Research Associate: Phoenix Programme, ESRC ECR Secondment, Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, University of Bristol
In 2017, I was seconded as a Research Associate through an ESRC Early Career Researcher (ECR) Secondment to the Centre for Innovation, University of Bristol. Working with the NGO Grow Inspires, I co-designed and delivered Phoenix, a twelve-week enterprise education programme for entrepreneurs with lived experience of the criminal justice system.
The programme was built on the belief that inclusive, practical enterprise education can support former prisoners to create new futures through self-employment and venture creation. Delivered in partnership with the NatWest Accelerator, Bristol, Phoenix provided participants with space to develop business ideas, build professional networks, and present their ventures to the NatWest incubator team.
Alongside programme delivery, I conducted a human-centred design ethnography examining the teaching practices and support structures that best enabled participant engagement and progression. Findings from this work informed wider discussions on inclusive entrepreneurship education and were presented, with Grow Inspires, at the Symposium on Entrepreneurship and Criminal Justice at a UK government think tank in London.
Since running in 2017–18, participants from Phoenix have gone on to establish a range of community-focused and commercial enterprises.
