Caribbean Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Livelihoods

The CoESL's overall goal is to help to ensure the economic well being, health and happiness of Caribbean and Latin American people; particularly females and young men and women by using entrepreneurship to increase the number of good and decent jobs and livelihoods in the region; decrease the number of young people not in education, employment or training; increase access to financial services and assist with infrastructural improvements such as transportation and ICT; increase new start-ups and continue to build a creative, innovative entrepreneurial, culture in the Caribbean and Latin America, and add value through new products. The CoESL: • Helps young men and women and mature females and males to start and grow their businesses through a number of strategies including capital mobilization; business mentoring and coaching, tailor-made training and development among others. • Strengthens the work of Caribbean and Latin American entrepreneurship and business organisations with which it partners, by assisting them with the start-up and growth of their operations including implementation of structures, systems, processes and procedures; partnership building; resource mobilization, standards setting and quality assurance, accreditation and legitimization, to enable them to provide better services to the people they serve. • Partners with regional NGOs in a very structured and systematic way to help them to implement sound strategies so they can sustainably serve their target group based on the triple bottom line concept of financial, social and environmental. • Partners with regional Public and Private sectors to develop entrepreneurship and social development programs for corporate social responsibility and community engagement to assist in helping their communities to create sustainable Livelihoods. • Partners with international social development investors to design, implement, monitor and evaluate socially and economically impactful projects/programs for youth, women and communities towards the sustainable development of the region. • Work in pre-schools, primary, secondary, tertiary, vocational and other special schools, including the differently-abled, ex-offenders and HIV/AIDS infected and affected, to educate, inform and stimulate boys and girls and young adults about the benefits of entrepreneurship and being an entrepreneurial citizen. • Coordinates and connects regional entrepreneurial people, organizations, young entrepreneurs, female entrepreneurs, Youth Entrepreneurship Organisations(YEOs), Governments, the business/entrepreneurship community and other stakeholders to facilitate regional sustainable livelihoods and development programs and projects within the entrepreneurship eco-system. The CoESL aims to help Caribbean and Latin American people to use the resources which are available to them to make decent and productive work for themselves and for others. These include natural resources, technologies, their skills, knowledge and capacity, their health, access to education, sources of credit, or their networks of social support. The Centre has created and operates over 20 programmes which are used in combination and individually to help people to start and grow businesses and become successful entrepreneurs. These include: • Personal analysis programme • Start-up business programme aka Set up Shop Programme (includes start-up capital) • Business growth programme • Personal and character development programme • Entrepreneurial training and development programme – soft & hard skills • Leadership training • Young Agripreneurs Programme • Gender relations programme • Environmental programme • Business mentoring and coaching programmes • Social entrepreneurship programme • Networking programme • Marketing & promotion programmes • Public Relations programme • Value chain programme The CoESL is a charitable organization, based in Barbados, working in the region and has been operating virtually for over 10 years. This is an initiative, borne out of an increasing demand by Caribbean and Latin American countries wanting to help their people to secure sustainable livelihoods, provide entrepreneurial training for boys and girls and decent work for their youth and female populations, utilizing best practices and innovative, non-traditional strategies. Since its creation, CoESL has received the following awards: - United Nations Endorsed - 2012 - Community Tourism Award - International Institute for Peace Through Tourism (IIPT) - 2013 Address: Southwinds, Dayrell's Road. Christ Church, 00000 St. Michael. Barbados Contact: Marcia Brandon Tel: 1-246-6221345/1344 Email: mbrandon@coeslye.org