ACCELERATING SOLUTIONS, 1st April 2019

Hellotrepreneurs have proven, impactful solutions around migration in areas such as labor market integration, education, intercultural dialogue, housing and health. Often, these social entrepreneurs have found solutions that could be readily applied in many other countries instead of reinventing the wheel elsewhere.  

For more than three decades Ashoka has developed and refined many platforms and methodologies to support social entrepreneurs to exponentially scale their impact. The Hello Europe Accelerator brings together a collection of these tools in a 3 stage process which aims to cultivate demand and strategy for proven solutions around migration and integration to flourish in specific national and local context.

Stage 1: Searching & Sourcing

During this stage, a needs assessment is conducted to identify the most critical problems across the region and the antidote solutions are mapped and selected. Consultations with the entrepreneurs take place to pinpoint what element of their work is being scaled and a scaling plan is established. Co-creation teams with relevant and key stakeholders are built around each entrepreneur and solution.

Stage 2: Presenting & Matching

During this stage, the solutions are matched with local potential scaling partners; either implementors or support organisations. During a multi day festival, the entrepreneurs present their solutions, challenging the negative migration narrative and reframing migration for society as a system of citizen-led innovations and changemakers.

Stage 3: Support Acceleration

During this stage, a bespoke support programme is designed for each solution which depending on the specific needs, may include mentoring and coaching, networks and connections, strategy design, financial modelling, capacity building, marketing etc. Each entrepreneur is given access to an innovation fund providing the much needed finance to implement their solution.