The marchnad lafur Cymraeg (Welsh labour market) project* has launched a mentor support scheme as part of their community ownership cluster.

The concept of creating the mentor support scheme derived from discussions held at our Community Ownership Conference which was held in the Galeri, Caernarfon on the of June 2018, where we saw a demand for practical support by social enterprises in order to increase capacity and develop more services. The scheme was further developed by our work group which believed in the importance of promoting good practice more efficient among enterprises, especially new social enterprises that need experience and expertise when starting a business.

Here’s Rhun Dafydd, the project manager explaining the scheme:

“The scheme will offer mentors to social enterprises or community organization who are in need of practical support in order to increase capacity. The scheme offers consultation, which will be different to other mentoring scheme as it will offer Welsh Language support, where the community will be at the heart of activity. We hope to target a maximum of five different enterprises to work with, focusing on social enterprises that are starting the process and community councils who are looking on increasing the capacity of the local clerk.”

We have selected mentors from various social enterprises who have vast experience and expertise in the sector to work with enterprises or community organization in order to increase capacity and offer support such as helping with marketing or their business plan. The mentors will be appointed subject to the requirements of the enterprise.

An example of the work we intend on achieving as part of the scheme is already put in place by appointing Partneriaeth Ogwen to work with Pwllheli’s Town Council to increase competence of the council by developing a community co-ordinator to work on behalf of the council.

As part of our work with the cluster we have mapped the sector which included a Questionnaire which we’ve shared between social enterprises in order to generate information on the needs and challenges they are facing. If you’re a social enterprise or community organization who are hoping on increasing capacity but need support on doing so, contact us! There might be a potential for your enterprise to take part in our scheme.

The work we have achieved so far indicates the support the enterprises need. We hope the scheme will be a valuable resource to prove the need for practical support which will show benefits of working more sustainable for the good of the economy of our communities.

This project has received funding through the Welsh Government Rural Communities – Rural Development Programme 2014-2020, which is funded by the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development and the Welsh Government.

*The Marchnad Lafur Cymraeg project hopes on creating engagement between sectors and companies which have the potential on developing services and products which build on Welsh linguistic skills. The aim of the project is to develop the Welsh language as an economic catalyst which will be a medium of developing and regenerate rural Wales.

Contact: marchnadlafurcymraeg@four.cymru