The SEWF (Social Enterprise World Forum) Youth Forum took place virtually on the 28th of March 2023 and connected participants from around the World with over 750 inspiring young changemakers.
The event featured successful young social entrepreneurs who shared their stories of success and failure within the Sector. Participants got answers to some of the
most critical social enterprise questions and learnt from the experiences of others like them.
For those already running their own social enterprise, the Youth Forum featured sessions to help guide youths on how to grow their social enterprise, find potential collaborators and impact investors. Ideas were exchanged and new relationships were created with peers from through the impact lounge, networking sessions and interactive workshops.
The morning began with a Fireside session titled ‘From marginalisation to empowerment: Youth-led solutions for sustainable development and inclusive growth across Asia and Europe’. This purpose of this session was to explore and learn about; empowering migrants, mobilising marginalised communities, innovating climate solutions and the power of youth.
There were then two sessions held simultaneously and participants could choose which to attend. One session was based around preserving the environment and encouraging climate education, while the other looked at how young social entrepreneurs can deliver intercultural, intergenerational and intersectional impact.
This was followed by a networking session which focussed on four important themes – Ecosystems, Fairness, Migration and Planet.
There was another Fireside Session after lunch which discussed innovative approaches to social impact with insights from young changemakers. This was followed by a workshop titled ‘Mindful entrepreneurship: Cultivating resilience and avoiding burnout’ which gave participants the tools to identify burnout and find effective solutions.
The Forum resumed in the evening with another illuminating Fireside session, this time looking at how to create a better future with innovations and solutions for a more connected, equitable and sustainable world.
This was followed by a session which provided a deeper dive on the topic of fairness and how young social entrepreneurs can ensure equality and inclusion for all. The final session of the day was a workshop titled ‘Building sustainable impact: Designing a social enterprise business model’ where participants were encouraged to identify community issues and provided some insight into how to start building social enterprise business models to address those challenges.
A report containing statistics from the Youth Forum can be accessed here.
