The name of the seven recipients of the City of Melbourne’s 2011 Small Business Grants, Social Enterprise and Micro Business Grants Program were announced this week. The total of the grants amount to $55,000 which will allow Melbourne’s businesses to start up and expand.
The city of Melbourne, this week, announced this year’s recipients of the city’s 2011 Small Business Grants, Social Enterprise and Micro Business Grants Program, which gives business owners the opportunity to start up and expand their businesses. Recipients include Museums Australia, Lord Coconut, and Semitech Semiconductor, among others.
“Small business make up 83% of all businesses in the Melbourne municipality and each one of these successful applicants has something unique to contribute to the community,” said Lord Mayor Robert Doyle, who believes these businesses contribute to the vitality of the city of Melbourne.
“Quite often the biggest hurdle for a small business is getting that great idea of the ground and that’s what our grants are designed to help with,” the Lord Mayor added.
Since the City of Melbourne Small Business Grants Program was launched in 1996, almost $6 million in funds were distributed to more than local 260 businesses. This year the grants provide $30,000 to five small businesses.
The Social Enterprise and Micro Business Grants Program
This year also marks the launch of the Social Enterprise and Micro Business Grants Program, which seeks to stimulate businesses diversity and a more sustainable social enterprise sector.
“This new program is designed to create employment or self-employment opportunities for people with disabilities, long term unemployed, indigenous persons, homeless persons or refugees,” stated the Lord Mayor.
This year a total of $25,000 will be given two social enterprises.
The Recipients
The recipients of the City of Melbourne 2011 Small Business Grants are Lord Coconut, a male retail store specialized in handcrafted jewellery and art, Pierre and Charlotte, an interior design manufacturer and retailer, Roberts & Hasset, a manufacturer of specialized designs and luxury shoes as well as other leather accessories, Semitech Semicondutor, a high tech company, and Museums Australia.
The recipients of the Social Enterprise and Micro Business Grants Program are The Last Cuppa and Catering, a café and catering business which employs people with a disability or mental illness, and YMCA ReBuild Facility Management Services, which offers employment and training to young and jobless people, some with an history of offending.
The City of Melbourne Small Business Grant Program is part of the Enterprise Melbourne program.
Photo by Wiki.will
