In June 2014, MyBnk North East delivered Enterprise-in-a-Box to six young people at Albemarle Barracks in Northumbria
The young people who live on the barracks decided they wanted a challenge for their youth club so Lisa Robinson, Community Development Worker, called Jenny from MyBnk North East and invited her to come and deliver to six high ability young people aged 11-15.
Enterprise-in-a-Box is delivered in three parts. Firstly, MyBnk introduces young people to social enterprise through a range of holistic activities and once they get it, they do it. They immediately leave the session as young entrepreneurs with exclusive and ethical tool-kits ranging from Divine Chocolate, visionary soaps and lip balms, and hand-grenade shaped seedboms.
Secondly, the teams go out and sell whilst analysing and evaluating key learning points such as working as a team, meeting deadlines, problem-solving, dealing with customers and of course, selling!
Lastly, the young people present their experience and show evidence of how they done and how they’d do it differently if they could do it again.
Enterprise-in-a-Box eliminates ideas generation and allows young people to run a social enterprise without having to worry about target audience, pricing, branding and development, it acts as a great stepping stone to enterprise and business skills and aims to encourage young people to be aware of their opportunities in later life when looking for careers and jobs.
Lisa Robinson, Community Development Worker at Albemarle barracks community centre said:
“I love the MyBnk programme! Enterprise-in-a-Box has a fantastic scheme, and a great introduction to finance and business. I think the programme is well thought out, accessible and allows for a broad range of ages and stages to be involved. I love the concept and its flexibility. There is very little I could suggest improving the programme. Feedback from the young people indicated they were keen to see a wider variety of products in the boxes, but I feel as an introduction to enterprise the range is ideal. I can’t stress enough how great the programme is and how it has benefited our young people. This programme should be international!”