France Bordeaux
Social and Economic Equity

ATIS: an incubator for food projects

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The context

Social innovation projects are increasingly numerous at the territorial level. The important thing is to be able to support these project leaders as well as promoting their innovations. As a result, Association territoires et innovation sociale (ATIS) acts as a catalyst to accelerate social innovation, which it considers as a vehicle for economic, social, and environmental development within the territories.

Moreover, ATIS, as a social and solidarity economy incubator, is part of a relevant territorial network at the regional level. Indeed, it reinforces the territorial anchoring of projects by offering them support and enhancement in different departments of the New Aquitaine region (Gironde, Dordogne, Lot-et-Garonne, Charentes, Charente-Maritime, Deux-Sèvres, and Vienne).

The project

Since 2010, ATIS has been supporting the emergence and development of social and solidarity economy enterprises in New Aquitaine. This association aims to target projects with a high social and environmental impact.

The implementation

First of all, the association proposes to invent entrepreneurial solutions through two programs:  

  • La Fabrique à Initiative.
    This program is positioned as a "missing link" to encourage the emergence of social enterprises within the territories. The association detects some social needs and then supports a project leader, who wants to answer these needs. It is a reverse process of enterprise creation: once a need has been detected by the territorial players, the Fabrique à Initiatives encourages a project leader who will be able to respond to this need. The "Canning of unsold food" is one of the social enterprise projects that was initiated by the Fabrique à Initiative. 
  • Start-up territory
    It is an annual event that is both unifying and creative which aims at inventing the Bordeaux start-ups of tomorrow. This program was designed in collaboration with Bordeaux Métropole.

ATIS also proposes to incubate social innovation projects so as to enhance their value and to guide project leaders in the best possible way : 

  • Social Innovation Incubator 
    Social Innovation Incubator involves personalized support for project leaders with a socially and/or innovative business project on various and varied themes, such as sustainable food, for example. This program leads to a reflection on the social needs of the territory. For example, the Gironde Incubator, one of ATIS's programs, is launching a call for projects on three themes: productive resilience, sustainable housing and urban planning, and sustainable food. It should be noted that there are very few incubators offering support for food projects and ATIS is one of them.
  • First step
    First Step is collective support to approve the relevance of the project leader's idea before he/she launches himself/herself and in order to define with him/her the first actions to be implemented.

Finally, the structure also wishes to be able to accelerate projects, which are at the development stage by proposing :

  • Support for the territorial establishment
    ATIS offers its assistance to the establishment of projects on the territory of New Aquitaine so that they can get off to a good start. This is in response to the structure's desire for territorial anchoring, particularly through food projects.
  • National programs
    ATIS is a partner of the Cognacq-Jay Foundation Prize and provides personalized support in incubation or acceleration to the winners of the New Aquitaine prize for a period of 6 months.

Through these various programs, ATIS helps projects to emerge, supports, and promotes them on a regional scale. For example, ATIS supports the "Conservatory of Taste" located in Bordeaux, which is one of the many social entrepreneurs of the territory. This sustainable food project is one of the major challenges of our century, as it brings together all the food practices that aim to feed human beings with products of sufficient quality and quantity while respecting the environment.

ATIS, therefore, offers individual and personalized monitoring. The association also provides training and workshops to enrich and develop selected projects.

The means

To be able to carry out their support, this association relies on its team of 9 people with complementary skills. The team has different competencies such as expertise in social and solidarity economy, a fine knowledge of the territory and the entrepreneurial ecosystem, but also a capacity of workshop animation and mobilization of collective intelligence. All of these skills make it possible to accelerate the valorization of social innovation projects. Moreover, thanks to this team with complementary qualifications and competencies, the structure carries out many studies in order to be continuously informed about the needs and expectations of the territory. Indeed, the structure carries out opportunity, feasibility, and carrier search studies.

Results

Since 2010, some key figures represent the impact of this association on the territory:

  • The association has registered 450 projects with 25 new projects presented to the jury each year ; 
  • the association supported 102 projects in 2019 and nearly 400 since its creation ; 
  • 60 activities with a positive social impact have been created, which represents the creation of 235 jobs. Of these 235 jobs, 85% are still active ; 
  • 17 newsletters dedicated to the community have been sent out, sharing calls for projects and current agendas, members' news, and an informative section with varying content.

The little extra

ATIS Gironde is launching a call for projects which concerns project leaders who wish to be supported on the following themes: sustainable food, housing, and sustainable urbanism or productive resilience. 

This initiative sheet was written by Mario Miffurc, LFC volunteer - September 2020.

Last modification : 14 Dec 2020.

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