Global Entrepreneurship Center Florida International University, Miami

Carmen Algeciras, Director, USAID Farmer-to-Farmer Program

The Institute for Community Innovation is the Pino Center 's vehicle for social entrepreneurship. Its principal mission will be to promote both social innovation and the economic sustainability of community organizations, arts groups and other not-for-profit enterprises in South Florida . The Institute, working with other agencies and organizations provides assistance in fostering entrepreneurial activities aimed at empowering disadvantaged groups in the South Florida community and internationally. In 2006 the Institute, partnering with the Center for Non-Profit Effectiveness, the Allegany Franciscan Ministries, & the Chasen Family Foundation, hosts an annual conference on Profit for Purpose: Social Entrepreneurship for Non-profit Sustainability which occurs in the winter on the Biscayne Bay Campus.

The Institute also sponsors its annual Building Entrepreneurial Nonprofit Organizations Program for senior management of not-for-profits, arts organizations, schools, hospitals, and child care facilities in Florida . This month long program is conducted in conjunction with various agencies to provide entrepreneurial management skills to both professional and volunteer leadership of non-profits and social service agencies. This training program brings together the best of entrepreneurial education with the best practices of non-profits in the region. The program is run twice a year, once with non-profit social service agencies and again with local arts and music organizations.

Special Project: Winrock International and Florida International University 's (FIU) Eugenio Pino and Family Global Entrepreneurship Center and Knight Ridder Center for Management have been selected to implement USAID's John Ogonowski Farmer-to-Farmer (FTF) Program in Central America from FY2004-FY2008. Winrock and FIU's program goals are to increase rural prosperity and promote trade-led economic growth in the core countries of Nicaragua , Guatemala , Honduras and El Salvador by enhancing the capacity of farm producers and rural industry to benefit from domestic and international trade opportunities that will result from entrance into the Central America Free Trade Agreement.

Winrock and FIU recruit and field U.S. specialists on 2 to 4 week technical assistance assignments. Volunteers share their expertise with farmer organizations, agribusinesses and other support organizations with an interest in domestic, regional and international trade. Farmer-to-Farmer specialists volunteer their time and expertise, while the program covers all travel, lodging, meals and incidental expenses. View pictures and read about Laura Jarchow, an IMBA graduate and recent volunteer in this program who traveled to Honduras during the months of June and July in 2004 by clicking here.