$90K to help kickstart ‘beautiful’ local businesses

A NEW pilot program aims to support organisations that create “regenerative and resilient” communities.

The Village Well Executive Director Ashleigh Camm, with Investment Committee member and business mentor Marc Sofer.

A $90,000 grant from The Northern Rivers Community Foundation (NRCF) will allow new not-for-profit The Village Well to offer small business loans and mentoring programs for local businesses.

The organisation received a grant of $92,625 from NRCF thanks to support from the Ecstra Foundation.

A group of investors united their capabilities to establish The Village Well Northern Rivers, focusing on supporting groups that create regenerative and resilient communities in our region.

NRCF Chair John Callanan said he was excited to be supporting the new project.

"The funding will be used to engage a project manager to run Village Well operations over two years," he said.

"The Village Well will help to build the financial capability of our local organisations as well as a mentoring program that helps to improve financial literacy."

The pilot program will commence with select organisations who are focused on long-term social and environmental solutions.

More than 20 participants are anticipated to be engaged.

Danny Almagor, Chair of The Village Well Northern Rivers, said the aim is to build financial relationships with businesses that are "direct, transparent and personal".

"Taking in all that has happened so profoundly in 2020, we truly believe this is what our region, and the world, needs right now - values-aligned capital coming together to support beautiful local regenerative businesses, to help them to thrive and deeply serve our communities," she said.

"I am incredibly excited about what we are building here and once we have learned all we can in our pilot phase and are confident we can operate sustainably for the benefit of our community, we look forward to being able to open the doors to more regenerative businesses in our region."