Partnering for Success: Supporting Organizations Working to Reduce Child Institutionalization
This past August, thanks to the support of the UBS Optimus Foundation, Street Business School (SBS) hosted 18 staff members from seven new partner organizations for an immersive workshop experience in Limuru, Kenya. Over the course of eight days, these organizations engaged with one another and the SBS team, experiencing the SBS curriculum, learning about the pedagogy behind it, and preparing to return to their communities and provide the SBS training to participants of their own. Attendees at the August workshop were eager to learn and expressed their gratitude for the opportunity to join the workshop. One participant shared,
“I have never attended such an intense training with a lot of skills training customized to fit our target community. I have attended several entrepreneurship trainings, but none I can compare with SBS in terms of content, facilitators, and “implementability.” I am leaving for home very heavily laden with skills and vigor to share and transform my community.”
Part of what made this workshop special was that each of these organizations was a member of the UBS Optimus Foundation’s Families Not Orphanages portfolio, working to reduce the rates of child institutionalization in five countries in Africa. By pairing the SBS curriculum with the interventions already being carried out by these organizations, we believe we can further support their work and deepen impact, equipping parents with income-generating skills and confidence to better support their families and keep their kids at home and out of orphanages.
We are proud to have been able to partner together with organizations doing such meaningful work and are thrilled to share that they have already begun training cohorts of their own! Just a few months after being certified in the SBS curriculum, organizations from the August training have mobilized, recruited, trained, and graduated cohorts of women who will be equipped with the tools and confidence to run successful and sustainable microbusinesses!
We are excited to continue to see results, not just on the improvements in income and business ownership of these women, but also on their ability to support their children and reduce rates of institutionalization. None of this would have been possible without the support of the UBS Optimus Foundation. We are grateful for their shared commitment to supporting women and families, and sustainably reducing poverty.
We welcome the opportunity to partner with organizations, like the UBS Optimus Foundation, using entrepreneurial training to scaffold aligned missions.
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