Strategic Business Development Consultant – Preparatory Phase for Step Together's From Skill to Sustainability Project

About Step Together

Step Together is a non-profit educational institution in Lebanon dedicated to the inclusion and empowerment of children, youth, and adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities of all kinds (including emotional and behavioral disorders, as well as people on the autism spectrum). For over two decades, the organization and its educational community has provided individualized learning programs, therapeutic support, and skill-building activities that enable people with special needs to grow with dignity, purpose, and independence.

About the Assignment

A cornerstone of Step Together’s work is its vocational training program, which equips young adults with practical, transferable skills to support more autonomous lives. However, Step Together’s vocational units remain largely educational, with limited production capacity and no sustained revenue model. As Lebanon’s overlapping social and economic crises persist, the organization —like many local institutions—is facing growing financial pressure. 

This situation calls for urgent and strategic transformation. Step Together works with young adults who not only possess creativity and skills, but also a strong desire to contribute meaningfully to their communities. Yet without the infrastructure or investment to scale existing vocational units into viable employment opportunities, these learners face a dead-end. The current workshops, while valuable, remain limited in scope and do not translate into real jobs or income. This represents a missed opportunity—for our students, their families, and society at large. Without access to employment, adults with special needs are denied financial independence and the chance to experience purpose, pride, and social inclusion.

At the same time, the sustainability of Step Together itself is at risk. Without new, reliable sources of income, the kindergarten section, the school section and the vocational section, may no longer be able to provide the inclusive services it has championed for over 20 years.

To address these urgent and interconnected challenges, Step Together proposes to expand and transform its vocational training program into a fully operational social enterprise. This initiative aims to create meaningful, paid employment opportunities for young adults with special needs who come from disadvantaged families (both within and outside the community school) while generating income to support the different programs’ operations and ensure long-term sustainability. It offers a practical, empowering response to two critical needs: the right to work for people with special needs, and the survival of an institution rooted in inclusion, dignity, and human potential.

To realize this vision, a preparatory phase (or start-up phase) is required to lay the necessary groundwork for the development and implementation of a multi-year program that will pursue the Overall Objective of increasing access to viable employment opportunities for adults with special needs  by strengthening Step Together’s existing vocational training program and developing a fully operational, income-generating social enterprise related to gardening and cheese making, baking and food production as well as in natural toy production. 

This preparatory start-up phase is the target of this consultancy assignment that shall support Step Together in strengthening and formalizing the vocational training program as a skill development program to increase the employability of adults with special needs (O1); expanding and professionalizing vocational production to create dignified employment opportunities for young adults with special needs (O2); and building a strong brand and sales ecosystem to generate income and increase the visibility of inclusive employment (O3).

Consultancy Summary

The objective of this start-up phase is to conduct a comprehensive assessment and planning of the operationalisation process that should equip Step Together and its partners with the strategic, technical, and operational foundations required for the full-scale project.
This preparatory phase will be implemented over a period of 4 months, and will follow a structured, participatory, and phased approach to ensure relevance, quality, and alignment with Step Together’s vision and operational realities. The overall aim is to generate robust, evidence-based deliverables that can guide both the donor’s investment decision and Step Together’s institutional development toward an inclusive, sustainable social enterprise model.
The process will be led in two main steps:

Step 1 – Assessment and Diagnosis: This initial phase will focus on understanding the current state of Step Together’s operations, identifying strengths and gaps, and assessing the institutional foundation required to support a transition into social enterprise. Through site visits, staff and stakeholder interviews, policy regulations and procedures reviews, and operational mapping, the consultant will conduct a comprehensive needs, structure, and capacity assessment (Deliverable 1). This will feed into the feasibility study and risk analysis (see Deliverable 2 and 3 below), with the aim of understanding not only whether scaling is possible, but under what conditions and with what risks.

○   Deliverable 1 - Comprehensive Needs, Structure, and Capacity Assessment: This foundational activity will provide a thorough internal diagnostic of Step Together’s organizational readiness to scale its vocational training program into a sustainable, inclusive social enterprise. The assessment will focus on internal systems, human resources, infrastructure, and institutional capacities, identifying the changes and reinforcements needed to support a future phase of growth and production.

○    Deliverable 2 - Feasibility Study: Building on the findings of Deliverable 1, a feasibility study will be developed and will assess whether scaling Step Together’s vocational training program into an inclusive, production-based social enterprise is viable and sustainable. While Deliverable 1 focuses on internal readiness, the present Deliverable will evaluate the external business case—exploring market potential, regulatory feasibility, and the operational and financial foundations required for scale. The feasibility study should notably assess the viability of the following production units:
■    Farming: Vegetables, Herbs, Greenhouses
■    Food processing:
    ●    Eggs (chicken coops)
    ●    Prepared frozen food
    ●    Bakery
    ●    Cheese Making
    ●    Mouneh
■    Soap making
■    Aromatics: Spices, Teas, Herbal infusions
■    Pedagogical Toys (fabrication of wooden toys)

○    Deliverable 3 - Risk Analysis: This activity will deliver a comprehensive risk analysis to anticipate, assess, and prepare for potential challenges associated with transforming Step Together’s vocational training into a functioning, income-generating social enterprise. Building on insights from Activities 1 and 2, the analysis will identify and categorize risks across five dimensions: financial, institutional, regulatory, operational, and social. Each risk will be matched with a tailored mitigation and contingency plan, offering Step Together and its partners the tools needed to manage uncertainty proactively. The final deliverable will serve as a strategic safeguard, helping ensure the responsible and sustainable implementation of the larger transformation.

Step 2 – Design and Operational Planning: Building on the diagnostic work above, the second phase of the Consultancy will focus on defining how Step Together could grow into a viable social enterprise. This includes designing a phased business model and plan, preparing financial scenarios, and outlining the institutional arrangements and processes required for inclusive production and employment. A tailored capacity development plan will be developed to respond to the gaps identified in the previous phase, ensuring that the organization is prepared to absorb and sustain future growth.

○    Deliverable 4 - Business Model and Plan: Based on the insights generated through the needs assessment, feasibility study, and risk analysis, this activity will develop a robust and actionable business model for Step Together’s inclusive social enterprise. The phased business plan will define the enterprise’s operational structure, governance arrangements, value proposition, target markets, cost and revenue streams, and mechanisms for social impact measurement. The plan will integrate institutional, operational, and financial components—ensuring alignment between mission-driven objectives and business viability.

○    Deliverable 5 - Capacity Development Plan: To enable Step Together’s successful transition into a sustainable, inclusive social enterprise, this Deliverable 5 will focus on strengthening both the organizational structure and the internal capacities (operational and technical) required to support the shift. 

○    Deliverable 6 - Implementation Blueprint and Transition Plan: Building on the full set of findings and strategic recommendations developed through the above Steps and Deliverables, this final component will consolidate all insights into a clear, actionable implementation blueprint. This document will serve as the foundational roadmap for Step Together’s transition into a production-based social enterprise, providing sequencing, timelines, institutional responsibilities, and resource needs for each phase of the shift.

The process will be led by a dedicated consultant or consultancy firm with proven experience in social enterprise development, strategic planning, and inclusive business models. The consultant will work in close coordination with Step Together’s leadership and operational teams. A reference group, including representatives from the donor, Step Together, and relevant experts (e.g. disability inclusion, inclusion index (DEI)  universal design in employment, vocational training, market access), may be established to provide strategic oversight and ensure alignment across stakeholders.

Timeline
The consultancy will begin in September 2025 and will be completed by December 2025.