Cluster Project

The Cluster Project, initially known as “Empowering Women’s Enterprises and Networks Clustering Project,” was our main focus at WEC from 2012-2015.

We partnered with women’s organizations in four regions of Canada with the goal of improving their ability to help them build on existing local and regional resources, and to help determine the most effective way to begin implementing new resources and methods.

It was a success. We’re very proud of the strides taken by the organizations we partnered with.

Goals

As with every project we undertake at WEC, the Cluster Project was designed to help us fulfill our mission of increased economic security for Canadian women. This particular project helped women start and grow businesses.

This Cluster process required a strengthening of the networks supplying women’s businesses. In other words, we not only wanted to approach the problem of jobs in a holistic way and of starting and growing women’s businesses, but we also wanted to strengthen the resources that help women maintain a positive lifestyle. The project understood that with some additional support in their personal or domestic lives, many more women could begin to develop a healthy business.

For more about the project, read our report on our National Conference on the subject, which took place in 2014.

The Impact We Made

We partnered with five women-centred CED organizations from across the country. Each of the organizations had specific needs and ways of encouraging economic security for women, and so our approach and measures of success varied for each.

For more information about our Cluster partners see our Cluster Project Final Evaluation Report.