA.

Community Hubs: Modular Proposals

This proposal is part of a set of modular proposals. These are:

Community Hubs Impact Accelerator

Support Services for Proposers

THE PROPOSAL

Community Hubs Impact Accelerator

This proposal will produce a blueprint that will integrate the business strategy and operations necessary to empower a Community Hub to become a social impact organisation (SIO), delivering both cultural return on intent, and, commercial return on investment.

These social impact hubs will deliver channelled, local resources, targeted to support the Catalyst Ecosystem in proposing and running challenge proposals

Solution Impact

Primary Impact

This proposal will produce a blueprint that will describe a series of nested solutions that operate at the country, community, individual and the Cardano Catalyst levels.

At the country level

The blueprint will describe:

·     How to support Cardano’s mission in building self-sustaining community hubs within Nations

·     By enabling these hubs to be profitable organisations

·     That act as local channels for Catalyst supported products and capabilities

·     That they can offer to engage with their local stakeholders and resources.

At the community hub level

The blueprint will describe:

·     How to support community hubs in building revenue-generating enterprises as part of their Social Impact Organisation’s development,

·     By helping them to build and deliver the products and channels they need to support them growing local knowledge-based business capabilities, processes, and structures

·     Including SPO Incubation, Business Accelerator services, Word of Mouth Marketing capabilities, Tech Dev training, CA support for catalyst, and developing outsourced high-end professional support.

·     To give community hubs and their staff a higher demand for engagement from their target community

This will enable the community hubs to begin the transformation into paid professional service outsourcing suppliers.

At an Individual level

The blueprint will describe:

·     How individuals will have access to a wide range of educational material and training courses

As Community Hubs become more SIO capable and focused on building income generating services, individuals will begin to be offered opportunities such as the catalyst Support Services for Proposers initiative mentioned above.

These individuals will have the opportunity to engage with their local Community Hub as a qualified contributor, gaining both revenue and experience from working on outsourced hub projects.

At a Cardano and Catalyst level

The blueprint will describe:

·     How the Community Hub Impact Accelerator programme is designed to become self-supporting and self-replicating both at an individual hub level and at a hub Ecosystem level.

It follows the ‘watch on, do one, train one’ ethos. As each generation of community hubs progress to being SIO’s they join the alumni that coach the next generation. In this way the network becomes self-sustaining, one that focuses on delivering both cultural return on intent, and, commercial return on investment.

We see this as being supported at Nation level by organisations such as our partners WADA, who will be part of this blueprint and MVP.

The secondary impacts

There is a great pool of well-educated, highly talented and motivated people within these nations that can add enormous value to organisations and the global economy.

The potential at country level

·     To support Cardano’s mission in building self-sustaining community hubs within Nations

·     To support nations in building a successful internationally focused professional services sector – starting with outsourcing.

These will be achieved by giving hubs the ability to develop the position of being:

·     Profit-making organisations

·     That act as local channels for Catalyst supported products and capabilities

·     That they can use to engage with their local stakeholders and resources.

The potential at community hub level

·     To give community hubs and their staff a stronger reason for engagement from their target community – as they offer access to paid work on an ongoing basis for local contributors.

·     To support community hubs in building revenue-generating enterprises as part of their Social Impact Organisation’s development

These will be achieved by helping to build and deliver the products and channels needed to support:

·     Local knowledge-based business capabilities, processes, and structures

·     SPO Incubation,

·     Business Accelerator services,

·     Word of Mouth Marketing capabilities,

·     Tech Dev training and

·     Developing outsourced high-end professional support.

By building relationships with local and national academic institutions, Community Hubs will start to work more closely with local universities and colleges to help potential contributors enter the employment pool of those who will offer their services for the Catalyst community.

The potential at an Individual level

·     Qualified individuals will have the opportunity to engage with their local Community Hub, become a contributor and gain income and experience from supporting Catalyst members with their proposals.

Over time as the hub grows and develops, individuals could engage with the hub in other ways – such as becoming a CA for catalyst, offering and being trained in Tech Dev skills and offering skills through the hub to other organisations

The potential at a Cardano / Catalyst level

·     Catalyst Proposers need access to specialist resources to effectively produce fit for purpose proposals. Part of this need could be met by engaging the services of an outsourced specialist contributor from a participating community hub.

·     As Project Catalyst scales, this need for qualified support looks likely to grow and could be met in part by developing an effective Outsourcing operation that is part of the Cardano Ecosystem

The constraint

This is a big complex challenge that can produce exponential results for all concerned, however, to deliver on the potential evident in this solution set will take an integrated, highly focused, immediate, short, and medium-term approach with specialist input from Dev’s from all sides: Tech, Business, Community, etc,

The solution described above will empower Community Hubs to act as self-sustaining, impact-driven Catalyst channel partners delivering both return on intent and return on investment.

In order to achieve the objectives outlined above, this proposal deals specifically with producing a feasibility study and MVP of a Community Hub Accelerator.

Our approach is to take the Impact Accelerator model from our existing F7 funded proposal for Impact Accelerator for Catalyst programme and reframe it to suit the needs of Catalyst Community Hubs. This blueprint will then be used to develop the MVP of operational cultural and commercial models and create the applications that will deliver on this.

The whitepaper will include wide-ranging input from other interested parties such as Catalyst, WADA and other community hub operators.

Following this, the blueprint will then be run as an MVP trial through WADA, who will act as lead partners and submit a separate proposal for follow on implementation for productising this Community Hub Impact Accelerator in Fund 9. Following that it is envisaged that the programme be rolled out through the other Community Hubs as appropriate.

Impact Accelerator overview

·     We have a robust impact-focused accelerator framework for establishing, measuring, tracking and improving the functions and relationships within companies, that has been specifically designed to establish the purpose of the founder/s and to ensure that this purpose is delivered on.

·     We use this framework as the foundation of the conversations that we have with our clients as we mentor them through their business growth journey.

·     It is based on the premise that companies operate at both strategic and tactical levels, and on operational/commercial and cultural levels. And it is in the cultural part of the business where 80% of its value sits – yet this has been difficult to measure and track.

·     Our programme takes a founder/leader through a self-assessed audit of their organisation against our framework.

·     The results and findings are discussed during a series of coaching sessions, and a development plan for the organisation is developed and agreed upon.

·     A coach then works with the leadership team through the programme.

·     Our programme consists of an online self-assessment that is then discussed with a coach. A coach is assigned to each participant in the programme to help them to grow and maintain their independence.

·     Where specific skillsets or experience are required to deliver the agreed growth programme, these will be introduced from our business specialist network.

Challenge – To organise community hubs to effectively participate in the programmes

o  Mitigation – Engage with WADA to reach out to potential community hubs

Challenge – the ability to translate our existing content to the local cultural norms, terminology and market environments

o  We will collaborate with WADA for the Africa rollout and hopefully work with them on supporting the phase two, nation rollout.

Skills required

The following skills are required to deliver our proposal.

• Capability to organise and run an Accelerator programme

• A platform to run an online programme

• An ability to attract appropriate people to the programme

• A method of measuring the success of the programme

• The ability to mentor, coach, consult and train participants in the programme

• The ability to adapt our existing programme into a Community Hub focused MVP programme

• The ability to construct and deliver a research report on the MVP programme

• The ability to engage with the Catalyst community to launch and leverage the programme

We have many of these skills within our current team and will welcome the contribution of others to further expand our collective capability.

[FEASIBILITY]

Project Roadmap: https://miro.com/app/board/uXjVOE42T9c=/?invite_link_id=488689803842

After voting takes place and funding is successfully secured: 

1)   Project Management:

·     Develop detailed project plan, liaise with stakeholders and manage the programme elements throughout duration – 10 hours

2)   Develop the Pre-Programme phase and get it fit for purpose:

·     Meet with WADA / local community heads to discuss the project – 6 hours

·     Agree desired deliverables from training programme – 12 hours

·     Map the process – 4 hours

3)   Refine, run and manage the Programme delivery phase:

·     Deliver the MVP programme – 12 hours

·     Conduct mid-session reviews – 10 hours

·     Programme administration – 10 hours

4)   Refine, run and manage the Post-Programme phase: 

·     Collate key metrics - 4 hours

·     Conduct feedback interviews – 10 hours

·     Report consolidation and delivery – 10 hours

Overall, the project will have a duration of 12 weeks dependent on the availability of participants.

This is based on up 10 to 15 participants

The total cost of this proposal is US$19,800

The cost rates that we have estimated are:

·     Edify R&D & management team – US$200/hr

·     Edify workshop delivery team – US$500/hr

·     Freelance support (Admin, VA, Marketing etc.) – US$100/hr

1)   Project Management: - $2,000

·     Edify R&D & management team – 10 hours – $2,000

2)   Develop the Pre-Programme phase and get it fit for purpose: – $3,800

·     Edify R&D & management team – 16 hours – $3,200

·     Freelance support (Admin, VA, Marketing etc.) – 6 hours – $600

3)   Refine, run and manage the Programme delivery phase: - $9,200 

·     Edify R&D & management team – 12 hours - $2,400

·     Edify workshop delivery team – 12 hours - $6,000

·     Freelance support (Admin, VA, Marketing etc.) – 8 hours - $800

4)   Refine, run and manage the Post-Programme phase: - $4,800 

·     Edify R&D & management team – 24 hours - $4,800

The following skills are required to deliver our proposal.

Capability to organise and run an incubator programme

A platform to run an online programme

An ability to attract appropriate people to the programme

A method of measuring the success of the programme

The ability to mentor, coach, consult and train participants in the programme

The ability to adapt our existing programme into an SPO focused MVP programme

The ability to construct and deliver a research report on the MVP programme

The ability to engage with the Catalyst community to launch and leverage the programme

We have many of these skills within our current team and will welcome the contribution of others to further expand our collective capability.

Harry Hellyer

Company – Edify Business

NED, and chairman, executive and business coach specialising in full value-based impact innovation programmes for enterprises and organisations.

Founding partner of 50th Generation – one of the UK's first Social Business Generational Accelerators – 2014-2018

Credited for supporting the development of the NHS's first Sustainable Development Vision and Strategy programme.

Coached Fellows on the Cambridge University, Programme for Sustainable Development,

Coached Fellows and Lectured for the Cambridge University, Centre for Entrepreneurial Learning - Social Enterprise

VP and director of strategy, marketing strategy and business development for several global IT, media and telecoms companies. 

Alan Casey

Company - Golgafrincham

Manager of a sovereign national grid control centre during a period of technological and cultural change.

Founder and consultant in an organisational effectiveness measurement system deployed into a global advertising and marketing communications network.

Founder of a conversational AI company creating systems that evaluate and improve competence in key organisational skills.

Member of the Edify Community.

Fellow of the RSA.

Jude Ugwuegbulam

Company – Mule Management

Jude helps Coaches & Consultants digitise their customer journey and turn strategic ideas into business assets. Resulting in more leads, more sales and automated support. Helps Professional Practices (HR, Legal and Dental) struggling to implement and manage their data protection/GDPR compliance to gain clarity, control and, accountability.

Jon Arnett

Company – Equip Business

Background in Operations and Project Management with startups, small businesses and social enterprises.

Founder of coaching and consulting business supporting small businesses and startups.

Experience in coaching, facilitation, workshopping and programme delivery (online and in-person)

Won multiple EU funded L&D contracts, delivering workshops on entrepreneurship, social entrepreneurship and leadership to diverse stakeholders.

Member of the Edify Community.

Mark Constable

Company – Equip Business

25 years+ working in small business as a Leader, Founder, consultant and coach - Supporting impact focused business leaders in building future fit organisations

Proven track record of helping clients in building high value, high performing organisations focused equally on both wealth and wellbeing.

Relevant Experience:

Development and delivery of high impact leadership programmes for fast growth businesses.

Launched a business line providing specialised business development training to bid management and sales teams globally.

Member of the Edify Community.

Advisory Team

Paul Farmiloe – former client, business and blockchain experience, trainee stonemason, VP Formerly VP responsible for BT's blockchain development and DLT programme.

Dr Julie King – client, educationalist, Head of Centre for Academic English, Imperial College London.

WADA brilliance

[AUDITABILITY]

Key Metrics:

Number of applications received onto Accelerator programme

Number of successful applications

Number of participants starting the programme

Number of participants completing the programme

Number of Alumni from MVP engaged with new Cohort

Number of Tech, Busn, social dev's engaged with the hubs - following Community Hub Accelerator programme

These metrics will be measured on an ongoing basis throughout the project and will then be summarised in the end of project report, along with the end of project debriefs with participants.

Similarly, we will be running weekly project management meetings to assess progress against the milestone plan, alongside regular Catalyst meetings with coordinators to update on progress and where support might be necessary.

A tooled-up Community Hub focused on being a Social Impact Organisation. That is not afraid to become self-sufficient in both receiving and generating revenue - so that they can do their part in scaling down the need for support from Catalyst whilst also scaling up the ability to support their communities.

A hub that can support the catalyst network by actively growing both its membership and its members' capabilities - by acting as an innovation and education hub.

This is a new project, but it is an extension of our Fund 7 Funded projects delivering an

Impact Accelerator for developers - mentoring and scaling.