Good practice:

Land Source of Income Foundation

Providing self-motivated individuals with integrated support for acquiring land and working capital in combination with specialized training and continuous on-the-ground and online professional agricultural and small business development consultations. In the long term, this increases their chances for access to loans from financial institutions and access to national and EU programs that support business development.
The program includes families who: don’t possess sufficient assets to ensure a stable and continuous income; are willing to take risks in running their own business; have a desire to become independent business developers by acquiring the necessary resources.
There are at least 2 innovation aspects in this GP:
1. Beneficiaries: more than 170 families from the rural areas of Plovdiv, are actively involved in the development of the integrated support model. Each family receives customised support tailored to their needs also with them participating actively in designing it.
2. In order to ensure each beneficiary is prepared to participate in the above process specialized expertise is necessary. Developed through: 1) specialized consultations 2) specialized training, and 3) access to information. Specialized consultations on the spot (learning by doing) and online are the most actively used tools for the model. This allows for the development of technological knowledge and skills by solving practical problems. Access to relevant information is provided.

The most important resource is the people involved in the development and running of the programme. The Foundation manages its own revolving fund of approximately 120 000€.
A digital tool, available at the foundation web-site (technological maps, business plan template, information for RDP).

Up to 2018 the Land Source of Income model has supported more than 170 families in Plovdiv and Pazardzhik area and 5 partner organizations which disseminated our programme in other areas of Bulgaria supporting additional 77 families.
For 2013 the Land Programme has been awarded the CAP Communication Awards – Innovative communication Winners 2013.
Beneficiaries: more than 170 families from the rural areas of Plovdiv district.

It has been already disseminated in 5 regions of Bulgaria, where 5 independent organizations involved in supporting low-income disadvantaged communities are implementing it on a regional basis.
The Foundation has developed targeted training tools for organizations who want to implement its models.