About the Project
Alberta Women Entrepreneurs launched Strengthening Partnerships (SP) in January 2020 to build capacity in the ecosystem supporting women entrepreneurs, and to provide connection opportunities for partner organizations to better support the success of women entrepreneurs through a deeper understanding of issues and needs. Following a Collective Impact Approach model, the individuals and organizations involved in SP share the common agenda of identifying the challenges for women entrepreneurs and solving them using this structured form of collaboration
Introduction
Since sharing the strategic framework and action plans at the Strengthening Partnerships Connect Event in April 2021 and in January 2022, much has been done by the Strengthening Partnerships Key Initiatives work groups and the over 68 partners involved in SP. Through many discussions of working together, we were able to identify key solutions that would enhance our reach and augment our ability to serve the community of women entrepreneurs better.
While part of the journey is now complete, there is a need to reflect on the work done, celebrate achievement, and renew commitment to support a better future. The launch of the Strengthening Partnerships Impact Paper, “Leveraging Economic Opportunities for Women Entrepreneurs in Alberta”, will be shared as a proposed model for change with the calls to action.
Background
Alberta is the first province to take a holistic examination of the entrepreneurship space for women. A collective impact model was chosen because of its proven ability to allow for knowledge sharing amongst partners, increasing the potential for collaboration, and ensuring buy-in and trust. It has also been proven successful at identifying key strategic and collaborative initiatives to pursue for greater impact.
Over 1,100 volunteer hours have been put into arriving at this point and there have been a number of achievements, including:
Developing SP Logic Model to define & track project input, activities, and impact.
Developing SP Collective Impact Framework to identify priority initiatives of impact.
Holding 27 SP sessions with partners and partner organizations across Alberta, representing over 68 organizations, including First Nation and Métis communities, economic development organizations, innovation support organizations, women in leadership organizations, lenders, investors, funders, and other stakeholders. Regions involved in the sessions include Calgary, Edmonton, Grande Prairie, St. Paul, Medicine Hat, and Lethbridge.
Developing the SP Terms of Reference to support the process.
Promoting and advocating the inclusion of organizations that service and reflect underrepresented entrepreneurs (e.g. newcomers to Canada and Indigenous women). This work has resulted in sharing information such as financial supports for women entrepreneurs and other resources, the creation of new partnerships and connections, and collaboration on pathfinding women entrepreneurs to programs.
Creating the AWE “Community Forum” to engage partners and provide knowledge
Five work teams creating five key strategic theme areas for enabling the success of women entrepreneurs, which are being used to set out next steps.
The efforts above were led by the following team leads:
Purposeful Connections led by Jennifer Pragnell, Scotiabank, Joanne Comessotti, Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC), Anita Kemp, Women’s Entrepreneurship Knowledge Hub (WEKH)
Gender-Based Bias Training led by Kari Morton, Business Link; Kathryn Hotte, Prospect Now
Collective Return on Investment led by Heather Braid, MacEwan University, Keltie Gower, Macewan University.
Utilization of Technology led by Bev Latter, AWE, and supported by Lan Tan, TEC Edmonton
Financial Knowledge Empowerment led by Marie-Laure Polydore, Futurepreneur; Abdoulaye Barry, Action for Healthy Communities
The goal remains to build on the collective return on investment. We are looking to continue working collectively to ensure more women's entrepreneurial businesses thrive economically and socially.
Strengthening Partnerships is funded by the Government of Canada through Women and Gender Equality Canada.
