Community Newsletter January 2020

Join the Wellbeing Retreat (30th of Jan – 1st of Feb): Save your last-minute spot!

Unexpectedly, we do have some good news for all Fellows wanting to start 2020 in a mindful way: We can offer 3 free additional spaces for Fellows to join the retreat! 
As accommodation will be directly covered by us, there won't be any hassle regarding the booking. We are looking forward to receiving some last-minute applications to the wonderful opportunity and start the year with self-care and community support.

Find out more HERE or APPLY DIRECTLY!

System Change course - starting soon!

Join to find the most powerful strategies for your system change through Ashoka’s proven methodology. Start is the 31st of January, find more information and apply here. It’s free for Fellows, ASNs and Staff – all other Partners and Change Leaders are cordially invited, too. Deadline of application: 22nd of January 2020.

Find out more and apply until the 22th of January!

System Change: Meet the facilitators!

We are proud to introduce the two facilitators to you:

Giulia Sergi is the co-leader of Ashoka Europe Fellowship and the System Change module. She is also the Fellowship Director at Ashoka Italy, supporting Fellows in their system changing efforts since many years. Being personally engaged in fighting against organized crime, Giulia isn’t only an expert, but also an inspiring example of making change happen in many different areas of life.

Florian Rutsch is a co-leader of the Ashoka Europe Fellowship and of its system change, new leadership, and wellbeing modules as well as the ecosystem initiatives on funding and supporting systems change. He also co-facilitates the development of the newly established Elders Council and Catalyst 2030 initiatives. Having co-founded a global campaign inspiring young people to discover their own power for change, Florian seems to be igniting system changing potential within others, wherever he goes.

System Change Guide for Funders: What Social Entrepreneurs Say Works Best

This new guide "Seven Steps for Funding System Change" by Ashoka UK captures the perspective of social entrepreneurs to offer donors and investors a comprehensive roadmap for navigating the world of system change. It helps funders to maximize their impact by closely aligning with the needs of systemic leaders.

It's our contribution to support an ecosystem for system change and we would like you to be part of it! We have more to come very soon (please see our Ecosystem efforts for more information) and reach out to Florian Rutsch if you have questions or want to contribute!   Stay in touch and download the guide here!

Strengthening Collective Leadership

As we shift to more collective ideas of leadership, we offer 2 co-learning spaces to reflect, innovate and deepen your way of leading:

1. On TEAM-level: The Everyone leads workshop in Berlin (April, 27th – 29th​ 2020) will focus on empowering teams & organizations.

2. The ECOSYSTEM-level: The Retreat for Collective Action (June, 24th – 26th 2020) focuses on how we facilitate multi-stakeholder collaborations for system change.

Save your spot now and apply (it's first come, first serve)!

Update from ECMS

The European Changemaker community got together last November at the European Changemaker Summit (ECMS) in Barcelona – what a wonderful event & momentum!

The Ashoka Europe Fellowship Team facilitated many different sessions there. A big thank you to everyone who participated and contributed with their ideas! And to those who couldn’t make it, please enjoy this video summary that still gives us goose bumps: Video Summary – ECMS

A social finance opportunity for Fellows!

You are an Ashoka Fellow and are searching for a (social) investor? Your pitch-deck is ready, you are truly investment-ready and the only thing that's missing is being connected to investors?

Please reach out to our Social Finance team - they have an opportunity (the ASN Angel Newsletter) to connect you to some of the most impactful social investors in Europe.

Reach out now!

How our elder's wisdom can help our community

Embracing eldership and transition has been our Wellbeing focus this past September – read here about the next steps and the great learnings we took from the past retreat.

This is also to say thank you to our Fellows who contribute(d) to the Elders Retreat and the Elders Council - and to our friends and partners from Steelcase who become the generous sponsors of the Elders Retreat.

Find out more in our Blogpost: “How our elder’s wisdom can help our community”

Doing Democracy over dinner

Democracy is at a crossroads. New research on socents from the Ashoka’s Learning and Action Center reveals 7 strategies you can use to strengthen democracy everyday! The bottom line: We must all do democracy from where we are and include it in our daily lifes. For example: At dinner.

Read here: Doing Democracy over Dinner