Building the Infrastructure

We asked Hook it Up program participants what they thought was needed to better support other young social entrepreneurs in their region. Here’s what they said:

FUNDING

• I feel that my community needs more programs like Hook it Up to support young entrepreneurs to create their successful ventures. A lot of the reason people from my community don’t chase their dreams is due to the lack of funds with in their household, which puts them into a negative household. Not having enough money to accomplish your dreams will put you into the wrong path. If there are more programs like Hook it Up I feel that it’ll will help not only youth from my community but also help other youth in Toronto to turn their dreams to reality.
• Funding is always a challenge
• Access to more funding. Better advertising of funding already in existence. Also, funding that isn’t contingent on a specific profit margin.
• More grant money and subsidies
• I think access to more start up capital is needed and financial training is needed.
• I think it would be great to have more programs like hook it up that give money to help young entrepreneurs to help financially as well as professionally.
• … linking young people to financial resources they can tap into.
• I really love what Hook It Up is doing. It’s really cool to think of what our community would look like if more people accessed this support. I think it would be great if there was a way to connect with more people in the community, to encourage them to think of the ideas they have and how they could move forward with them, with the assurance of knowing that there would be a team to support them as well as funding to get things going.
• According to an EY global job creation and youth entrepreneurship survey (2015), over 65% of young people globally want to start their own business -27% immediately, and 38% after first learning from someone else. The top six barriers this market identifies that could prevent them from fulfilling entrepreneurial ambitions are: 1. Lack of access to funding (43%) 2. Negative economic factors (43%)

COMMUNITY & MENTORSHIP

• the EY G20 Entrepreneurship Barometer (2013) indicated that Canada lags behind global peers in coordinated support for youth entrepreneurs, scoring poorly on mentorship, provision of incubators by businesses and universities, and the availability of networks such as entrepreneur clubs and associations.
• More age-inclusive programs
• Mentorship is also very important
• I think there needs to be a website that would allow people to find mentors that are knowledgeable in opening a non profit business.

FORMAL EDUCATION

• I think it would be helpful to introduce social entrepreneurship in high schools, either in the curriculum or via clubs and extracurriculars. This way, children and young adults will be exposed to this relatively new form of career development early in life, giving them for options.
• More advanced guidance in my community for starting off businesses. Possibly secondary school business related course for those wanting to pursue entrepreneurism.

PHYSICAL SPACES

• Space for business meetings and desk space
• I’ve found that there are enough communities in Toronto for me to tap into to meet like-minded people (Centre for Social Innovation, School for Social Entrepreneurs, etc). I think a focus on providing workspaces for young entrepreneurs would be great