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Sample Concept Paper
The Virtual Community Group, Inc.
Enterprise 2000
The Virtual Community Group, Inc. is recruiting partners from the
funding community to help launch an exciting new initiative that
will create lasting, future-oriented employment for residents of
low income rural communities: Enterprise 2000. Leveraging rapid
advances in technology and the Internet, Enterprise 2000 will provide
key training and support to low income entrepreneurs, including
welfare recipients, that will enable them to build sustainable small
businesses and service the world-wide cyber market. We anticipate
that within 3 years Enterprise 2000 will create and sustain at least
1200 new businesses in rural New Hampshire; and establish a model
that will contribute to the revitalization of rural communities
throughout the U.S.
As elsewhere in the U.S., the economic health of New Hampshire's
rural communities has suffered steady decline since the early 1900's.
Family farms, which once formed an economic base supporting large
numbers of rural inhabitants, have been all but eradicated by large-scale
agribusiness. Since 1960, New Hampshire has lost xx% of its manufacturing
jobs, as corporations or local factories have shut down or moved
operations out of state. In the absence of such base industries,
traditional small businesses also have trouble surviving: in the
best of times, the distance between households and towns already
limit commerce; in troubled times, this problem is greatly compounded
by depressed family incomes. As a result, many thousands of individuals
from New Hampshire -- particularly our young people -- are moving
to cities to seek jobs, not only depopulating and further impoverishing
rural communities, but contributing to the growing pool of urban
unemployed.
By tapping the energy of the small local entrepreneur, and linking
it to the explosion in communications technologies, we believe it
is possible to reverse this trend, enabling rural inhabitants to
retain viable, high-quality jobs far from industrial and urban centers.
Small towns would again offer a wide spectrum of employment opportunities
-- from small manufacturing to services to retail -- and develop
sound, diversified economies for the first time in generations.
Unfortunately, many small entrepreneurs cannot afford either the
training or equipment needed to participate in the rewards of the
Information Revolution. Enterprise 2000 was designed explicitly
to address this lack of parity, and help level the communications
playing field. Working in collaboration with microenterprise organizations,
community colleges, and agencies which recycle computer hardware,
Enterprise 2000 will offer disadvantaged entrepreneurs the following
services at low or no charge:
- Day-time or evening classes in basic, intermediate, and advanced
computer skills
- Training to use the Internet and other information networks
- Assessment of MIS needs
- Access to reconditioned computer hardware
The Virtual Community Group, Inc. brings a very unusual combination
of expertise and experience to bear on the Enterprise 2000 initiative.
On both the staff and board, successful high tech entrepreneurs
provide a command of cutting-edge technologies; while leaders from
the community contribute a strong understanding of and credibility
within the constituency we serve. This team created the ground-breaking
HAL Anti-Poverty Project, which has supported technology internships
and secured employment for over 200 low income high school drop-outs
from inner cities in Massachusetts, and was awarded the Al Gore
Medal for Creativity in Technology and Social Service in 1993. With
the backing of the funding community, the same team will pilot Enterprise
2000 in New Hampshire, a focused employment training model that
will generate genuine, future-oriented businesses and job opportunities
for low income rural communities throughout the U.S.
(This sample concept paper was created for AGM by Molly Clark Associates.)
Other Sample Documents:
Sample Cover Letter
Sample Letter of Inquiry
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