STEP SE Training

Funding and Support for Circular Social Enterprises

COIL STEP is a program geared towards circular social enterprises, and builds upon COIL’s success in cultivating a dynamic regional circular food economy. The program is delivered by 10C Shared Space, a social enterprise and changemaking organization based in Guelph with Harvest Impact support, a social finance fund investing in circular economy initiatives. This program is made possible through funding from the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario (FedDev).

Questions sent to [email protected] will reach our collaborative team.

COIL STEP is designed to launch and scale social enterprises with a circular focus, operating in any business model (for-profit, co-operative, non-profit and sole proprietorships) at any stage. This includes food, environment, agriculture, and material sectors (fabric, material reuse, packaging etc.).

This new program will support 10 social enterprises with $8,500+ in program value offered through a mix of financial, mentorship and educational supports.

Program intake opens on January 17, 2023 with an application deadline of February 15, 2023.

Programs will be underway from March to May 2023. 

 Program Benefits

Once accepted, successful program participants of the COIL STEP Program by 10C can access: 

Financial Support

• $3,000 non-repayable grant to support program participation and hard costs of your enterprise
• $2,000 in social purpose lending through Harvest Impact offered at 0% interest, with a 12 month repayment timeline
• $1,000 allocation towards place-based costs such as shared commercial kitchen rentals, workshop or maker space rentals, pop-up retail space, Farmers’ Market booths for product retailing, co-packing facility fees, or product testing fees. We’d be happy to discuss other expenses with you in your project planning phase.

Mentorship

• 14 hours of one to one support in areas you identify as wishing to develop. We will match you with a mentor who understands where you’re at and can champion new connections, practices or tools to help you move to next steps.

Entrepreneur in Residence Support

• Work (up to 15 hours offered virtually) with our Circular Entrepreneur in Residence to co-create a circular business scaling plan which includes a social financing and funding action plan.

Community 

• Connect with peer program participants, 10C members and the Harvest Impact team who will further support your work throughout the program.

Educational Resources

We will support you in accessing educational training that will support your current stage of work. These sector based courses include:

– Food Based Applicants: A 12 session Circular Food Enterprise Bootcamp – $1000+ in value offered in real-time with weekly sessions beginning March 9, 2023 from 9:30am-12:00pm EST

– Circular Businesses working in non-food sectors (fabric, material reuse, packaging etc.), This program will cover training and content up to $500 in value – to support your enrollment in relevant circular economy curriculum

–In addition, we will provide access to other asynchronous course content that will be relevant to you during this work together, including Circular Systems Design by Unschool – we will have a code for users for both the course and the handbook.