The Multiplier event was organised by The Young Foundation at Inspire Women Oldham, Manchester, on the 24th September 2019, under the title “Sociopolis in Oldham”.
The theme of the event was Women Empowerment and it was hosted by us and Inspire Women who are a local organisation supporting women to make their voices heard and enabling change for and with them. The event was really inspiring and the conversations around social entrepreneurship and young women were encouraging.
The event was following a session facilitated by women joining a local project with Oxfam on women empowerment. We started with some exercises reflecting on the women economic empowerment journey. The project is looking at ways to solve poverty issues by empowering women who suffer it. One way to take forward the ideas they will come up with is social entrepreneurship and definitely capacity building on social entrepreneurship can play a key driver for their empowerment. Women running local social entreprises attended and joined the discussion. promoted joint entrepreneurship activities by running an activity on human-centred design together with a community leader, a teacher and a council representative in a format that prompted collaboration and networking between attendees.
The event invitation was disseminated using The Young Foundation and Inspire Women local networks in Oldham, social media, email and women facilitators networks. Local social entrepreneurs were invited by invitation and Inspire Women supported dissemination.
Three experts attended the session – two community engagement experts and a community leader – contributing to the discussion with young women and participating in the activities with them.
The Young Foundation presented Sociopolis, GATES board game, an example of how to learn about social entrepreneurship playing. Then involved participants – young women and experts – in a discussion and play session allowing the reflection on the value of social when becoming an entrepreneur and enabling networking within the attendees.
