Launching group coaching program contributing to gender equality

GLOW4equality, a social business start-up founded in 2019, now launch our six-month coaching program, free of charge for women involved in gender equality issues. The mission is clear: to empower women and girls around the world and contribute to gender equality, goal 5 of the UNs Sustainable Development Goals.

Swedish Communications Strategist Sara Carlemår, Entrepreneur since 2005 and Social Entrepreneur since 2019 founded GLOW4equality to use her entrepreneurship, experiences and skills in a deeper meaning.

- I’ve always had a deep engagement in women’s and children’s rights, engaging in people, through voluntary commitments and managing different projects through the years.  A trip to Iran in 2017 affected me deeply and became "My moment of change".The experience left me with a feeling of frustration and after some time of reflection and trough a coaching process, the pieces of the puzzle fell into place. I wanted to contribute to gender equality globally through my entrepreneurship and through coaching, Sara tells us.

The core offering is professional group coaching online for women that are involved in gender equality and passionate about making a change. Through a structured, six-month program of coaching, each woman enhances her own ability and credibility to make a bigger impact and help more women. While being coached in a group focused on a shared goal, each participant identifies what she needs to do to drive change from where she is. The coaching program is worth about EUR 3,000 for each participant however for the women attending the coaching program it is free of charge thanks to financing in different ways.

- Enabling professional coaching free of charge for the target group is one of the corner stones, Sara explains. GLOW4equality is financed by a combination of public funding and CSR Partners, will soon open up for crowdfunding and look for financing in the Philanthropy sector. Over a short period of time, a dozen companies have signed up as partners and that shows that businesses are open minded to partnering with Social Entrepreneurs and opened to activate their work for the SDGs, Sara says.

The coaching program is for women who are in some way involved in gender equality issues. To take an example linked to SDG goal 5 and target 5.3 Eliminate forced marriages and genital mutilation (FGM) the women within one coach group could be:

  • An experienced midwife in her professional role feels frustrated with meeting many women who have been cut and wants to do something more in her role but don't know how.
  • A "changemaker" who works actively in the field within an organization, has a method but wants to reach more people.
  • A young committed woman who, with her own experience of FGM and strong drive, want to and have the possibility to influence others as a social influencer.
  • A driven school nurse who meets both parents and children. Looking for knowledge and methods to work preventively and to catch children who are at risk of genital mutilation, or who already have had the procedure.

Since the start in April 2019 the focus has been on building the concept, defining the coaching program, looking for and securing public funding, opening op for CSR partners, communicating and networking to start building the brand and preparing for the launch. First out is a pilot study with three coaching groups and the application opened up October 2020.

- Working dedicated and with a long-term plan I am delighted by the response so far and I am SO excited to launch the coaching program, Sara describes. We are looking for six women for each coaching group. The application is open, we review the applications on an ongoing basis and will set the start date putting the coaching groups together.

 

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