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Initiative & Challenges
Initiatives and Challenges is SOSF’s strategic and innovative intervention for its programs to ensure the sustainability of the same. It is responsible for drawing a delicate balance between the programs and institutionalization through data and advocacy while working with the relevant stakeholders (partners) to embed and institutionalize SOSF programmatic interventions. The SOSF Initiatives & Challenges hinge on three core focus: Innovation, Institutionalization, and Partnerships
SOSF Lead4Change Innovators Initiative
Solve the greatest challenges of our time across Africa as great innovators
PAST PITCH EVENT
Check Out Our 2022 Lead4Change Innovators Initiative Pitch Event. Click “Read More Here” Below:
If you had the training, funding, mentoring & information to lead change in your community,
what problem will you solve?
What is the SOSF Lead4Change Innovators Initiative?
The Lead4Change Innovators is a biennial initiative led by Skills Outside School Foundation (SOSF) where exceptional innovators globally converge to solve the greatest challenges of our time on the African continent, make valuable connections and gain the skills to deliver sustainable impact in their communities.
Our challenges cannot be solved only by the public, private or non-profit sectors. We must all collectively act and particularly so as individual innovators and socially conscious corporates. Let’s be part of the solution.
Individuals globally can join as changemakers, mentors, trainers and investors.
We all need to be inspired to “act” – we must “do something”.
“Every little helps”
-Tesco, British Multinational Groceries & General Merchandise
Corporates globally can join as investors, resource providers and host organizations for staff to volunteer as change makers, mentors and trainers.
“Corporates must focus on the social effects of the businesses they run. CSR should be more than donations and give outs. It should be about consciously integrating social considerations into our business models to deliver profitable and sustainable socially conscious businesses”
-SKills Outside School Foundation (SOSF)
About Skills Outside School Foundation
Skills Outside School Foundation is the leading pan-African education, entrepreneurship (social & commercial), and employability organization impacting over 89,605,152 youth and adults across the African continent and globally. SOSF has partnered with over 150 international and local partners to deliver impact in 7 countries including Nigeria, Ghana, South Africa, India, Kenya, Macedonia, and Brazil over the last 8 years.
Hear from the Skills Outside School Foundation Board Chair & Advisory Board Member Below
We Are Here to Enable You
Solve the greatest challenges of our time across Africa today
Register Now for The 2023/2024 SOSF Lead4Change Innovators Initiative
Lead4Change is an open call to change-makers, entrepreneurs, educationists, professionals and community-based initiatives to share with the world solutions they have developed to adapt their projects and programs in education, entrepreneurship and employability sector
Participants share the greatest challenges in their communities and proposed solutions. SOSF screens to select the top submissions for participation in a series of Lead4Change masterclasses to enable scale of initiatives and projects.
The top participants who decide to procede to set up social enterprises are provided social entrepreneurship, life skills training, funding and mentorship led by SOSF in partnership with Copenhagen Business School.
The Copenhagen Business School is the leading public university situated in Copenhagen, Denmark and is considered one of the most prestigious business schools in Western Europe and the world. It’s Social Entrepreneurship Course has over 14,726 enrolled students.
Select Social Change Projects by SOSF Ambassadors
Through the SOSF Bridge program where we work with disadvantaged youth in state secondary schools on Life; Career; Academic; Technical, Vocational and Enterprise Skills Development, our ambassadors or alumni have deployed highly impactful businesses and social change projects including;
Online platform with Q&A for senior secondary students on difficult subjects
Abuja Entertainment Hub, an FCT events planning platform
Silent Stars that supports youths with hearing disabilities with sign language training
Public speaking and confidence skills training for youth church members
Membership of the ECOWAS Youth Parliament
African Community Changers, a social enterprise that identifies societal issues and provide solutions
Evolve Nigeria, which seeks to get young Nigerians to work out solutions to social problems visit their Instagram page Here
Star Farm and Oil Enterprise known for its natural and quality produce such as Star Palm Oil, Ginger, Honey, Cocoa & Mellon etc. and so many other exciting projects. Visit Star Farms & Oil Enterprise Facebook page Here.
Objectives of SOSF Lead4Change Innovators Initiative
Innovation
Promote creativity and innovation amongst change-makers as individuals and corporates
Funding
Connect change-makers with funding and other resources for scale and implementation
Networking
Connect change-makers to collaborate for success; connect trainers, mentors, investors and corporates to provide tools and resources for scalable and sustainable action
Mentorship & Resources
Access to mentoring other resources to transform audacious ideas into scalable and sustainable projects and ventures
Sustainable Impact
Promote innovations that drive the sustainable development goals to spur growth and development across communities
Raise Awareness
Draw attention and raise profile of individual and corporate change-makers as they lead change in their various spheres of influence across multiple sectors
The SOSF Lead4Change Innovators Experience
- Call for problems and solutions: November – December 2023 (11:59 pm WAT)
- Curation, screening, and analysis of problems and solutions: on a rolling basis January – February 2024
- Collation and submission of top solutions to the greatest problems: February – April 2024
- Selected innovators will participate in our Lead4Change masterclasses to equip them to implement or scale their solutions as projects or enterprises.
- The Masterclasses will cover building a entrepreneurship mindset; communicating, leading, launching, implementing and sustaining solutions; building and sustaining partnerships for solutions 16 – 30 April 2024
- Following conclusion of the masterclasses, participants decide to join one of 2 Tracks below:
Basic Lead4Change (Track 1)
This is for social change project innovators – I.e. those who prefer to execute small scale and short term social change projects e.g. mentoring for 50 girls in 1 community for 1 year; provision of free antenatal services using a mobile healthcare centre for 2 months in a local community; teaching 2 struggling students mathematics in school
Advanced Lead4Change (Track 2)
This is for social entrepreneur who seek to build long term social enterprises around their solutions i.e. for profit businesses that solve a social problem e.g. low cost schooling for students in the riverine area; blood bank supply service to hospitals that are hard to reach in distant communities; low cost fortified yoghurt targeting low income mothers etc.
Participants select one of 2 Tracks: The Basic Lead4Change (Track 1) for Social Changemakers with short term social change projects
OR
The Advanced Lead4Change (Track 2) for Social Entrepreneurs for long term social enterprises
Participants finalize their social change projects and are enrolled into Basic Lead4Change for ongoing support towards effective implementation of social change projects.
Participants will apply learning from the Lead4Change masterclasses to implement their solutions as social change projects over a 2 month period from 5 May – 30 June.
Participants will be provided with ongoing support inclouding access to templates, resources, marketing support for success of their implementation of their social change projects.
Participants must submit a report no later than 30 June 2022 showcasing the outcome of their project implementation for consideration by the Lead4Change selection committee.
Participants must submit a report no later than 30 June 2022 showcasing the outcome of their project implementation for consideration by the Lead4Change selection committee.
Participants must submit a report no later than 30 June 2024 showcasing the outcome of their project implementation for consideration by the Lead4Change selection committee.
All participants that complete the Lead4Change masterclasses and submit their report will graduate from the Lead4Change Innovators Track 1.
Track 1 Graduates receive letters of commendation, certificates of completion, badge of honour for placement on their CV or website, free CV and cover letter review, 2 X 1 hour mentoring session with the Chair, SOSF, Halima Ibrahim Abba. Graduates also join the Lead4Change Innovators alumni network for continuous information sharing, networking, access to life skills tools, and other rich professional and personal development resources.
Graduates are encouraged to continue implementation of their innovative projects post graduation and can feedback on their progress on the network.
Prizes and challenges will be organized from time to time.
Participants can opt for the Advanced Lead4Change if post the masterclasses they prefer to run social enterprises. The top 5 participants will be selected from all applications by the Selection Committee: 1 May – 15 May
Advanced Lead4Change comprises of:
- Orientation
- Social Entrepreneurship MOOC with the Copenhagen Business School
- Lead4Change Innovators Hub by SKills Outside School Foundation and Partners to access training on Strategic Planning and Execution; Strategic Leadership and Teamwork; Communicating your vision; and Networking; and mentorship for social enterprise development and implementation.
All participants will be given access to the relevant information through an orientation session on 15 May.
Participants take the Social Entrepreneurship MOOC by Copenhagen Business School for a minimum of 3 months and a maximum of 4 months (1 June – 30 September 2024). The output of the course is the completion of a social enterprise business plan as a capstone project. Further information is provided here: https://www.coursera.org/specializations/social-entrepreneurship-cbs
Following successful completion of the Social Entrepreneurship MOOC, all successful participants will be enrolled on to the Advanced Lead4Change Hub.
The Hub provides a platform for the implementation of the business plan of the social enterprise.
This is through training sessions on Strategic Planning and Execution; Strategic Leadership and Teamwork; Communicating your vision; and Networking held virtually through zoom on 8th, 15, 22nd and 29 October 2024.
The Hub is also a community for collaboration and networking purposes by all social entrepreneurs as well as a platform for mentors to engage with social entrepreneurs.
Mentors will be assigned at the end of the social entrepreneurship mooc course completion.
Participants will be implementing their social enterprises as they are undergoing training and mentoring.
All participants that complete the Lead4Change are expected to work through, fine tune and update their final business plans for the social enterprises and implementation plan based on the training and mentoring from the Lead4Change Innovators Hub.
Participants are also expected to be conducting preliminary activities to implement the business plan so as to have market data to submit to the Graduation Ceremony, Awards and Pitch Event.
Ongoing support and resources will be available for continual use by the participants.
All participants that complete the Lead4Change are expected to submit their final business plans for the social enterprises and implementation plan with evidence of preliminary implementation activities completed to the Advanced Lead4Change Innovators judges for consideration to participate in the Pitch, Graduation and Award Ceremony.
All participants of the Advanced Lead4Change that have reached completion will graduate. Selected participants will pitch their business plans for awards and funding. Once all participants have pitched, no more than 5 minutes for the presentation and 5 minutes for Q&A, the top 3 winners will be selected.
The prizes are:
First prize: $1,000
Second prize: $500
Third prize: $300
All other Graduates receive letters of commendation, certificates of completion, badge of honour for placement on their CV or website, free CV and cover letter review, 2 x 1 hour mentoring session with the Chair, SOSF, Halima Ibrahim Abba.
Graduates also join the Lead4Change Innovators alumni network for continuous information sharing, networking, access to life skills tools, and other rich professional and personal development resources.
Graduates are encouraged to continue implementation of their innovative projects post graduation and can feedback on their progress on the network.
Prizes and challenges will be organized from time to time
Prizes & Benefits
Watch The Maiden Edition of Our Lead4Change Masterclass Held in December 2021 Below
The Maiden Edition of Our Lead4Change Masterclass Held in December 2021
The masterclass is geared towards a mindset change in the lives of individuals to inspire them to be socially conscious and impact driven, understanding the key nuggets of successful social entrepreneurship”.
Watch our Masterclass on “Building an Entrepreneurship Mindset” with Fatima Aliu
The SOSF Lead4Change masterclasses is designed to equip participants with requisite knowledge and skills to implement or scale their solutions as projects or enterprises.
Watch our 2nd Masterclass With Halima Ibrahim Abba, Board Chair, Skills Outside School Foundation
Topic: Communicating, Leading, Launching, Implementing & Sustaining Solutions.
Watch Third Session on Building & Sustaining Partnerships with Kingsley Ime
Fast foward to minute 24 for audio
Meet The Final 2022/2023 Lead4Change Participant
Quick Links
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