Partnership between Elders Council for Social Entrepreneurs and Friendship Bench
We are thrilled to announce a partnership between the Elders Council for Social Entrepreneurs and Friendship Bench, two organisations that value the wisdom of Elders to support their communities.
The Elders Council for Social Entrepreneurs’ mission is to build a global network of social entrepreneurs where Elders support one another and share their wisdom across the social entrepreneur ecosystem.
The Friendship Bench mission is to get people out of depression by creating safe spaces and a sense of belonging in communities to improve mental wellbeing and enhance quality of life. They achieve this by training the elders of the community - Grandmothers - to provide sustainable community-based support.
Together we will offer a ‘Friendship Bench for Social Entrepreneurs’ at the Ashoka Changemaker Summit 2024 in Hamburg, 5-7th September. This partnership elegantly combines the skills and goals of each organisation with Elders of the social entrepreneur community offering support to the conference participants. Those visiting the bench will be able to bring any issues for discussion - from succession to struggles with day to day operations, from financial worries to well-being concerns.
The Elders of our joint Friendship Bench will provide a safe space, a listening ear and support (if wanted) to those sitting beside them.
Further Information:
Friendship Bench
Friendship Bench is non-profit organisation with the mission to get people out of depression by creating safe spaces and a sense of belonging in communities, to enhance mental wellbeing and improve peoples’ quality of life. Guided by our values of empathy and connection, and anchored in over a decade of rigorous research (including a RCT published in the Journal of American Medical Association, JAMA) we have re-imagined the delivery of evidence-based mental healthcare. We train community health workers (CHWs) also known as grandmothers / lay health workers to provide basic Cognitive Behavioural Therapy with an emphasis on Problem Solving Therapy, activity scheduling and peer led group support. The CHWs sit with their clients outdoors, under the trees on wooden park benches in discreet safe spaces in the community. This task shifting approach means we can deliver an effective, affordable and sustainable solution to bridge the mental health treatment gap at a primary care level. To date, Friendship Bench has trained over 2 000 community health workers, seen more than 575 893 clients, established 688 peer support groups and is active in over 288 primary health care settings. Our impact, published in JAMA, showed 80% reduction in depression and suicide ideation, and a 60% improvement in quality of life.
For further details please contact Providence Jongwedzvuku (Media and Communications Manager): providence.jongwe@friendshipbench.io
Elders Council for Social Entrepreneurs
The Elders Council for Social Entrepreneurs is a non-profit organisation, sharing the wisdom of Elder Social Entrepreneurs for the benefit of every generation. We are a global network where elders support one another, and younger social entrepreneurs, to navigate common challenges including succession and transition, ensuring a legacy of sustainable impact and securing financial provision for later life. In order to support social entrepreneurs, the Elders Council for Social Entrepreneurs will soon be launching the Wisdom Bank.
For further details please contact Katelynne Kirk (Communications Officer): katelynne@elderscouncil.net
Ashoka Changemaker Summit 2024
The Changemaker Summit is Ashoka’s largest global gathering of changemakers. Every year, Ashoka brings together their global community of Ashoka Fellows and other changemakers to explore the most pressing issues of our time and together build a society in which everyone can contribute, participate, and actively engage in social change for the good of all.
The agenda includes plenary sessions, round tables, workshops, private meetings and social gatherings. This next Changemaker Summit is the 6th edition of this yearly event, and it will be held on September 5-7th 2024, in partnership with the City of Hamburg in Germany. More information about the Changemaker Summit 2024.
Skoll Foundation Funding
‘As the co-founders of the Elders Council for Social Entrepreneurs we are delighted to announce that we have received a significant grant from the Skoll Foundation.
We formed the Elders Council for Social Entrepreneurs to create a safe, creative place for social entrepreneurs to consider their own succession and transition plans. Succession and transition take many forms and not only involve the social entrepreneur themselves, but also their organisation’s Board, staff, volunteers, donors and the beneficiaries of the organisation. It involves money, planning and above all wellbeing and emotion. By creating this organisation we have opened up a space where the voices of Elders can be heard as Eldership is also about celebrating diversity.
The very welcome support from the Skoll Foundation gives us a clear runway to develop our ambitious plans for the social entrepreneur community. For example, we will deepen our successful global webinar programme and promote our Wisdom Bank - recently launched in a wonderful online celebration of Elders and “Youngers”. In time, the Wisdom Bank is intended as a precious gift of knowledge and wisdom from the whole of the social entrepreneur community to the world. Finally, the funds from the Skoll Foundation will permit us to design and operate a mentoring programme in which Elders provide support to others in the social entrepreneur community.
If you are interested in the Elders Council for Social Entrepreneurs you can find out more (and become a member, it’s free) on our Join Us page.
We offer warm thanks to the Skoll Foundation for their generous support.
Andrea Coleman, Mel Young, Chris Underhill MBE’
Support Through Succession.
Throughout previous webinars we have heard from social entrepreneurs themselves which has provided a wealth of knowledge and insight. For our fifth webinar we were privileged to hear from three speakers who have seen succession in the social enterprise community from different perspectives, as supporters of social entrepreneurs – Dr Francois Bonnici of the Schwab Foundation, Adriana Craciun from the Oak Foundation and Tim Hanstad from the Chandler Foundation. As anyone who has attended one of our webinars know, it’s impossible to convey all the brilliant insights into one blog post so we have given an overview below. We highly recommend watching the webinar on our ‘Engage’ page.
While highlighting that these discussions around succession are not new our first speaker, Dr François Bonnici, took time to give example of just some of the reasons a founder might move on from an organisation, keen to emphasise the positives that can come from them.
In reflecting on his own experience, Francois acknowledged the difficulty of the succession process while also recognising that it can be healthy not only for the individual and the organisation but also for the wider sector. These transitions can present rich opportunities for the founder to take their experience into either another organisation tackling the same issue in a different way, tackling another issue or even bringing their experience into a completely new role such as a systems leader, in government or within the private sector.
An article that Francois found helpful in a transition he went through in his own career was ‘Making Founder Successions Work’ in the Stanford Social Innovation Review which explores the different roles founders can play. It opens up options, leaving space for revising decisions as well as evidence about how this impacts an organisation.
Our second speaker, Adriana Craciun providing invaluable insights into the work of the Oak Foundation, a supporter of and donor to social enterprises. This covered a range of topics including the values of the Foundation and how it promotes capacity building. The importance of partner ownership is a guiding principle of the Oak Foundation, so she also touched on the limitations they impose upon themselves in using their influence as donors.
Among other topics Adriana also explained the practical support the Oak Foundation provide in transition situations and highlighted a recent project which saw them create communities of support for social entrepreneurs, hiring a facilitator and using the Nancy Cline technique to help them discuss issues. A recent evaluation report and an accompanying blog was produced for this project which makes for fascinating reading.
Tim Hanstad rounded off our speakers with keen observations as well as seven lessons he has learned about transitions based on his own experience. He emphasised the huge benefits of planning, from day one, for the inevitable transition which will have to happen one day. These plans benefit the founder, the organisation and, importantly, the people the organisation serves.
The seven lessons covered everything from forward planning, getting critical advice, supporting and making space for the successor, duties of the founder and the boards as well as the importance of creating strong trust and communication channels between the founder and the successor. Tim pointed to the Bridgespan Group article mentioned earlier to support his own observations and his final lesson brought in yet another fascinating dimension as he highlighted the importance of a communications plan for the transition. ‘Get out in front of the story, if you’re not very clear on the story ahead of time people will fill in their own story’. He advised that working with the organisation’s communication team or an external team is key in creating a robust communications plan around the transition.
Three key take-aways from this fascinating webinar were:
While difficult, transition can provide rich opportunities for the founder and for the wider sector. By planning for the transition, the founder has the opportunity to think about what they want to do next.
Advice and mentoring from within and outside the organisation - particularly from those who are willing and able to give informed and difficult feedback - can provide invaluable support to the founder, the board and the successor.
Building capacity within an organisation and creating a support network of fellow social entrepreneurs is key in ensuring better transitions for everyone involved in the process and also may lead to better transition management within the wider sector.
If you have any thoughts on the webinar, have suggestions of what topics you would like discussed or speakers you would like to hear please contact katelynne@elderscouncil.net
What’s Next?
There is a lot of talk about what the world will look like once the global Covid-19 pandemic has been tamed…
Social entrepreneurs have been thrust into the forefront of these discussions.
There is a lot of talk about what the world will look like once the global Covid-19 pandemic has been tamed.
Politicians and the media love their slogans and currently “Build Back Better” is the one which has most exposure. People will put different interpretations on it. Some think we will simply return to the way we were before the pandemic took hold while others believe there is an opportunity for us to change our systems fundamentally. When people look at this in a constructive way, all sorts of possibilities emerge.
Social entrepreneurs have been thrust into the forefront of these discussions. They are innovators and leaders with a proven track record of creating substantial impact to make the world a better place. A new organisation has been established, Catalyst 2030, which is a global network of social entrepreneurs which has the clear aim of helping achieve the United Nations SGDs by 2030. This is a tall order and systemic change is needed if these goals are to be achieved. Social entrepreneurs believe that they have a clear role to play which is why there is so much activity and positive discussion in the sector.
There have been some excellent webinars in our own newly formed organisation, the Elders for Social Entrepreneurs, over the past twelve months which have looked at issues like succession planning and moving on. Most social entrepreneurs dislike the word “retirement” because they are committed to various causes which they hope will make the world a better place. They cannot simply step off the planet. So, what role could they play if they want to “move on” from the organisations which they established whilst still playing a key leadership role in a sector which has lofty ambitions?
This is a question which we will be addressing in future webinars and in our regular Soul Sessions. Should the Elders Council for Social Entrepreneurship coordinate wisdom in the sector which help build platforms to help achieve the ambitions of a newer cadre of social entrepreneurs? We would love to hear your views.