Case Studies

Location: Hamilton, Bermuda Number of employees: 14 People trained in the Ice House Model: 300 Overview In its early days, the Bermuda Economic Development Corporation (BEDC) helped small businesses with financial support and loan guarantees. It focused on customers who couldn’t access or didn’t qualify for bank financing. Now, 40 years later, BEDC has changed the types of products it offers in response to the needs of the island’s small and medium-sized businesses. “It’s no…

  Location: Roanoke, Virginia Service area: Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida  Services provided: Financial support for water projects, housing rehabilitation, training, technical assistance, and more to individuals, businesses, and municipalities Revenue in 2019: $6.14 million Founding date: 1969 Overview The belief that “water is life” is the foundation for SERCAP’s work of improving health outcomes by providing clean drinking water and safe wastewater disposal in low-income communities.  But behind that…

Overview By connecting entrepreneurs and small business owners with expertise, education, and economic resources, NetWork Kansas promotes an entrepreneurial environment throughout the state. Its initiatives to build assets and infrastructure include matching loans and educational courses.  Also, a network of Entrepreneurship (E-) Communities that help local residents start and grow businesses. The network has grown to 66 E-Communities. Over the past 14 years, they have been established in the state’s 105 counties, providing $21.5 million…

Dr. Linda Keena of the University of Mississippi implemented ELI programs to teach inmates about the entrepreneurial mindset as part of a pre-release program, with very positive results.  Her findings were published in the International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology. The purpose of the article was to present a description and first-stage evaluation of the impact of the Ice House Entrepreneurship Program on the learning experience of participating prerelease inmates at a Mississippi…