SEED Challenge Funds Community Collaborations
Picture Courtesy: Ambassador Enterprises
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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowFort Wayne-based Ambassador Enterprises has awarded nearly $200,000 to collaborations working on community projects. The equity firm’s SEED Challenge targets nonprofit, for-profit and government organizations working together to meet "unmet, systemic" community needs including workforce development and services for people with disabilities.
The firm awarded two $80,000 prizes and one $30,000 prize.
One $80,000 prize went to the "Let Me Tell You A Story" project from NeighborLink Fort Wayne and PUNCH Films. The group says the effort will use technology and modern storytelling tools to boost neighborhood development and train digital media workers. The other $80,000 prize went to Lasting Change Inc., The Crossing and Streamline Designs LLC’s "Next Generation Skills" program, offering disadvantaged youth opportunities in a drone repair business. "Genesis Health Bar," from GiGi’s Playhouse Fort Wayne and King Arthur’s Trolley, earned $30,000 for its program to provide culinary job training and opportunities for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
This is the second year for the SEED Challenge. Ambassador Enterprises Director of Non Profit Investing Kristin Grant says the company was "impressed and humbled by the caliber of talent and projects brought before us." The firm was founded in 2006 and has 15 companies in its portfolio.