Commerce for the community

College of the North Atlantic partners with Metro Business Opportunities to offer social enterprise training for students

Sixty students from the College of the North Atlantic’s business management program are getting a lesson in social enterprise this fall.

The post-secondary institution has partnered with local not-for-profit advisory, lending and training organization Metro Business Opportunities (MBO) to create Business Students for Social Goals.

Over eight weeks, the students from the thirdyear strategic management course will be introduced to the concept of social enterprise — when a business or organization uses commercial avenues to support their mandate and ultimately foster improvements in a community’s financial, social or environmental health.

MBO social enterprise coordinator Benadette Coady is facilitating the program and will assist students as they work with a number of local not-for-profits in analyzing their commercial activities and planning special events that highlight their efforts.

“We hope to raise awareness of social enterprise as a proven revenue model for non-profit organizations,” Coady said in a release promoting the trial program.

“We also hope the students will benefit from first-hand experience in social entrepreneurship, while learning more about the resources available to all entrepreneurs through business development organizations like (MBO.)”

Partaking not-for-profits include the St. John’s Tool Library, Safetynl, Canadian Hard of Hearing Association, Pawsology, Project Grace, the Autism Society, Empower: the Disability Resource Centre, and the Craft Council of Newfoundland and Labrador.

The project will culminate in a series of public showcase events to raise awareness of Social Enterprise, being throughout St. John’s and Mount Pearl during Canadian small business week, Oct. 1421.