SUMMER INTERNSHIP 2005
		Malathy Manoharan - Ivey, MBA CEI Host Organization - Eva's Phoenix CEI Funding partner - CIBC

I am working for Eva's Phoenix Printshop, a satellite of Eva’s Initiatives in Toronto, Ontario. The mission of the organization is:

To work collaboratively with homeless and at-risk youth to help them reach their potential to lead productive, self-sufficient and healthy lives by providing safe shelter and a range of services, and to create long term solutions for homeless youth by developing and implementing proactive and progressive services.

I am specifically working at the Phoenix Printshop, a social enterprise, to assist in articulating the strategic vision for the organization for the the next 2-5 years.

I will be doing market research on the graphic communications industry in order to determine industry trends, and to articulate how the Phoenix Printshop may wish to change it's operations, and product focus in the future. I will also be looking at the training aspect of the program. The Printshop trains at-risk and homeless youth for a five month period, and then finds them co-op placements in the graphic communications industry. This training will hopefully lead to full-time employment for the participants upon graduation.

Through my interviews with printers, I hope to determine what type of training printers expect in entry level employees. Also, I will be assessing the training of comparable programs before I make my final recommendations.

To address the back-end of the process I will be examining two links in the chain. I will be doing an internal assessment of the intake and referral process to the Phoenix printshop training program. And finally, I will be conducting an awareness study with the social service sector, to determine the effectiveness of the current marketing campaign used to attract program candidates.

Eva's Phoenix is an incredibly cool organization to work for! The manager of social enterprise, Phoenix Printshop staff, and trainees are all so dedicated and energetic. The space I work in is really great! The Phoenix building is a renovated old fire hall (plenty of large windows!), nestled between the CNE, Lakeshore, and Queen West.

I have come to believe that this ambitious project is an extremely worthwile challenge. I hope that all of you are having as great of an experience as I am!

Regards,

Malathy Manoharan

Malathy in the Eva's Phoenix Printshop