PROCity (About City)
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SIBUR is committed to fostering resilient social change in the cities where it operates. One of the ways to achieve this goal is by providing support to local entrepreneurs. The company has launched a series of projects seeking to provide local business owners with some crucial skills and equip them with effective business models to streamline their operations. Some of these projects involve providing financial support to entrepreneurs operating in the areas where SIBUR’s pivotal investment projects are being carried out, including the cities of Tobolsk in Tyumen Oblast and Svobodny, Amur Oblast.
Between 2019 and 2020, SIBUR co-funded implementation of 17 business development projects in Tobolsk doing this in partnership with Tyumen Oblast’s Investment Agency Foundation. These initiatives cover a broad spectrum of activities ranging from sports and education to tourism and improving accessibility of community services and amenities. Tobolsk’s business owners were additionally able to benefit from taking part in a series of training and education projects. These included:
● Social Design (2019): a course for fledgling entrepreneurs wishing to learn about social entrepreneurship fundamentals, project planning, and target audiences’ needs assessment;
● Growth Opportunities (2019): a course for managers of existing projects with a focus on marketing and promoting initiatives on social networks and in mass media;
● A segment dedicated to social entrepreneurship offered as part of the 2019 City: A Common Endeavor forum with a focus on introducing Tobolsk's and Tobolsk area’s residents to the best practices of Russia’s social entrepreneurs;
● Productive Weekend (2020): an intensive training program for entrepreneurs dedicated to analyzing one’s target audience, developing a sought-after product, improving team efficiency and effectiveness, financial models for business, unit economics, and other business-relevant matters.
In 2020 and 2021, Svobodny saw SIBUR support five local entrepreneurs by co-financing development of local public catering, private education, and transport businesses in partnership with Amur Oblast’s Entrepreneurship Credit Support Center and Amur Oblast’s Investment Solicitation Agency.
In 2022, Svobodny's entrepreneurs became the beneficiaries of the ProCity program that puts an emphasis on social entrepreneurship, development of new services, and forging collaborations among entrepreneurs. The program’s curriculum includes in-person gamified training sessions, practical online sessions taught by expert practitioners, sessions with mentors, as well as face-to-face consultations with experts. The best of the initiatives developed in the course of the training program become eligible to getting financial backing.
The ProCity program is being implemented in partnership with Sberbank, Amur Oblast’s Entrepreneurship Credit Support Center and Svobodny’s City Administration.
Testimonials
– All participants breezed through the course's two days pretty much in a single sitting. The most important thing is that they learned how to identify their target audience, how to hear, listen to, and communicate with, a potential buyer properly, Olga Sidorova, regional representative of the Our Future Foundation, said.