Community and youth engagement strategy a winner for social enterprise ARCO

Going all out to connect with youth in Kaikohe has seen social enterprise ARCO recognised with a milestone award for ‘best community engagement’ by Contact Energy in the Ākina Foundation’s Launchpad accelerator programme.

ARCO, which is a furniture design and youth training and employment enterprise, proved they had a winning strategy with their wide ranging and extensive engagement programme undertaken with community groups, schools, youth and family, and potential customers.

“The eleven teams are all at different stages of their development process, and ARCO are in the thick of building their research base, their community relationships and partnerships,” said Contact’s Head of Sustainability and Communications and co-judge, Tina Porou.

The judging panel was impressed by the approach ARCO have taken to engage with a wide group of stakeholders and the way they’ve built relationships and partnerships.

“It’s been a multi-faceted community driven process, and we think that’s pretty fantastic,” Mrs Porou said.

“It’s factors like this which will help to ensure their success in a small tight-knit community like Kaikohe.”

The ‘best community engagement’ award is the second of three $1,000 milestone awards sponsored by Contact Energy for the Launchpad programme, alongside a $20,000 people’s choice award to be chosen by the public in the coming months.

Sponsored by Contact Energy and the Department of Internal Affairs, Launchpad runs until March 2015. The programme will assist eleven social enterprises with practical hands-on business mentoring and development support, including access to funders and investors to help them turn their ideas into thriving, self-sustaining social enterprises.

For more information on the Launchpad programme, and to find out more about the exciting ideas of the eleven teams taking part in the programme check out the website.

ENDS

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