Spark Social Enterprise partners over de vloer: Ana Fajardo

Regelmatig komen de internationale partners uit het SPARK Social Enterprise programma samen voor de zogeheten stuurgroep meetings. Afgelopen meeting vond plaats in het Seinwezen, een mooie kans om onze partners een aantal vragen te stellen. 

In dit artikel: Ana Fajardo van West Sussex County Council.

Ana Fajardo - West Sussex County Council (UK)

Which role did your organization play within the program?
We were the coordinators, also the leads of work package 2 concerning the Accelerator.

What moment within the program did you find the most valuable?
I think that the most valuable moment is coming now, when we are actually seeing the results of the evaluation, which turns out to be really good. It seems like what we did with the accelerator had a very positive impact on the social enterprises that we worked with, so the best moment is coming now.

What do you see as the best result of the program?
Well again, we've just learned through evaluation that social enterprises have improved the business capacity and innovation capacity and skills because they participated in the program. They valued the services that we offered quite highly.

What do you see as a valuable lesson, looking at the Accelerator program?
I think the cohorts should be smaller, I think 25 is too big. We were very lucky that in the UK, 25 people started and 25 people ended the program. We were lucky also that there is good management and quality of offering so that they were willing to stick around. I think having smaller cohorts would be much better, more manageable and then you can put people that are more like-minded together so you can create more value if those people are working together.

What do you find most valuable within this new program (online tool).
I think the tool is very good, it is a really good way to bitesize, E-learning and I think it's going to make a huge difference for a lot of social enterprises that perhaps need a point of reference, and a space to learn at their own pace. They learn when they can, not just waiting for a session but they have the information online. Obviously, it is not that in dept, but it could be very valuable.

What would you like to see as a result when the program is finished?
Lots of social enterprises going there and making the most of it, I think it would be really good to play a part in activating that step forward for social enterprises to think: I'm going to give it a go. I think that would be really great.