Late March, the 2016 edition of the Ashoka Impact program in Belgium kicked off in Brussels. During the coming three months, nine social entrepreneurs will be coached and supported by Ashoka and Accenture, a strategic partner of Ashoka globally, to further professionalize their activities and re-think their business plans in order to accelerate their impact. This year’s edition focuses on tackling unemployment, which is also the strategic focus of Accenture’s Skills to Succeed program that has so far equipped 1,2 million people around the world with the skills to enter employment or start a business.
Socially oriented business plan
The Impact program breaks down siloes by connecting social entrepreneurs with the world of business. On top of three months coaching, the selected organizations attend collective workshops hosted by experts to further refine their scale-up strategy. Based on Ashoka’s , they learn about impact measurement, organizational and economic models and many other crucial topics around growing a successful social enterprise.
More than just an accelerator program, Ashoka Impact is a unique opportunity for high potential social entrepreneurs to meet, exchange and learn from each other. It is also a platform for businesses and social entrepreneurs to collaborate and re-think the employment ecosystem together in order to have an even greater social impact. As today’s societal challenges are so complex, it requires multiple perspectives and collaboration across sectors to create innovative, large-scale and lasting solutions.
To be selected for the Impact program, the Belgian social entrepreneurs had to answer four main criteria:
- Be innovative and truly system changing
- Have proven social impact and potential to scale-up
- Have a vision about their development strategy
- Be highly motivated and believe in the benefits of the whole program
Meet the nine Ashoka Impact 2016 social entrepreneurs and discover the game changing work they are doing!
Founder: Marie-Laure Jonet
DiversiCom promotes diversity in the workplace and facilitates the employment of people with disabilities on the basis of their skills by coaching the disabled jobseeker and advising employers.
Founder: Geertui Serneels
Solentra provides support to cope with the psychosocial impact of migration through culturally sensitive career counseling.
Founder: Juan D. Mendieta and Pedro Favuzzi
Kiron CodeSchool facilitates integration on the labor market by training refugees to become successful software developers.
Founder: Koen Deweer and Miriam Hemelsoet
LetsCo! organizes practical trainings for adults with intellectual disabilities and enables them to find a job in a normal working environment.
Founder: Emilie Schmitt and Pauline Voldoire
Activ’Action aims to reduce the psycho-sociological risks linked to unemployment and to equip the unemployed with the skills they need to enter the labor market.
Founder: Nicolas Crochet, Patrick Somerhausen and Marc Verhaeren
Funds For Good encourages the reintegration of people in precarious situations by giving them access to the resources they need to become entrepreneurs: funding and coaching.
Founder: Samuel Hubaux and Marie Desbarax
Nos Oignons creates partnerships between mental health institutions and small-scale agricultural businesses to welcome patients in a collaborative and professional environment that accelerates recovery.
Founders: Pierre-Julien Bosser and Regis Pradal
InternsGoPro boosts youth integration on the labor market by promoting high quality internships and rewarding employers with the European Label for the Best Internships.
Founder: Benjamin Gérard
Rising Youth supports young refugees and migrants through sports, teaching them rope and climbing techniques they can then use to find employment in specific industries (telecom, building maintenance…).
More info on the Ashoka Impact 2016 program on www.ashokaimpact.be/
About Accenture Skills To Succeed program
Together with our strategic partners, Accenture will equip more than 3 million people with the skills to get a job or build a business by the end of fiscal 2020 through its Skills to Succeed initiative. As a part of this, the company will increase its focus on the successful transition of individuals from skill-building programs to sustainable jobs and businesses, and bring together more organizations across sectors to create large scale, lasting solutions aimed at closing global unemployment gaps. Since fiscal 2011, Accenture worldwide has equipped more than 1 million people with workplace and entrepreneurial skills. In Belgium and Luxemburg, we developed 10 strategic partnerships. In fiscal 2015 this resulted in 13 pro bono projects, around 1000 man days of Accenture consultancy, and 25% of Accenture people involved in the Skills to Succeed initiatives impacting 10 000 beneficiaries.
