Transnational incubator for creative entrepreneurship in european rural areas

Soon

Project in operation: since 2013
Location covered: Utrecht province

GOALS SET

Soon wants to be the link between students, companies and governmental companies. As a student, it is possible to connect with Soon and to start working on projects that help the community and the working environment of a lot of people. For example, Soon was once hired by the Rabobank, because they wanted to re-connect with one of their target groups, the elder people among their clients.
Soon helped Rabobank to come up with a plan that made it possible for elder people to regain control over their money again. This caused for a change in how these people saw the bank and it reconnected them with each other.
Also, in a world where the environment is very important, it is possible to connect with Soon in order to let them help you to position your company in a better way. For example, Soon once helped a company to re-position their role in the society of their city. So they came up with a plan that changed the way the people looked at the company and also reconnected them with a part of the community that did not want to have anything to do with the company anymore (it was a group of disadvantaged people).
So Soon does a lot of work in helping minorities, but also helping companies with their image building and everything that comes with that. Another example is an collaboration with Conraid, together they faced the drinking water problem in India, because of their efforts, over 1500 people in India have clean drinking water. So it differs per case, but one thing is sure, there is always a social aspect that is important to Soon when taking on clients.

STRATEGIC LINES AND FINANCING

Soon faces all problems from a community point of view. So it views all problems they’re facing like how can we solve this problem, and how can we make sure that the environment of our client and the community in general can benefit from this. It thinks in a way that says: “Pointing your finger does not solve any problems, you have to be pro-active in order to make something happen”.
As stated before, the drinking water problem got the attention of Conraid, Conraid then asked Soon for aid in this case. Together they sat down and scanned for opportunities to solve this problem. So, first there is a problem, after that comes to analysis and problem finding and it concludes with a strong manner/fashion of solving the problem ahead.
By doing this, they funded the project out of their own pocket. They did not seek external funding in terms of community funding or aid from a governmental agency. They knew who they had to look for and created their own capital.

RESULTS OF THE PROJECT

As stated before, one of the projects provided clean drinking water for 1500 people in India. Also, through a lot of their projects, Soon helped a lot of companies reconnecting with minority groups (also groups of people that are not easy to connect/relate/approach). So the progress these entrepreneurs made through their work lies mostly on social work in terms of community and environment.

DIFFICULTIES AND PROBLEM SOLVING

As far as the information provided tells us, there were no real challenges that needed to be faced. Still, it was not easy in the beginning to find enough partners to get their company going. They faced a lot of sceptism recruiting clients. This had to do with the facts that a lot of potential clients did not see the appeal at first. Therefore, a lot of convincing needed to be done.

CONTACT

Contact BDF for more information

YouthNest
Address

Concello de Vedra
Avda. Mestre Manuel Gómez Lorenzo Nº1
15885 Vedra, A Coruña (Spain) 

Contacts

Email: info@concellodevedra.com
Phone: +34 981 81 46 12

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