JoyCorps
JoyCorps partners with redemptive entrepreneurs in vulnerable regions of geography to cultivate healthy businesses and flourishing communities by helping them build innovative and sustainable businesses.
Henry Ho
P&G Alumni Grant Champion
19-year P&G veteran in Product Supply & Sales / CBD (P&G Hong Kong – Country Manager)
JoyCorps has the deep commitment and knowledgeable counsel of P&G Alumni sponsor Henry Ho. He’s been engaged with JoyCorps and its predecessor organization (First Asia Development) for 15 years and served as Board Chair from 2016-2018. Henry remains active as a business advisor and financial contributor.
“I believe business can be a force for good in the world. Redemptive businesses, like those JoyCorps supports, can be far more effective at bringing long-term change to poor communities than traditional charities. While charities often create dependence, businesses empower people. Giving people work tells them they have something to contribute”.- Henry Ho
JoyCorps is dedicated to economic development by building businesses in marginalized communities. Working initially in Northern India, JoyCorps partners with businesses to yield results while transforming communities. Businesses like Joyn LLC, Saladi Enterprises and Dehradun Guitar Company have created more than 300 sustainable jobs and are locally led. With less than 3% turnover annually, employee loyalty is tremendous. Through regular assessments and families working together, JoyCorps delivers against its mission including improved quality of life, the ability to save for the future, access to healthcare, employee satisfaction, and school-age children in school.
To learn more about JoyCorps, click here to visit their website.
JoyCorps is building its Center for Redemptive Entrepreneurship (CRE), headquartered in Thailand’s Golden Triangle – a remote area near the Thai/Burmese border. Home to 2 million refugees, with little access to education, medical care or stable employment, job creation is critical to survival and to battle against human trafficking.
CRE empowers entrepreneurial leaders with the tools they need to create sustainable jobs in their communities. JoyCorps focuses on as few as 6-8 ambitious entrepreneurs annually with strong potential and creates with them a longer-term (2-3 year) partnership yielding large, sustainable and community-oriented businesses with strong job creation potential.
The $20,000 grant from the P&G Alumni Foundation for 2020 will support the expansion into new regions in Asia. JoyCorps’ specific focus will be to partner with, equip, resource and empower at least 60 indigenous Asian entrepreneurs to start, scale and sustain dozens of strong businesses but help create thriving communities as well. Entrepreneurs from 15 ventures will join JoyCorps programs to drive the creation of 45 new jobs and impact 225 families and community members. JoyCorps will also establish 3–5-year partnerships to ensure businesses can grow, sustain and scale while also creating case studies to be used to train at least 10,000 individuals.
“Changing Lives Close To Home”
Divya’s family has farmed their land in the mountains of northern India for more than four generations. When she and her husband, Steve, moved to the farm in 2014 they realized that rampant alcoholism among men in their rural mountain community was leaving women highly vulnerable to abuse and neglect.
They worked with JoyCorps, receiving business coaching, encouragement, access to resources and a sense of community. With this knowledge they began to train local women to make gourmet preserves, sauces, juice concentrates and herbal teas from organic farm produce that was being wasted. They help local village women become financially independent with work close to home. Their company now employs 25 village women, who can support their families, with plans to grow to 100.
“By helping us shape our thinking and our intentions, JoyCorps has inspired us to work harder for our community and to have greater impact. We’re a small business, but we can have a big impact.” – Divya