Equal-Works

“BASEC represents a sub regional network of stakeholders working with transnational partners to deliver the vision of creating a sustainable entrepreneurial economy in Birmingham and Solihull, by encouraging enterprise in disadvantaged communities through an innovative stakeholder model”.

Aim

BASEC’s aim is to examine the support structures in Birmingham and Solihull and to restructure approaches to the creation of new enterprises with the active involvement of disadvantaged groups.

Objectives:

• To improve the infrastructure and the ability of local agencies to meet client needs by increasing the participation of disadvantaged groups.
• To increase the success rate and sustainability of new enterprises through building capacity, developing business to business networks and a move away from the problem solving delivery culture that currently exists.
• To strengthen the mechanisms of accessible finance.
• To sow the seeds of an entrepreneurial culture: This forms part of a longer term strategy to encourage entrepreneurship within disadvantaged communities through working with schools, colleges and universities, to nurture empowerment within these communities now and in the future.
• To create and develop new markets: Activity will be concentrated around the introduction of new markets to local businesses.

Target beneficiary groups

To support this process the project will undertake a community diagnostic with a particular focus on ethnic minority groups and women. This is in order to assess current levels of support and barriers faced by these communities. The purpose of the partnership related directly to those within Theme C, with the key aspiration being to create sustainable business through the provision of support to local people and SMEs and to promote an Entrepreneurial culture, which will increase economic activity in disadvantaged areas.

Outcomes

Locally, it is accepted that the empowerment of local communities will have significant impact on the way in which future business support provision is delivered. This rest-bed approach will be mainstreamed into BASEC Partner activity and will be promoted to the wider region. This is in line with the West Midlands ‘First for Competitiveness’ Strategy (1999) priority to ‘integrate and simplify business support’.