Andrew Peacock Fund

Affirmative Industries, the Nova Scotia Co-operative Council (NSCC), and the Entrepreneurs with Disabilities Network (EDN) have partnered to provide an "incubator model" whereby selected entrepreneurs and/or social enterprises will be supported to start a business.

The Andrew Peacock Fund was a fund set up through the Nova Scotia Co-operative Council (NSCC). Entrepreneurs with disabilities were required to have completed business plans before applying for financial support. Once completed and the business plans were analyzed for accuracy and potential, the coordinator of the fund would decide how best to support the plan. After three years of working with these entrepreneurs, it was learned that they required more support in starting and operating their businesses than was feasible under the existing model.

As a result, Affirmative Industries and NSCC have decided to create a new model. Together with the Entrepreneurs with Disabilities Network (EDN), the three organizations are partnering to provide an "incubator model" which will support selected entrepreneurs and/or social enterprises in starting their business. The model is currently being developed and the goal is to have an incubator ready to receive clients by the beginning of 2011.

As part of the lead-up to the new incubator model, the three groups will be sponsoring an Angel event whereby individual and/or social enterprises can apply. Data collected from this event will help us determine how many entrepreneurs need support and who can use the incubator. This will assist us in preparing the business case for this work.