SELLA – Social Entrepreneurship Lessons Learned for Armenia
29 August 2019 - yerevan

…This program has been completed…

Description & Goal

SELLA (Social Entrepreneurship Lessons Learned for Armenia) aims to demonstrate inspirational stories on social entrepreneurship, and lessons learned from successful social enterprises (with the relevant information on state support, and policy context for each case) around the world, including those in the United Kingdom, in order to raise the level of social entrepreneurship knowledge in Armenia to the next level of impact, profitability and sustainability.

The project is funded by British Embassy Yerevan, implemented by Impact Hub Yerevan and Nazareth Seferian, CSR and social entrepreneurship professional.

Objectives

There are several dozen social enterprises operating in Armenia, most of which have been founded through funding by grant programmes. While these social enterprises are doing good work, many of them remain small, with limited impact and profitability, which also makes their sustainability vulnerable. Several projects are focusing on promoting knowledge and awareness on social entrepreneurship in Armenia, but there is still a deficit when it comes to case studies and other material on social enterprise success stories and lessons learned from different countries available in the Armenian language and relevant to the local context.

The SELLA project aims to make these success stories available to stakeholders in the Armenian social entrepreneurship ecosystem through webinars with social enterprises from other countries, including the United Kingdom, translation of available video material, discussion events. By making this material publicly available, the project will:

  1. Supplement ongoing efforts on social entrepreneurship by promoting success stories and lessons learned from real-life cases, which will include specialized knowledge for existing social enterprises in Armenia
  2. Help make the concept of social entrepreneurship more understandable to members of the general public and other stakeholders (including state institutions) who are just starting to demonstrate an interest in the area

Content updates, learning materials and videos of the project will be continuously published in this webpage.

Case Study #1 – Cracked It

Founded by Josh Babarinde in 2016, Cracked It supports young people just out of prison – the mission was to prevent them from going back to prison by helping them find meaningful jobs. The case studies for Cracked It are available in both Armenian and English.

Armenian version   |   English version

Case Study #2 – Cocco Bello

Cocco Bello was founded by Guzel Sanzhapova in the village of Malyy Turysh in the Russian Federation and was originally a family business. Now it is a social enterprise with a mission to save the village from extinction.

Armenian version   |   English version

Case Study #3 – Living Broccoli

Businesses and individuals generate a large amount of waste every day. Some waste items, particularly plastic, remain in the environment for a long time and cause damage to their surroundings. Living Broccoli’s mission is to reduce waste by upcycling materials into items that can be used again. At the moment, they are focused in particular on polyvinyl chloride, the material used in advertising billboards.

Armenian version   |   English version

Case Study #4 – Pragulic

Pragulic challenges the stereotypes associated with homelessness by enabling people to experience the world from a homeless perspective.

Armenian version   |   English version

Case Study #5 – Diseclar

Diseclar is helping clean the environment of plastic by recycling it into products that have a long lifetime.

Armenian version   |   English version

Case Study #6 – Aurora Coworking

Aurora Coworking is a coworking space that brings together entrepreneurs and, besides providing them with the facilities to work and develop their businesses, this social enterprise provides them with a safe space to share their challenges and get peer support.

Armenian version   |   English version

Case Study #7 – EkoFungi

EkoFungi combines traditional knowledge of mushroom growing with innovative solutions, making this a sustainable agriculture solution that can be replicated and disseminated.

Armenian version   |   English version

Case Study #8 – English School

English School is an online-only English service, delivered exclusively through WhatsApp.

Armenian version   |   English version

Case Study #9 – Réalise

Réalise trains candidates with little or no education in highly labour-intensive business sectors, supports and facilitates their recruitment by potential employers.

Armenian version   |   English version

     Video 2  |  Video 3

Case Study #10 – HearX

HearX aims to provide affordable access to hearing care using smart digital health solutions that anyone can use, anywhere. The company believes that people can gain access to hearing tests by using today’s technology. The big vision that drives the team at HearX is “healthy hearing for everyone everywhere.”

Armenian version   |   English version

Summary Compilation Video

SELLA Case Study Summary

The following publication is a summary of the SELLA (Social Entrepreneurship Lessons Learned for Armenia) project. We have collected stories from ten social enterprises around the world, highlighting useful lessons for entrepreneurs. Each case often covers several aspects of interest to anyone interested in social entrepreneurship adding something new to the literature currently available in Armenia on social entrepreneurship. We have strived to make these cases as diverse as possible.  We hope you enjoy this publication with the associated online material and look forward to hearing about success stories on social entrepreneurship in Armenia that we can share with the rest of the world!

Armenian version   |   English version

Impact Hub Yerevan logo
British Embassy logo

This project is funded by the British Embassy Yerevan.