Tag: facilitation

Financial Literacy Hackathon winning teams

12, 13, 19, 20 July 2023

Over the last 5 years, Belle and Co. has been delivering unique and customised innovation workshops for Lifechoice’s Coding Academy students. Twice a year, these important sessions open up the creative potential of young learners who can practically apply their coding skills to solve a problem in their community.

Financial Literacy levels in South Africa

This year, the workshops focused on an important problem prevalent in South Africa today – lack of financial literacy skills (see also our previous hackathon here). According to a 2021 survey conducted by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the level of financial literacy in South Africa is quite low, with only 42% of the adult population being financially literate. Financial literacy is the ability to understand and know how to manage personal finances effectively.

The Hackathon

Taking place over a 2-week period, each student group had to come up with tech-based solutions to topics such as budgeting, savings, investing, credit score and more. Supported by Belle and Co facilitator, Zikhona Madubela, each group was encouraged to use design thinking skills to delve into the problem and come up with “never seen before” solutions. To support them further, the participants were also taken on a journey to explore the fascinating intersection of “Money and Psychology” with an enlightening talk by the guest speaker and financial guru, Olivia Teek.

Image: Zikhona and Olivia.

The participants were not only inspired but also motivated to take control of their financial journeys. A highlight of the hackathon was witnessing the brilliant tech-based solutions that the dynamic participants developed during the intense brainstorming and coding sessions. A total of 10 innovative Financial Literacy “tech-based solutions” were produced, each addressing different aspects of financial education and empowerment.

🏆 The Winning Solutions 🏆

🥇 Group 1: Dollar Sense 📊

The talented minds behind Dollar Sense designed an ingenious budgeting tool that empowers individuals to manage their finances effectively. This solution provides a user-friendly interface and insightful features, ensuring that users can make smart financial decisions and achieve their financial goals with confidence. 🥇

Group 2: Invest Inn 💼

Invest Inn wowed the judges with their investment educational website, providing a comprehensive platform for novices to seasoned investors to enhance their knowledge about the world of investing. With easy-to-understand resources, interactive modules, and expert insights, Invest Inn promises to be a game-changer in nurturing a generation of savvy investors.

Our heartfelt congratulations go out to the winning teams, Dollar Sense and Invest Inn, for their exceptional efforts and well-deserved victories. However, every participant contributed significantly to the success of this hackathon by showcasing their passion for financial literacy and their determination to create meaningful solutions.

A special shoutout to Olivia Teek for sharing her invaluable wisdom on the psychology behind money management, which undoubtedly inspired all the participants to think differently about their financial choices.

Lastly, we extend our gratitude to Life Choices Coding Academy for providing the perfect platform to nurture young talents and foster a culture of innovation and learning. 🙏 We are truly proud of everyone who participated and supported this remarkable event. Together, we are shaping a financially literate future, one brilliant idea at a time. Let’s continue to champion financial literacy and empower individuals to secure their financial well-being.

FinancialLiteracy #EmpoweringYouth #HackathonSuccess #FinancialEducation #MoneyMatters #Investing #Savings #Budgeting #CreditScore #DebtFreeFuture

Ground Up: Local workshop on SE indicators

14 April

As part of the EU Erasmus Plus Programme called “Ground Up: Social Entrepreneurial Ecosystems for Resilient Cities”, Belle and Co. designed and delivered a 1 hour local workshop for Social Enterprises in South Africa. The response was overwhelming with 50 RSVPs streaming in, curious to know more about the project,

The project outcome: A set of indicators to measure the health of the Social Enterprise Ecosystem.
Number of partners countries involved: 11 Partners (North Macedonia, Costa Rica, South Africa, Romania, Bulgaria, Slovenia, Poland, Denmark, Ecuador, Serbia and Peru)
Number of months: 18 month project (Jan 2022 – until July 2023)

A project of this nature is inherently tricky, as it is trying to capture a set of mainly quantitative indicators to measure how well supported the Social Enterprise Ecosystem is in a given local (city, region, nation).

The 4 pillars the project focused on include:

  • Human Capital
  • Funding and Finance
  • Support Systems
  • Quality of Life

The local workshop, held on the 14 April 2023, was to showcase the Social Enterprise Ecosystem Assessment Tool that the SA team had developed so far and the data sources they had managed to find. It was also an opportunity for the ecosystem themselves to validate or dispute the tool and its sources.

WORKSHOP VIDEO

If you missed this session, you can view the whole workshop video here:

Sentebale Women’s Entrepreneurship Programme @GSB

13-17 March 2023

The University of Cape Town’s Graduate School of Business approached Belle and Co. with a unique offer : to help the Solution Space deliver a 5-day Bootcamp for 35 Female Entrepreneurs from Lesotho through their partner, Sentebale.

Sentebale is an NGO founded by Prince Harry, The Duke of Sussex and Prince Seeiso of Lesotho, in 2006 as a response to the needs of children and young people in Lesotho. The name means ‘forget-me-not’ in the Sesotho language, representing a pledge to remember the most vulnerable children in the region.

As part of Sentebale’s 4th pillar of work “Education & Livlihoods”, 35 female entrepreneurs were chosen to attend the Sentebale Women’s Entrepreneurship Programme in Cape Town, at the GSB’s Solution Space. Belle and Co. together with Entreprenerdy, a Norwegian headquartered online business programme, co-delivered a 5-day bootcamp.

The main aim of the bootcamp was two fold:

!) Mentorship: Build a strong cohort of female entrepreneur leaders and mentors to inspire young women in various districts of Lesotho;

2) Business skills: Build professional business skills through exposure to business tools and resources.

The University of Cape Town (UCT) is still the best university in Africa, according to the latest QS World University Rankings.

And home to the Graduate School of Business (GSB) (pictured left),

Belle and Co. assigned two Belle and Co Associates, Thobeka Poswa and Zikhona Madubela, to design and deliver the mentorship programme, while Entreprenerdy co-delivered the business skills component of the bootcamp deploying their online platform and resources. This was a physical face-to face programme over 5 days.

In addition to the rich programme content, 3 guest speakers were also invited to speak on issues related to “Women in business”, “Social Entrepreneurship”. and “Gender-related issues”. We are so grateful for Ntombozuko, Zikhona and Otsile who shared their experience as women in business to speak to some of the issues and struggles faced by female entrepreneurs still today.

Music Crossroads Creative Campus in Malawi

Mchinji, Malawi

20-24 March 2019

Workshop Activity #3  // Dive 3 “Zero to One > 1 to N”

Music Crossroads International runs a Creative Campus annually in Africa that enables local Music Crossroads Academies across Africa (namely  Malawi, Mozambique and Zimbabwe) to focus on a number of modules including:  train-the-trainer of music teachers on curriculum development, audio-engineering training including live music training, instrument building and repair, as well as cultural management training for musicians, students and managers of the various academies.

Belle and Co, was tasked to co-facilitate the 10-day Cultural Management training component of the Creative Campus, and within this devised a 5-day Cultural Entrepreneurship module focusing on social enterprise development and business modelling using various design-thinking techniques and tools.Teams within the workshop came up with various solutions to some of the challenges faced by Academies which includes : Decreasing donor dependency, mitigation of drop out rates at Academies, influencing the accreditation process at a governmental level as well as the challenge of shifting mindsets when it comes to the value of music in the community. All of these activities, projects and solutions were framed within a social enterprise mindset, ensuring that there is a balance between profit and purpose, money and meaning!

The module was developed based on Belle and Co.’s years of work in the creative and cultural industries, including international exposure garnered through the Erasmus+ supported programme called “Dive in Social Entrepreneurship programme” which has been running for the last 2 years with over 12 countries.

 

 

 

Cross-Sectoral Train-the-trainer Programme

National Activity Dive 3 “Zero to One > 1 to N”

On 27 February 2019, a programme funded by the Department of Arts and Culture and co-hosted by the Craft Design Institute and Social Enterprise Academy focused on cross-sectoral capacity development of local and governmental facilitators within the creative social enterprise space.

The training took place in Langa Township at the Guga S’thebe Cultural Centre.

Day 1, led by the Social Enterprise Academy tutors (Belinda Guillot and Belisa Rodrigues), took the participants through the Academy’s “Intro to Leadership” module as well as through its unique learning methodology of peer-led exchange.

The participants evaluated the session, and an overwhelming majority stated that the tools, methods and learning-led approach helped them understand the content better, and to apply it in their own contexts, and that they were also better equipped to help others to learn.

The programme extends over 7 days:

Day 1: Intro to Leadership (SEA)

Day 2: Business Assessment and Business Vision (CDI)

Day 3: Business Basics (CDI)

Day 4: Creativity in Business (CDI)

Day 5: Social Enterprise and other forms of business (SEA)

Day 6: Facilitation Skills (SEA)

Day 7: Facilitation Skills (SEA)

 

Cultural Entrepreneurship Bootcamp 2018

The Cultural Entrepreneurship Bootcamp was held over 4 days from 6-9 November 2018 at Hub@Goethe and was facilitated by Belisa Rodrigues of Belle and Co. and Russel Hlongwane.

The Goethe-Institut Johannesburg offers entrepreneurs a space to grow their creative businesses, this space is located within the Goethe Library-Gamebox-Hub complex.  Part of the Hub programme offering is a four-day intensive Cultural Entrepreneurship Bootcamp facilitated by local South African creative and cultural experts. This offer was extended to a select number of entrepreneurs active in the creative and cultural field.

The purpose was to connect fellow start-ups and entrepreneurs, like the ones from Hub@Goethe with others operating within the South African creative and cultural space, in order to share new ideas, solutions and form key industry collaborations.

The facilitators took the 20 participants through a design thinking process, where teams had to work on real ideas and challenges. The below 4 challenges were eventually elected and worked on:

✅HMW connect small holder farmers to global markets?; ✅ HMW build copyright into Indigenous Knowledge forms?; ✅HMW enabling emerging visual artists to access markets?; ✅ HMW build an alternative free ISP using “expired data”?

Some elements covered included:

  • Synthesizing business ideas after finding out more about customer needs
  • Defining your offering, your market and the resources you need
  • Refining your Value Proposition for your audiences and customers
  • Prototyping your product or service
  • Financing models in the creative & cultural sectors in South Africa
  • Practicing to pitch and present your findings

Besides learning about 11 different business models and using role play to demonstrate these, the most important part of the programme was pitching and prototyping presented on the last day. There was huge relief and disbelief from the groups on how much can be achieved in 4 days after intense focused energy and team work!

Prototypes ranged from giant cellphone application to service role play to web platform and even an online gallery. Critical peer feedback on pitch delivery, style and storytelling was also shared.

Below a few key moments. Thank you to everyone who brought their entire person into the process. We hope you have your exit strategy sorted 😉

 

Thank you to Goethe-Institut Johannesburg, Belle & Co. and @Russel Hlongwane for the time, effort and support in holding space, facilitating process and providing guidance and at times input.

See full programme attached.