From 5 to 30 January, the Ministry of Welfare is announcing applications for social entrepreneurship acceleration and incubation programmes. Both programmes are free and open to social enterprises and social entrepreneurship idea authors.

The acceleration programme is run by New Door and is aimed at social entrepreneurship idea authors – individuals and legal persons who have an idea for social entrepreneurship or are currently implementing a social project and would like to turn it into a sustainable, profitable business. The Social Entrepreneurship Acceleration Programme will provide knowledge and personalised expert support to aspiring social entrepreneurs on their journey from idea to sustainable business plan, while fostering participants’ personal growth and understanding of entrepreneurship. Three months of intensive training from February to May will help to take you from an idea to a real business development plan and its implementation. The programme will accommodate 10 to 15 participants and is open to individuals or teams of up to three.

Anyone interested can find out more about the acceleration programme at an open day on 17 January at 18.00 in person at the Oracule Tang co-working space, Doma laukums 2, Riga, and online at the Ministry of Welfare’s Facebook account.

The incubation programme is implemented by “Reach for Change Latvia” and is intended for existing social enterprises that have obtained the status of a social enterprise and wish to strengthen their capacity and receive support for business development. The eight-month programme will run from March to October and will be an opportunity to improve your skills and increase your knowledge in areas such as effective solution development, financial sustainability, leadership, team building, learn how to increase your income and find new opportunities and contacts for business development under the guidance of various experts. The incubation programme will welcome five to eight participants and the selection process will take place in three rounds.

More information about each ativity and application forms can be found here: www.sua.lv/kopa

The acceleration and incubation programmes are part of the Ministry of Welfare’s Social Entrepreneurship Activity Series “Developing Social Entrepreneurship Together!”, funded by the European Social Fund. The cycle’s diverse activities, planned to strengthen and develop the social entrepreneurship ecosystem in Latvia, will run until November 2023. They are implemented in cooperation with sector organisations – the Latvian Social Entrepreneurship Association, the associations “New Door”, “Reach for Change Latvia” and the social enterprise “Visas Iespējas”.