Heart for Entrepreneurial Reports gets $25,000 grant to construct Makerspace

Bonita Lehigh founded the Centre for Entrepreneurial Experiments on Primary Street in Farmington in 2020 to use entrepreneurship as a instrument to get over particular limitations. The heart presents entrepreneurial chances wherever youth can launch micro-retail enterprises offering merchandise such as the attractive indicators hung behind Lehigh. Andrea Swiedom/Franklin Journal file picture

FARMINGTON — The Centre for Entrepreneurial Research has been awarded a $25,000 grant to expand its system. The grant was offered by Maine Neighborhood Foundation, an firm that brings collectively donors and recipients working “to make improvements to the quality of life for all Maine people today.”

The Middle for Entrepreneurial Research (CES) will use the grant to establish their “Makerspace,” a studio wherever business owners enrolled in the CES software can create products and solutions to market in the keep and for their manufacturer. The Makerspace will have printers, equipment — to slice wood, steel and glass — personal computers, an location to make jewelry and much more.

“We definitely want it to come to be a local community spot the place people can pull themselves out of poverty,” reported founder Bonita Lehigh.

Maine Local community Foundations awarded their “Start Up Scale Up” grant to “businesses or courses or collaborative workspaces that are supporting entrepreneurs.” Senior Program Officer Maggie Drummond-Bahl said the CES received the grant due to the fact the method engages youthful men and women, is very seen on Primary Road and is in Franklin County, which they take into account an “under-served location.”

The CES is a non-earnings and “workforce enhancement program” with a retail shop where by young ones and grownups alike are enrolled to discover enterprise information, produce a brand name or business enterprise, promote their products and solutions, and “explore their pursuits, values, strengths.”

Lehigh believes that “entrepreneurship brings about a whole lot of pleasure,” “can transform lives” and can enable folks to conquer private limitations that “prevent them from thriving.” The software also seeks to tackle those people boundaries these kinds of as housing insecurity, poverty or a lack of overall health insurance policy.

“What we want to do is make the man or woman a leader and in buy to make them a leader they want to have their essential requires satisfied,” Lehigh claimed. “They require to have their household in order, the foundation’s got to be stable prior to you make a dwelling.”

Lehigh first set up the non-profit with higher university pupils she connected with when she taught enterprise at Mt. Blue. The concentrate was to start with to produce the entrepreneurial skills of youth, but Lehigh reported the plan is now for “everybody — veterans, elderly, youth.”

Nevertheless Lehigh sells her participants’ items at the CES shop, participants see all of the gains from their items in trade for volunteering.

Lehigh plans to have the Makerspace finalized and established up by the conclude of the summer months. Lehigh is at the moment operating on fundraising a overall of $67,000 via grants, a CES year-guide design and style “look book” and unique fundraising initiatives. People interested in contributing to the Center for Entrepreneurial Scientific tests can discover far more information and a spot to donate at their site, cesmaine.com.

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