TEAMS

SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP TRAINING
AND SOCIAL VENTURE DEVELOPMENT, VETTING & SCALING

EPIC TEAMS

NO POVERTY is the #1 United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (SDG's). Globally more than 700 million people and 1 in 5 children live in extreme poverty and youth are 3 times more likely than adults to experience unemployment. This condition creates generational cycles of poverty that often result in crime, civil unrest, drug use, and environmental degradation. To meet youth employment needs, 600 million jobs will have to be created over the next 15 years.

Traditional international development will not meet these needs, because it focuses on a “top down” paradigm that funds governments and the "haves" of a nation with trickle down to the "have-nots". EPIC Teams is focused on a "bottom up" paradigm by creating social ventures that create jobs and deliver affordable social impact to the "have-nots".

EPIC TEAMS help Post-Secondary Institutions transition from "talking about" the SDG's to "tackling" the SDGs students with "hands on" learning by engaging them in the development of local social venture solutions to local poverty reduction and SDG challenges.

EPIC Teams is a social entrepreneurship "sports like" training program that give student "players" a "step up" by enhancing the quality and competitive edge of their social venture entrants to EPIC National, Regional and Global Competitions. (Think FIFA)

EPIC Teams contribute to the EPIC global pipeline focused on scaling social ventures that deliver social impact and lift livelihoods through a global best practice development process including:

Entrepreneurship Mindset Training equipping student participants with skills to help their journey in life.
Grassroots development of social venture solutions to meet local poverty reduction challenges.
Competitions to determine the most outstanding social ventures that have the potential to scale.
Commercial Proof of Concepts (POC) grants for winning social ventures.
Social impact investment to help successful POC's scale utilizing social franchising.
Job prospects upon graduation for students whose Teams did not place, with winning social ventures that are scaling.

FORMATION OF EPIC NATION NON- PROFITS .

The Social Ventures Foundation will be forming a non-profit organization as the national governing body for each nation that is engaged in EPIC. The EPIC Non-Profit will consist of a Board of Directors made up of prominent local nationals. This places local ownership of EPIC within each nation. The National EPIC Team Manager will identify, vet and select three outstanding Post-Secondary Institutions to receive EPIC fellowships. for the first year. The Foundation will supervise the formation and training of all University EPIC Teams with support and supervision by the EPIC National Team Manager.

POST SECONDARY INSTITUTION
SELECTION AND IDENTIFICATION OF UNIVERSITY TEAM COACHES.

An EPIC Fellowship is focused on creating a sustainable and competitive EPIC Teams social entrepreneurship training program at each participating Post-Secondary Institution Given the state of post-pandemic post-secondary education, many of these institutions are facing budget cutbacks. EPIC TEAMS utilize a gradual cost sharing structure that shifts the full cost of the EPIC Fellowship to each participating Post-Secondary Institution over a period four years: No cost for EPIC fellowship year one; 50% of the fellowship cost year two and 100% of the Fellowship cost year three.

EPIC ASSEMBLY PROGRAM AND STUDENT SELECTION

This 30-minute live virtual student body event will promote EPIC and encourage students to apply for EPIC TEAM membership immediately after the assembly. EPIC TEAM University coaches together with the EPIC National Manager will select 25 students for EPIC TEAMS reflecting a makeup that is gender equitable, representing backgrounds from low-income households, minority and marginalized communities.

EPIC DISCOVERY: ASSESSMENT OF COMMUNITY POVERTY REDUCTION CHALLENGES

EPIC Students will be engaged in up to three EPIC Discovery Assemblies that will feature panelists made up of leaders of National non-profit organization's that are in the "front lines" of providing services to and understanding the challenges of low-income communities and populations. Their insights will help students identify and rank order specific challenges that they are interested in.

EPIC Students will then form 5 EPIC teams made up of up to 5 students each. Each Team will focus on developing a social venture solution to one selected challenge. EPIC TEAMS will be formed with an equitable mix of genders and skill sets including entrepreneurship, business, finance, health, engineering, and science.

MENTORSHIP RECRUITMENT

The EPIC Team Managers and the Foundation will engage a variety of national volunteer mentors from the private sector who will be introduced at specific junctures into the EPIC incubator. These include engineers, entrepreneurs, marketing and finance professionals, as well as social franchise experts recruited from Chambers of Commerce and Rotary Clubs. The Social Ventures Foundation will also recruit mentors from international corporations. For example, Deloitte, the world’s largest accounting firm, GBSN, the Global Business Schools Network and the Social Sector task force for the International Franchise Association have agreed to provide mentors.

EPIC STUDENT TEAMS “IDEATE” SOCIAL VENTURE CONCEPT TO MEET SELECTED CHALLENGE.

Students from each EPIC Team will meet virtually weekly to brainstorm, ideate and achieve consensus about a social venture concept that meets the team’s selected challenge. A "brand name" for the social venture will be agreed to and announced on social media.

EPIC 14 WEEK INCUBATOR

The EPIC incubator engages students flexibly part time so as not to conflict with University and student classroom schedules. EPIC Teams has added several other features including longer horizon financials, prototype development, social franchising training, special master classes and competition preparation. The EPIC Teams National Manager will receive ongoing support by the Foundation to manage the operation of all Team incubators under their supervision.

EPIC NATIONS COMPETITIONS

Once the incubator is completed, students will begin training for their EPIC National competition in December of each year. The top three winners of each EPIC National event will go on to compete in any relevant EPIC Regional Competitions which will be held in January. The top three winners of each Regional event will proceed onto EPIC World.

COMMERCIAL PROOF OF CONCEPTS AND SCALING UTILZING SOCIAL FRANCHISING

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Each EPIC Nation competition will facilitate the selection of the three outstanding social ventures that have the most potential to make a social impact on fragile communities. The top social venture will receive a cash grant to fund their “commercial proof of concept”. Once a successful commercial proof of concept is completed, the social venture will receive Foundation staff support to secure social impact investment so that they can begin scaling locally and then nationally utilizing a “social franchise” business model.

The Social Ventures Foundation is determined to give EPIC winners with scalable social ventures, the opportunity to succeed and deliver social impact beyond their local communities.

EPIC STUDENT CERTIFICATION

All students who have completed EPIC and competed in a competition with their team will receive an EPIC Certification issued by the Social Ventures Foundation given that these students have been successfully trained as human resources with an entrepreneurial mindset for social venturing and social franchising. This certification will have application upon their graduation from their post-secondary institution. SVF has been in the forefront of advancing social franchising as a business model to scale best practices. Graduating Students from EPIC teams who did not place during competitions will have the opportunity to apply for jobs as “social franchisees” by scaling winning EPIC Social Ventures in their communities. Over time as more Post-Secondary Institutions join EPIC and more social ventures are vetted through competitions, more sustainable proof of concepts will be facilitated, and more EPIC certified students will have job opportunity possibilities with winning EPIC social ventures.

EPIC TEAMS PERFORMANCE AND IMPACT MEASUREMENT.

The EPIC program performance and impact measurements are as follows:

Key Performance Indicators:

Number of teams that complete the incubation program
Total number of participating students
Number of Social Ventures launched after the program
Percentage of female students participating in the program
Number of Social Ventures still active after 6 months, 1 year and 2 years after the program
Number of jobs created by the Social Ventures 2 years after the program
Number of participating students who go on to work other entrepreneurship initiatives

Program Impact Measurement:

Due to the online nature of the program and the impact measurement capabilities of the EPIC platform, we can generate more detailed impact results and correctly evaluate the programs’ impact. To achieve this, we measure outcome and output indicators throughout the entire entrepreneur’s journey.

After the program, SVF will keep track of all EPIC Teams during two-years from an impact-measurement perspective, by sending impact assessment surveys every 6 months during the 2 years. With these surveys, we will assess if a social venture is still operating (how it’s been incorporated, how many employees were hired and therefore jobs created), how many non-paid collaborators, volunteers, interns were hired, whether they joined other entrepreneurship programs; whether they received any awards, prizes or recognitions; what UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) they contributed to if any, and gather a picture of their income, expenses, and investment that they raised.