Our Approach

We believe in place-based approaches that support communities to build entrepreneurial capabilities…

Exposure and Activation

We co-design projects with our partner communities to activate entrepreneurship and foster wellbeing. This includes raising awareness of self-employment as an option in remote First Nation communities; developing individual and collective readiness for entrepreneurship and capacity building and barrier removing for remote First Nations entrepreneurs.

We provide culturally safe and responsive support that aligns with family and community aspirations. This approach is key to ensuring strong partnerships and sustainability in our work. We make a commitment to journey with our partner communities over the long term, and we actively seek and draw the partnerships and resources required to make this possible.

Train-the-Trainer

We have developed and piloted a train-the-trainer program across both Balgo (Wirrimanu) and Kalumburu, based on our methodology and framework. This ‘train the trainer’ approach increases our economic and social impact. Training local enterprise facilitators ensures that communities can build the skills and expertise required to support sustainable place-based enterprise development.

Ecosystem Development

We work to develop a supportive entrepreneurial ecosystem to enable emerging remote First Nation entrepreneurs have access to right business support and infrastructure and capital. This includes access to networks, information, markets, finance and financial management support, physical spaces, virtual support and technology. We focus on supporting the development of strong, long-term partnerships to support these.

Well-being

Enterprise in remote First Nation communities contributes to health and well-being by supporting meaningful employment and by fostering connection to culture and country. Strong cultural identity is fundamental to Indigenous health and social and emotional well-being. Connection to culture is evidenced as being preventative of suicide (Chandler, 2008). Our approach strongly promotes connection to culture. EPWA works with community leaders to use enterprise as a way to respond to mental health concerns and promote wellbeing.