Transforming Gender Inequity into Sustainable Social Impact
The EQUALS-EU project offers strategic advice and guidance to the winners of its hackathons and innovation camps to catalyse commercial growth and social impact for women-led start-ups. The project initiates, oversees, and concludes a program focused on professional development mentorship and training to advance social entrepreneurship.
To achieve this, EQUALS-EU provides business development mentorship and training work placements, co-innovate two Gender Equity Tools for Digital Inclusion (Sustainable Social Impact Model and a Value Creation Model Canvas) and, finally, create and spin-off a network dedicated to advancing gender equity in social innovation and entrepreneurship.
A REPOSITORY OF TRAINING MATERIALS
The EQUALS-EU consortium, in its final year, works on the development of a six-month incubator and work placement program for the winning teams from hackathons and innovation camps organized during the first two years of the project.
EQUALS-EU aims to provide business development mentorship and training to form new start-ups led by women. A Repository of training materials is prepared to provide the teams with business development mentorship and training on product and service design, strategic priorities, and potential for value creation, commercialization, business leadership, strategic management social innovation and entrepreneurship.
A PROFESSIONAL NETWORK BUSINESS PLAN
The final aim of the project is the establishment of a professional network for women and girls focused on gender equity in social innovation and entrepreneurship in Europe. The network will expand and build off the EQUALS Global Hub and seven other European networks while differentiating itself through its focus on relevant workstreams for Europe including social innovation and entrepreneurship, STEM and power skills, and women’s leadership in the ICT sector.
Value Creation Model Canvas will be used to develop an initial business plan and value creation model including potential thematic focal areas for each of the network’s centres. After the network have been established, members of the advisory bodies of EQUALS-EU, the winning teams from hackathons and innovation camps and all the participants from the hackathons and innovation camps will, based on their interests, be invited to join the network. The network and its centres will ensure the ongoing sustainability, growth, and visibility of EQUALS-EU.
A SUSTAINABLE SOCIAL IMPACT MODEL AND VALUE CREATION MODEL CANVAS
The results from hackathons and innovation camps compiled in the Roadmap for Gender Equity Tools and the outputs from former FP7 and Horizon 2020 projects will be used to co-innovate two Gender Equity Tools for Digital Inclusion including a Sustainable Social Impact Model and a Value Creation Model Canvas.
These gender equity tools will differ from existing models, frameworks and other toolkits by focusing specifically on the key themes of EQUALS-EU – gender equity, intersectionality, inclusive design, and social innovation and entrepreneurship.
Check out the presentation of the tools here and download the worksheets here.
If you like to learn how to use the tools, then we invite you to go through our Instruction Manual.