Our work helps support livelihoods and employment for youth and women. This involves investing in social enterprises that prepare people for jobs through education, training and practical experience opportunities, as well as those that connect individuals to employment. It additionally involves supporting activities that lead to job creation via entrepreneurship training, development and support.

We invest in scalable solutions that increase access to health and education services and encourage utilization of these services. This includes, but is not limited to, supporting social enterprises that address nutrition, provide clean water, improve sanitation, and offer reproductive health education.

We support social entrepreneurs who originate from the excluded communities they serve, and who are working to address inequality and its root causes. This approach increases the likelihood that the solutions are effective and relevant to those experiencing inequality and ensures more leadership opportunities are offered to entrepreneurs from diverse backgrounds.

We build context-specific programs and networks to address inequality. Our local strategies outline which vulnerable groups and issues to
prioritize in response to the socio-economic realities in that particular community or region. This localized approach ensures we are supporting relevant solutions that increase inclusion and equality in many different parts of the world.

One of our aims is to foster the development of innovative solutions that can change corporate behavior and consumer habits and promote the sustainable use of natural resources.

We also support entrepreneurship and skills for the green economy. We run programs that prepare youth to start their own social enterprises or pursue jobs that will build the green economy.

We integrate climate considerations and sustainability across all our programs. Social entrepreneurs who receive capacity building support from Reach for Change are trained in building sustainable organizations that minimize their impact on the environment.

We have three distinct capacity development programs for local social entrepreneurs, each targeting a different stage of development:

1. Innovation labs: Concept to early Proof of Concept stage
   We provide technical and, if relevant, financial support for concept stage social entrepreneurs to further develop their concept and test, refine and validate a minimal viable product in order to pilot their solution and become ready for next investment. 

2. Incubators: early Proof of Concept to Early Growth stage
   We offer technical and, if relevant, financial support for proof of concept stage social entrepreneurs to enable them to prove that their solution has the intended social impact and that it is embedded in a financially sustainable business model

3. Scaling readiness: Early Growth to Growth stage
   We provide technical and financial support for social entrepreneurs at early growth stage and high ambition to scale, to enable them to identify a viable model to scale their impact (impact scaling strategy), and to develop a plan for a scaling pilot.

Each program is based on three pillars of support:

• Capacity development. We offer capacity development support focused on three development areas: Effective solution, Financial sustainability, Leadership, team, and operations. This is delivered through a mix of individual strategic planning, coaching, mentorship, peer learning and group sessions. 

• Financial support. Access to appropriate funding at different stages remains one of the biggest barriers to social entrepreneurs as they develop their solutions and bring them to scale. We offer selected social entrepreneurs financial support to help them develop and deliver their solutions and to strengthen the capacity and capabilities of their team. 

• Network. Having a strong network and gaining access to the right people and opportunities at the right time is one of the most crucial success factors for any organization. With so much competition and limited time, cultivating such a network can be tough, especially for early stage organizations without much of a track record.  We connect our social entrepreneurs to local and international networks to create opportunities for new learnings, partnerships, and funding.
   

To support us achieving our vision, we have also started to run two different capacity development programs to promote entrepreneurship and foster entrepreneurial mindset and skills:

• Entrepreneurship Boot Camp. We provide training for youth (e.g. University and TVET students) and women to develop an entrepreneurial mindset, knowledge and skills that they need to start and grow a business. 

•  Women and Youth Social and Economic Empowerment. We provide training and technical support to women and youth entrepreneurs to gain skills and knowledge to develop, refine and start or run a business idea and to gain access to funding.

Both programs are focused on the goal of job creation and improving livelihoods or support entrepreneurship in the green economy. 

Successfully growing or scaling a solution is almost impossible if you are working in a fragmented ecosystem.  In order to scale, good solutions will need support from a variety of actors in the public, private and/or non-profit sectors. 

We work to establish supportive local ecosystems for social entrepreneurs to increase their chances of success. Activities include:

• support to establish social entrepreneurship associations

• advocacy and thought partnership for improved policy

• convening stakeholders and influencers

• capacity building of other support organizations in the sector

• awareness raising and education around social entrepreneurship. 

All of these programs are delivered through various projects that are further tailored to the specifics of the local context.