Introducing “RI Tech and Innovation Report”—a New GoLocal Feature
Thursday, March 21, 2019
What happens when the CEO of a major Rhode Island entrepreneurial incubator and Central Falls Mayor James Diossa happen to be at the same conference in Kansas City?
A venture is born and it’s so Rhode Island.
“I believe there’s this great entrepreneurial spirit in Pawtucket/Central Falls,” Kelly Ramirez, CEO of Social Enterprise Greenhouse told GoLocalProv. “This is a great opportunity to really leverage some exciting momentum.”
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTRamirez is talking about SEG’s expansion, which the 10-year-old Providence-based company recently announced, thanks to a U.S. Economic Development Administration grant of $257K awarded in December 2018. Grant monies are being used to open two new SEG locations—one in the Central Falls/Pawtucket area and one in Newport.
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SEG serves to better the social and economic impact of local entrepreneurs by utilizing a network of more than 300 “business and community leaders.”
The organization boasts several success stories, including exponentially increased public project sales at The Steel Yard, and partnerships with such high-profile social changemakers at AS220, Bike Newport, Capital Good Fund, Dorcas International Institute of Rhode Island, Food4Good and The Compost Plant.
“We’ve been really focused on equity and inclusion and working hard to ensure we reach entrepreneurs across the state and in communities that aren’t as connected (to the mainstream hug),” Ramirez said. “This has been a desire for a while and the timing really felt right. If you want to reach people outside of Providence, you have to be in the communities.”
SEG previously had a Newport presence about five years ago, but the venture didn’t materialize as hoped. Ramirez chalks that up to SEG being too young and not having the capacity to fully fulfill their plans. Thus, now that they have grown and have additional bandwidth, Newport was an easy choice for a new location.
“We have some great partnerships there,” she said. “In Central Falls/Pawtucket, we have much less experience, but it seems like there’s momentum.”
SEG Newport will operate at 513 Broadway. The Central Falls/Pawtucket location is still being scouted.
Next up in realizing the expansion is to hire two program directors—one for each satellite location—and one support position. The new program directors will be tasked with doing a “landscape” evaluation of what types of projects each office will seek collaboration on. In a press release, SEG said it will first offer existing services in each location and then seek to expand on those as well as develop new partnerships.
SEG hopes to have these positions filled sometime by April.
“We definitely want to collaborate. It’s a work in progress to figure out (the best ways to do),” Rameriz said.
The Newport and Central Falls locations were designated also because they were identified as designated opportunity zones.
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