The Impact of Income-Generating Projects on Stimulating the Development of Entrepreneurial Activities in Communities: The Holding Hands Case

Abstract

The scope of this study focuses on exploring the use of income-generating community projects to facilitate sustainable community development. The study’s methodology consisted of a qualitative single case embedded design that was used to construct constructivist grounded theory. The Holding Hands income generating community project in the North West Province, South Africa, was used to develop the case study. The case study was constructed in ATLAS.ti on a timeline using a document analysis to develop the themes and codes. The gaps in the data were filled by conducting interviews with the participants of the project. The findings of this study identified for the case of the Holding Hands income-generating community project, the initiation of an income-generating community project stimulated the development of other entrepreneurial activities in the community. The benefits of this project impacted the community in various ways and contributed to sustainable community development. These findings contribute to strengthening the sustainable development of income-generating community projects and maximizing the impact of sustainable community development. Therefore entrepreneurial skills should be a core development focus in the skills development programs included in the development plans of income-generating interventions. These interventions should be designed to identify entrepreneurs, develop their skills, provide funding to them, and the support and mentoring required to develop an environment where entrepreneurship could flourish.