Optivo is a housing association that took over management of a lot of the council house and flats in my local area. Those that were managed by 1066 and Amicus Horizon are now managed by Optivo. They build houses as well as maintaining the existing houses and flats.
Increase Valorisation Sociale
Optivo is the lead partner in the Interreg France (Channel) England programme to fund high quality cooperation projects and one of these projects is Increase Valorisation Sociale or IncreaseVS for short.
The aim of IncreaseVS is to promote to Optivo’s residents a set of courses and after course support to start their own businesses and reduce the unemployment rate in the UK as well as the North coast of France.
EU funding of £10.3 million was provided for this project, however with Brexit, the funding will soon run out.
So what is the IncreaseVSChallenge?
Throughout March there is a social media challenge, where each business started through or aided by Optivo IncreaseVS training can post daily to social media platforms to get their business name out to as many businesses and potential customers as possible.
How do I get involved?
There are two events remaining on the schedule for PopUp business school, and these are aimed at Southampton and Milton Keynes although you should still be able to join them as they are online courses, they run from 19th April – 30th April.
PopUp business school is becoming Rebel business school and as the funding is winding down, there will be less free courses available so get in quick.
Once you attend a course, this opens up the support platform where you can communicate with like minded people; the paid organisers and the unpaid ambassadors together with the courses they run.
