Do you have a challenge for our students? We may be able to help launch your community / social start up

‘Are you a group or organisation trying to make a big impact in Frome? Would you like the help of Edventure and our students to take it to the next level and launch your idea? We may be able to help.’

We have been running Edventure Start-up, a 10-week programme in community entrepreneurship in Frome for the past 8 years. Twice a year, a team of 8-12 young adults comes together to learn by doing. They launch a community enterprise that makes a tangible difference in Frome on behalf of a client, with the help of the local people and experts. 

Clients may be local organisations, individual entrepreneurs or partnerships who have an idea for a community enterprise that can benefit Frome, and want help from a team of students (18-35 years old) to make it reality.

It’s a win-win: Our students get hands-on start-up experience and teaching, and our client gets the help to launch an enterprise or initiative that benefits Frome. Because of the benefit the project brings to Frome, local volunteers support the team of students to make it succeed. 

The student team is guided by a brief from the client and goes through a structured process of engaging the local community, conducting market research and generating ideas for the start-up. Once signed off by the client, the students create a project plan and take the start-up to launch, all within 10 weeks.

For example, our student teams worked on setting up Share – A library of things, the Community Fridge, the Walled Garden Plant Nursery, Wardrobe Collective, the Welsh mill Hub and more.  

Have you got a challenge brief for our students?

We apply a number of criteria when co-designing briefs for our students with potential clients. A suitable start-up challenge for our students will include: 

• Impact: The start-up addresses a community need, a social or environmental issue that matters to people locally. It will also address the climate emergency. 
• Community: It provides an opportunity for local people to get involved & benefit.
• Leadership: The client will continue leading the start-up once our students have taken it to launch, and can work alongside the team.
• Employment: Once set up, the start-up can provide paid employment. 
• Scale: Launching the start-up (or a prototype) is possible within 10 weeks by 10 people. 
• Content: The start-up tasks enable us at Edventure to deliver our 5 step start-up curriculum (Click here for details), and it provides opportunities for practical tasks, for both creative and academic minds.
• Model: The start-up has a business case that we are confident about. 
• Readiness: The project is ready to be taken to launch, and the basic resources that may delay a start-up are in place (e.g., a lease agreement, insurance, licences).

Most of our briefs include a number of deliverables, including designing a product / service, building the infrastructure to deliver it, creating a brand identity, and organising a launch event.  Click here for an example challenge brief.

Being a client

Being a client for a student team has a lot of benefits, but it also is a big commitment. It does not provide free labour from young people for your project, but is a value exchange. The partnership works best when a client is both committed to the success of the project as well as the development of our students. The client must be able to formulate a brief that gives the students freedom and ownership to implement 

Value that Edventure and our student teams bring

• A diverse team committed for approximately 1800 hours (18 hours a week x 10 weeks x 10 students), facilitated by an experienced entrepreneur. 
• A start-up budget of 1-2k that students raise themselves and use to pay for launch costs
• Community connections and promotion
• Professional start-up advice when co-designing the brief

Value provided by clients

• Committed to providing at least 10 working days before and during the programme (designing the brief, liaising with our students, supporting students)
• Contribution to the course costs (payment of a fee or join fundraising)
• Co-promotion to help recruit the student team 
• Long-term leadership and dedication to the start-up

Expression of interest

To express your interest in working with us, please get in touch at least 6 months before the anticipated launch date. Our student teams run twice a year, in spring and autumn. Contact doug@edventurefrome.org with your proposed start-up idea and your thoughts on how a team of students can help you take it to launch. We are looking to explore working together to make Frome the great town we all want to live in.