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Kent

Kent County Council commit to the development of community micro- enterprises locally by bringing a well- established project in house, supporting their Making a Difference Everyday strategy

Community Catalysts started working in partnership with Kent County Council on a 2 year community micro- enterprise programme in April 2022,  with the ambition to create community micro- enterprises for everyone in the county, who needed some support to live a good life. This included support in the home to ensure people had a range of options to remain at home for longer, and creative support and activities out of the home for people to connect better to communities where they lived, and in many cases make a contribution to their communities.

Early work consisted of completing a diagnostic of the area and the local community. This helped us to learn about potential partners, systems, resources and gaps where community micro- enterprises could support.

Kent County Council covers a huge geographic area and the council committed to a team of 4 local Catalysts, recruited and employed by Community Catalysts to build partnerships with community connectors, promote the programme and link with people interested in working for themselves offering care and support. The team built a solid foundation over those 2 years,  the project was extended for 6 months to look at options.

The team supported and mentored 160 entrepreneurs to meet the Doing It Right Standards, offering a vast range of support in both the prevention and well -being space, enabling people to receive care and support in their own neighhourhoods which can be found on Small Good Stuff.

At the end of the 2.5 years, those 160 enterprises were supporting 1223 people,  providing 1526 hours of care and support in the home and 1698 sessions in the community. We managed a small grant scheme on behalf of the council, awarding 110 grants to local people to help set up or diversify their enterprise, enabling people to work in new ways and strengthening the local economy.

In November 2024, 2 of the local Catalysts transitioned to employment with the council, where they continue to increase the range of the community micro-  enterprises with support from Community Catalysts.