Strategic capacity to design, fund and launch inclusive ventures at scale.
How can we create sustainable pathways for marginalized and disenfranchised youth and persons with disabilities in our community to engage, connect and belong through meaningful employment?
For disability service agencies, municipalities, provincial bodies, foundations and conferences building inclusive venture work — for people with disabilities and for young people under thirty facing underemployment. Based in Parkland County, Alberta and available across Canada and internationally, in person or virtually. A first conversation is always free.
None of these services are job coaching, job placement, employer matching or supported employment. Every engagement results in a designed and (where scoped) launched microbusiness — owned and operated by the person, family, agency or community at the centre of it.
Inclusive business design
- Design a venture around the person's gifts, needs and pace
- Locate a real market demand the operator can genuinely meet
- Ownership stays with the person, family, agency or community
- Partnerships fund infrastructure and reduce risk
- Built to be manageable and self-sustaining
- A credible alternative for young people locked out of entry-level pipelines
Job brokering
- Match person to existing employer's vacancy
- Bend the person to fit the job description
- Success depends on someone else's willingness to hire
- Roles often disconnected from identity and interest
- High dropout when access needs aren't accommodated
- Young candidates frequently filtered out by experience requirements and inflexible scheduling
Four ways to build inclusive venture capacity.
Consulting & venture design
Multi-quarter and multi-year engagements that help an organization design, fund and launch inclusive ventures alongside the people they serve — including transition-age and underemployed youth under thirty — without converting into a placement or supported-employment program.
- —Venture portfolios for an agency or region
- —Grant & funding strategy
- —Embedded mentorship through launch
Workshops & facilitation
Half-day and full-day sessions that move a team, board or community table from problem-statement to a real venture concept — with the partnerships needed to bring it to life. Business-design sessions for ventures that people with disabilities and underemployed young people will own and operate.
- —Discovery & concept workshops
- —Partnership mapping
- —Operating model design
Keynote & speaking
An evidence-grounded talk on why job-matching and placement programs alone haven't closed the gap for people with disabilities or young people navigating underemployment — and what a venture-design strategy looks like when the goal is a business the person owns and operates.
- —Keynotes 30–60 min
- —Panels & fireside chats
- —Emily guest appearances available
Turn-key venture licensing
License a designed venture (starting with Sweetfreeze) for use across an agency or region — with onboarding, playbook and adaptation support so each operator runs a business they own. Independent microbusiness ownership at scale, with structured pathways for young operators entering the economy.
- —Agency / multi-site licensing
- —Operator onboarding
- —Regional adaptation
Deliverables, not just inspiration.
Every engagement leaves you with something usable — a documented venture concept, a launchable business, a funded plan, or a team that knows how to take the next step on its own.
Operator, market, model, partnerships, risks and supports — captured in a blueprint you can share, fund and act on.
Identification of relevant municipal, provincial and federal grants, with language and structure to support a strong application.
Introductions and partnership mapping so the venture is supported by infrastructure, not dependent on a single champion.
The person, agency or community owns the venture. We design for the day the engagement ends — and the business keeps trading.
Scoped to fit the engagement.
A single conversation looks different from a multi-year venture build, and a community group is not priced like a government department. The goal is always a path that's workable.
Build it into your fundraising
Consultation, design and launch costs can be folded into the campaign or initiative itself — so the work that gets the venture off the ground is funded alongside it.
Grant-ready support
I'll help identify relevant grants and provide the language, structure and supporting information you need to put a strong application forward.
A first conversation is always free
Reach out and tell me about the organization or community at the centre. We'll figure out together what's right-sized — and how to make it possible.