The 3 shortlisted social organisations for the David Manley Emerging Entrepreneur Awards are:
· Lisa Domican, Grace App Communication
· Emma Murphy, The Turning Institute
· Jamie Regan, Hand on Heart Enterprises
Lisa Domican, Grace App
Lisa Domican, originally from Australia but now living in Greystones, Co. Wicklow, created the Grace App - a picture exchange communication app - with her daughter Grace, a little girl with autism. The app helps people with communication difficulties, including autism, acquired brain injury and stroke, to communicate their needs independently.
Pictures selected on the Grace App on the iPhone or iPad form a sentence that can be shared with other people. This encourages independent social interaction and the development of speech, supporting the inclusion and independence of people with special needs. The app has been available to buy since 2010 and has approx. 14,500 downloads to date.
Lisa and the Grace App have been recognized and won some awards:
In October this year, Lisa was recognised as one of “One Hundred Women by One World Action” as one of the Unseen Powerful Women who change the world in the area of business and entrepreneurs;
In September of this year, Lisa won the Women Mean Business Big Idea Award 2011 For Grace App Communications;
She was a Finalist in Social Entrepreneurs Ireland Social Impact Awards and Winner of the Elevator Program for 2011 for Grace App Communications;
In December 2010, the Grace App won UNESCO, World Mobile Summit Award e-Learning and Education www.wsa-mobile.org/news;
In October 2010, Grace App won Best Mobile App (With Vinny Coyne's Eirtext) at Irish Web Awards 2010.
Lisa is continuing to develop further technology and training for Grace App. http://www.graceapp.com/
Emma Murphy, The Turning Institute
Emma Murphy is a counsellor/psychotherapist specialising in eating disorders. She set up and launched the Turning Institute, an online resource for women and men struggling with eating disorders, as a first step towards recovery that can be worked through in complete confidence.
The nature of eating disorders means that it is extremely hard for clients to take the first step towards asking for help, so the Turning Institute’s programmes bring their expertise to the client, in the safety of their own home, with the added support of a Virtual Group, who work through the same issues and behaviours that a client is struggling with now.
The Turning Institute is set up as an ecommerce business that designs, produces and sells innovative online, self-help programmes and is based at Emma’s Wellness Centre in Sandyford, Dublin.
After 4 years in the Middle East, Emma worked in banking and small business development before returning to college at age 30 to retrain in psychology. 13 years on, Emma feels that all her work experience has come together in the development of her online program for Eating Disorders. http://www.turninginstitute.com/
Jamie Regan, Hand on Heart Enterprises
Hand on Heart Enterprises is a young and innovative organisation set up in 2009 which aims to create employment for people with disabilities through innovative businesses and enterprises using a Social Enterprise Model. Using this model, they are developing self-sustaining enterprises that create jobs for people with various disabilities in truly inclusive work settings.
Their innovative approach of developing teams of people with different disabilities means that they focus on people’s abilities, rather than their disabilities. They simply design work environments that are safe and truly inclusive from the start for everyone.
Ventures include an Inclusion Bar and Vendability Enterprise which services vending machines. Hand on Heart is based at the Ballymun-Whitehall Enterprise Centre, Ballymun. http://www.handonheart.ie/
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