Objectives
The Social Incubator of Communities aims to give assistance to low income communities with the objective of achieving acceptable levels of growth and developing economic, social, cultural and environmental aspects. This is possible to attain by training entrepreneurs, by generating and improving a solid base of new ventures, and stimulating the development of new social technologies.
In this perspective, the project "Media ICT", conceived by the Genesis Institute of PUC-Rio, was launched in 2005 in the community of Vila Canoas (São Conrado, Rio de Janeiro) with the objective of creating solid enterprises that use Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) through the application of the Local Development and the Genesis Workshops methodologies.
Key Issues
- Local Development: this methodology consists of a survey on socioeconomic, historical and cultural aspects of the community together with a survey on the community’s development potential by identifying internal and external networks, local leaders and potential entrepreneurs. The main objective is to promote an entrepreneurial culture, stimulate pro-activity and, consequently, achieve local development.
- Genesis Workshops: they aim at helping local entrepreneurs in popular communities improve their productive processes, through the planning and organization of their enterprises. This process is performed through the integration of academic and local knowledge. Intern trainees and professional people related to the business sector help entrepreneurs by adding value to the process and making possible the growth of their initiatives using the entrepreneurs’ knowledge. Local knowledge and identity are the basis to generate sustainability and to integrate the enterprise with the productive chain.
The workshops that have been conducted are:
- Memory and History Workshop
- Tourism Workshop
- Environment Workshop
- Media and Communication Workshop
The most important point of this methodology is the possibility of integration between university knowledge and the local knowledge produced by community members over time.
Results and indicators
- The first enterprise in the segment of ICTs appeared as a result of the Media and Communication workshop. The lack of community mass media that may facilitate communication between the communities, together with the need and the desire to make a new venture gave origin to the "Fala Canoa!" newspaper. This was the first initiative in the creation of a medium of information and communication. The first edition of the printed newspaper was launched in August of 2005.
- After the media group’s work, other people in the area showed interest in developing media projects. That way, Genesis Entrepreneurship Teaching Coordination group, conducted Entrepreneurship Workshops in the community. The Workshops were conducted during period of three months, with the objective of preparing a group of 18 people in Vila Canoas’ community in basic business. The program considered the following: Entrepreneurial Attitude, Professional Life, Planning and Creativity and Innovation.
- The MEDIA ICT project identified also, ten other opportunities of business in the community. These promising enterprises would be able to form a value chain in the region, stimulating the tourism and the local economy.
The opportunities which were detected were the following:
- Handcrafted Sewings
- Gastronomy
- Domiciliary Lodging
- Computers Maintenance
- Recycled Material Furniture
- Garden Design and Garden Automation
- Decorative Products made out of Garbage
- Recycled-Paper Products
- Redesign of Upholstered Products
- Decorative Candles
Based on the opportunities identified, the following ventures were developed:
1. Mass Community Media “Fala Canoa!”
2. Favela Receptiva: initiative of Bed and Breakfast
3. Decorative Candles Enterprise
4. Artisan Sewings Enterprise
5. Initiative of Newspaper and Magazines Recycling Art