It was Equal Pay Day on 20th November, the date that marks where women effectively stop being paid due to the gender pay gap in the UK, and we’re pleased to announce that Jiselle Steele, Senior Project Lead at _SocialStarters has been awarded a Covid-19 Action Fund grant by the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust to help redress the balance.
The Covid-19 Action Fund grant will be used to design and deliver an exciting, new enterprise support programme for black and minority ethnic female social entrepreneurs who have been most affected by the pandemic and are tackling structural inequality through their work, aligning with our three new missions for 2021: Inequality, Economic Crisis and Climate Change.
At a time when radical solutions are needed to overcome the social and economic impact of Covid-19, and a recent World Economic Forum study showed that it will take 257 years to close the economic gender gap, it is vital that the groups and communities most impacted are equipped with the tools to lead their own recovery.
Over the next 9 months, we will co-design and launch a programme that aims to provide UK female social entrepreneurs with the support and resources to overcome their business challenges, access finance, and boost their impact. By working with black and minority ethnic female social entrepreneurs, we hope to create lasting systemic change, which helps to address the root causes of gender and racial inequality. We are committed to developing a collaborative and impactful programme and are delighted to have the support of the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust Covid-19 Action Fund to deliver this important work.
As we embark on the journey to deliver this ambitious project, we would love to engage with organisations, corporates and networks that resonate with our mission to tackle gender and racial inequality in the UK, and would like to explore potential collaborations and partnerships. We are also very keen to connect with female social entrepreneurs, and individuals affected by these issues, who would be interested in participating or helping to deliver the programme.
To learn more about the programme and find out how you could be involved as a partner, mentor, volunteer or participant, please contact jiselle@socialstarters.org or sign up to our newsletter for future updates here.
_SocialStarters Blog 