EQUAL compendium

The EQUAL Compendium on Inclusive Entrepreneurship brings together the lessons from the six years of the EQUAL programme.

It was completed in December 2008 by Toby Johnson, Katalin Kolosy, Peter Ramsden and Paul Soto for the Association Européenne pour l’Information sur le Développement Local (AEIDL), Chaussée Saint-Pierre 260, B–1040 Brussels, Belgium, for the Community Initiatives and European Globalisation Adjustment Fund Unit of the Directorate General for Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities of the European Commission, as part of the technical assistance work for the Entrepreneurship pillar of the EQUAL Community Initiative. The views expressed in this compendium in no way reflect those of the European Commission.

Contents

1. Introduction
2. Evidence and practice

• 2.1 Building the culture and conditions for entrepreneurship
  • 2.1.1 Welfare bridges from benefit to self-employment
  • 2.1.2 Entrepreneurship education in schools & colleges
  • 2.1.3 Role models and the media
  • 2.1.4 Community capacity building
• 2.2 Integrated business support for all
  • 2.2.1 Strategies for getting out into hard-to-reach communities
  • 2.2.2 Hybrid solutions for business support (self-employment co-operatives)
  • 2.2.3 Incubators/workspaces
  • 2.2.4 Mentors and coaches
  • 2.2.5 Quality standards for advisers & programmes
  • 2.2.6 Training
• 2.3 Access to appropriate business finance
  • 2.3.1 Outreach & research on special groups
  • 2.3.2 Financial literacy & capability
  • 2.3.3 Adapting financial products
  • 2.3.4 Partnerships with banks to access finance and financial services
  • 2.3.5 Financial advice & debt crisis management
  • 2.3.6 Value for money from social firms
• 2.4 Building sustainable enterprises among disadvantaged groups
  • 2.4.1 Post start-up support
  • 2.4.2 Transfer of existing businesses
  • 2.4.3 Replication & franchising
  • 2.4.4 Opening up larger markets
  • 2.4.5 Building competitive supply chains
  • 2.4.6 Handling exclusion through social firms

• 3. Community and capacity development

• 3.1 COPIE – the Community of Practice in Inclusive Entrepreneurship
  • 3.1.1 The COPIE benchmarking tool
    
  • 3.1.2 The COPIE social networking site
    
  • 3.1.3 The Wikipreneurship wiki
    
• 3.2 Useful links
  
  • 3.2.1 Analytical reports
  • 3.2.2 Reports of inclusive entrepreneurship events