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The Elders Council for Social Entrepreneurs

The Elders Council for Social Entrepreneurs is building a global network of social entrepreneurs so that elder members can support one another and also share their wisdom across the social entrepreneurship ecosystem.

Membership is open to all social entrepreneurs over the age of 55. Any social entrepreneur under 55 can become an associate member. For the Elders Council to become a non-profit organisation, charity status has been applied for.

The Elders Council is working on two main themes which will be based on a range of expertise accumulated through the years:

  • To support social entrepreneurs who are over 55: by working on systems of mutual support and solidarity.
  • To support the wider community of social entrepreneurs: To focus the wisdom of the elders for the benefit of the wider community of social entrepreneurs, offering whatever support is needed. The support could include mentoring, advice on boards,  transition and other critical challenges.   

Some of the Key Activities for 2021: 

Webinar Series: These are based on case studies and experiences of Social Entrepreneurs across the world. They are a space to share experiences, challenges and lessons learnt. Participants then have space to reflect together as a community. 

The Council offers this choice of webinars for: 

  • Fellow Elder Social Entrepreneurs 
  • Fellow Social Entrepreneurs looking into topics of transition, leadership, and succession 
  • Ashoka Support Network Members interested in transition and succession issues for social entrepreneurs and/or who want to share their own learnings across sectors 

Soul Sessions: These are smaller and more intimate spaces for elder social entrepreneurs to connect for mutual support.  

Find more information about "Who we are" below, reach out to Michela from Ashoka and to Ashoka Fellow Chris from the Elders Council, or register in the form below if you want to work with us. Dive deeper into the Elders Council in the one-pager linked on the right side of the page.

2021 Webinars Series: Come and join!  

As the Elders Council for Social Entrepreneurs is a new venture which comes about since they see an urgent need for elders to support each other in practical matters and matters relating to their feelings as older people, the Council offers this choice of webinars for all Fellow Elder Social Entrepreneurs: 

Upcoming Webinar: “Seesaw of Life”: The Founder and the Leaders who follow them.

The Elders Council upcoming webinar will have several very powerful contributions to a key step in any Founder’s transition: “passing on the baton” by Ashoka and Schwab Fellow Shona McDonald and other founders will share their experience on handing over leadership. CEOs will also share  their experience of leading an organization into its next chapter. Julia Lalla-Maharajh will be our respondent, feeding back to us observations and learning points from the conversation. 
When: September 20, 2021 17:00 PM (CEST)

This is the fourth Elders Council for Social Entrepreneurs Webinar for 2021 and we are enormously looking forward to your joining us for this next insightful session. 

Please click on this link to register for the webinar and receive the Zoom link.

The Elders Council looks forward to seeing you at the webinar! For any questions, please reach out to Michela from Ashoka and to Ashoka Fellow Chris from the Elders Council. 

Click here to watch our previous Elders Council Webinars!

Who Are We? 

To support the creation of the Elders Council, Ashoka Europe Fellowship hosted a first convening of elder social entrepreneurs at the Wellbeing "Elders Retreat" in September 2019, in Aix-en-Provence (France). That's when 10 Ashoka Fellows gathered and signed the first declaration of the new-born global network: We, the elders from Ashoka Fellowship, pledge to work together to establish a Council of Elders to represent and support social entrepreneurs (in Ashoka) in every phase of transition. Find out more about it in the Executive Summary.

To stay updated on their work and upcoming events, check out the Elders Council official webpage here.

The core group and main contacts of the Elders Council for Social Entrepreneurs:

andrea coleman

Andrea Coleman

Ashoka Fellow & Co-founder of Riders for Health

andrea coleman

Andrea Coleman

Ashoka Fellow & Co-founder of Riders for Health

Andrea co-founded Riders for Health 30 years ago after seeing that failed logistics services and failed transport halts the ability to achieve universal health coverage.
Riders is now enabling health care to reach 24 million people in 5 African countries. However, the global health community's attitude to transport and logistics remains, at best, ambivalent and my goal remains set on changing that view as well as advocating a greater focus on the importance of maintenance of vehicle assets for the sake of cost effectiveness and sustainability and health care access for all.

Chris Underhill

Chris Underhill

Ashoka Fellow & Founder of Thrive

Chris Underhill

Chris Underhill

Ashoka Fellow & Founder of Thrive

Chris Underhill MBE is a social entrepreneur, professional mentor and a global expert on mental health delivery. In 1978 he started his first social enterprise. This is called Thrive and it is the UK organisation that uses gardening to bring about change in the lives of those living with disabilities or ill health. In 1985 he founded Action on Disability and Development (ADD) that works with disabled people in developing countries. In 1995 he was invited to be the CEO of the Intermediate Technology Development Group, now known as Practical Action and in 2000 he went on to found BasicNeeds the mental health charity working in developing countries which he retired from in 2016. Currently he is building his mentoring practice Mentor Services. Chris is a Senior Ashoka Fellow, and a recipient of the Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship and of the Schwab Foundation award for Social Entrepreneurship. In 2000 he was honoured by HRH the Queen with an MBE for services to disability and development.

mel young

Mel Young

Ashoka Fellow & President of Homeless World Cup

mel young

Mel Young

Ashoka Fellow & President of Homeless World Cup

Mel Young MBE is an Ashoka Fellow and a serial social entrepreneur. He has founded and run several successful social enterprises including Homeless World Cup where he is President. He has worked with homeless people across the globe since 1993. His latest venture is New Ism, an organization dedicated to coming up with system change to create a fair and equitable world. He is also chairman of Sports Scotland, the national sports agency in Scotland. Author of Home Game, the story of the Homeless World Cup and he has received numerous awards.

You want to connect and work with us?  Please fill out the form above - we're glad to be in touch soon!