Fundación Ana Bella

Promoters:

Ana Bella Estevez, Fundación Ana Bella.

Country:

Spain

The School for Women’s Empowerment is a vocational training school that helps female victims of gender-based violence get back to work. While providing courses in products and sales, it helps participants build self-estem and social empowerment.

What solution does the innovation propose?

The School aims to empower participants in order to regain self-confidence and get back on their feet after the separation process. It helps them recover their personal dignity and potential as effective workers by leveraging their strengths and capabilities. The programmes include professional training, individual coaching and job insertion opportunities. Through partnerships with companies such as Danone, with which the Foundation has worked since 2011, women are employed as product promoters, known as Brand Ambassadors.

Recognitions

Innovation Social Vision Awards, Berlin (2014). Best co-creation project with social and economic impact in Europe (Ashoka Changemaker - Zermatt Summit, 2014). Ana Bella Estevez is an Ashoka fellow (2010).

Impact evidence

Outputs

Over 5,000 women have spoken out and overcome violence with the help of the Foundation.
More than 300 media and public appearances of survivors.
Over 1,100 survivor women have been trained to get back to work.

Outcomes

By December 2015, 632 women had been hired in valuable jobs as Brand Ambassadors.
They have contributed to the economic and social growth of companies such as Danone by decreasing staff turnover from 63% to 2.25% and reducing absenteeism from 40% to 2%.

Sources

Data collected by the organisation and Danone (2016).

How does it work?

The School provides empowerment and inspiration workshops where women speak up and overcome their state as victims, to move towards being active drivers of change, as well as securing a route into a socially valued job. Based upon the principle of relaying previous survivors’ positive experiences, the Foundation works at three different, yet complementary, levels: - Creating peer support networks, via a mobile app and online platform. - Raising awareness through showcasing the success stories of survivors in the mass media. - Collaborating with public administrations and private companies to help them reach more women and be more effective at including them in the labour market. The Foundation offers co-creation models for corporate partners to shape new, inclusive recruitment models and create better and more visible job opportunities.