Category: News

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“COGE” Gender Equality Contest for Young People Launched

On 21 March 2022, the R&I PEERS project announced the “COGE: Contest on Gender Equality” competition, inviting young people between the ages of 18 and 25 who are studying in Belgium, Cyprus, Greece, Italy, Israel, Slovenia, Spain or Tunisia, to submit a video of up to three minutes long describing their experiences, knowledge, perception and proposals for Gender Equality.

Information about the competition—including application form, rules for participation, and contact—is available online at the following link: https://ec.europa.eu/eusurvey/runner/COGE

Deadline for submitting completed videos: Midnight 31 May 2022 Central European Time

The R&I PEERS project partners include the Digital Leadership Institute of Belgium, the Greek General Secretariat for Demographic and Family Policy and Gender Equality, the Confindustria association, and seven Universities and Research Institutions from Europe and the Mediterranean. The project is coordinated by the University of Salerno in Italy.

The project “Pilot Experiences for Improving Gender Equality in Research Organizations – R&I PEERS” has been funded under the HORIZON 2020 program (GA 788171) and aims to create and evaluate pilot experiences from a gender perspective which do not limit the participation and career of women in Research and Innovation.

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Organise Your Own Move It Forward Event!

As an outcome of the Move It Forward+ project, funded by the European Union Erasmus+ program, a toolkit for organising your very own Move It Forward (“MIF”) event–as well as CSR and mentoring activities to promote women (digital) entrepreneurs–is now available free, online for the public!

Move It Forward is an event footprint–sometimes called a “hackathon” or “tech-for-good” initiative–originally developed by the Digital Leadership Institute as part of its inQube “female digital accelerator” program. With MIF and other activities, inQube aims to support teen and adult women entrepreneurs by providing community, digital and business skills, and other resources they need to launch and grow successful digitally-enabled and digitally-driven enterprises.

Including Move It Forward+ project activities, the Move It Forward event has been organized 20 times in 9 countries in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, reaching thousands of participants, since 2014. In 2018, MIF received a Global Mobile Award, and in 2019 was recognised as European finalist for the UN ITU EQUALS in Tech Award.

Materials developed and made available within the MIF+ project are available for download on the Move It Forward+ website and below.

Please feel free to contact us for more information about and support with organising a Move It Forward event in your own city!

1. Guides: How to organise a Move it forward+ Event

We provide our Guides in 5 different languages, to support you with the organisation of your Move it forward+ event.

2. Event Preparation Documents

You can find additional and printable materials here:

3. In-event Documents

You can find a variety of printable material here:

4. Guides: How to organise mentoring sessions

You will find here all the resources related to the organisation of mentoring sessions linked to your Move it foward+ event.

Annexe n°1: Impact and assessment of women programmes and events supporting women in entrepreneurship.

Annexe n°2: Mentor’s portfolio & Mentee’s portfolio

5. Event Presentations

Our Event Presentation will be available soon!

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DLI Update – Winter 2022

Happy 2022 to all our friends and collaborators!

The DLI Board are actively involved in outreach activities with partners and stakeholders around the world that promote ESTEAM* leadership by girls and women. Find out more below about our outreach activities in Winter 2021-22, including the 22 December 2021 launch of the the G20 Women20 2022 Indonesia Presidency, attended by DLI’s director. For upcoming events by DLI and our partners please visit here, and have a look at our calendar.

*Entrepreneurship and Art powered by Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics

15-17 November – SME Assembly 2021 (Portorož, Slovenia & Online): On 15-17 November 2021, Cheryl Miller Van Dÿck, DLI Founding Director,  joined the SME Assembly 2021, hosted by the European Commission and taking place in Portorož, Slovenia and online, as part of the Slovenian Presidency of the EU Council.

17 November 2021 – “Solutions Through Inclusivity” Group of Nations Virtual Summit:  Cheryl Miller Van Dÿck, DLI Founding Director,  joined a fireside chat on Digital Equity to Build Forward Better as part of a 17 November event on Solutions Through Inclusivity–celebrating 25 years of Group of Nations global events, including G20, W20, B20 and APEC.

25-26 November – Fin2021  Porto, Portugal  and Online): On 26 November 2021, Cheryl Miller Van Dÿck, DLI Founding Director,  provided a keynote presentation on the subject of Techno World at the FIN2021 event taking place in Porto, Portugal and online.  The event was supported by JEUNE, a pan-European organisation representing 1.6 million young entrepreneurs, for which Miller recently became Advisory Board member.

30 November – Udacity STEM Forward with Women: On 30 November 2021, Cheryl Miller Van Dÿck, DLI Founding Director,  contributed to an online panel promoting success for women in STEM  as part of the STEM Forward with Women event hosted online by Udacity.

2 December – Projexplorer Navigating the Future of Project Economy (online):  On 2 December 2021, Cheryl Miller Van Dÿck, DLI Founding Director,  joined a Projexplorer event on Navigating the Future of Project Economy with a keynote speech on the topic of Sexism in Tech:  Unlearn What You Know.

6 December – WEgate Community Council Meeting (Online):  Cheryl Miller Van Dÿck, DLI Founding Director, joined the third  meeting of the WEgate Community Council, supporting women entrepreneurs in Europe and beyond, on 6 December online.

9 December – Path to the Digital Decade  (Online):  On 9 December, Cheryl Miller Van Dÿck, DLI Founding Director,  provided a keynote address for an event of the Digital SkillUp project, on the topic of Path to the Digital Decade: Inclusive & Sustainable Upskilling for All, hosted by DIGITAL SME Alliance.

14 December – EIC Women Leadership Programme (Online):  Cheryl Miller Van Dÿck, DLI Founding Director, provided a keynote presentation for the 14 December EIC Women Leadership Program Personal Leadership Brand session, on the subject of Remaining Authentic in the Face of Adversity.

21 December – Italy-Indonesia Women20 Handover:  On 21 December, in the capacity of Head of EU Delegation to the G20 Women20, Cheryl Miller Van Dÿck, DLI Founding Director, joined the Italy-Indonesia Women20 Handover meeting.

22 December – Indonesia 2022 G20 Women20 Presidency Launch:   In the new capacity of Co-head of EU Delegation to the G20 Women20, Cheryl Miller Van Dÿck, DLI Founding Director, joined the 22 December launch event of the Indonesia 2022 G20 Women20 and G20 Empower Presidency.

To browse past activities with DLI and our partners, please click here.  Be sure to also visit our calendar, sign up for the DLI Newsletter and follow us on Facebook, Twitter & Instagram in order to keep up with DLI events and activities!

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Move It Forward+ in Luxembourg

*The Hackathon “Restart for female digital starters“, part of the Erasmus+ Move It Forward+ project, took place on Saturday, November 13th 2021 at the Technoport SA in Belval.

Move it Forward+ is an Erasmus+ project that aims to support women who want to be entrepreneurs. Indeed, women’s entrepreneurship has been hit hard by the pandemic and this collaborative event is an excellent opportunity to launch new business ideas in the context of economic recovery. Four similar Hackathons are currently being organised in Europe by our partners: France, Belgium, Romania, Croatia and Lithuania.

All day long, thirty participants and volunteer coaches worked together to develop the different ideas. Business Model Canvas, market research or UX Design: the project leaders were able to benefit from the expertise and support of their peers to take their ideas to the next level.

After a presentation of the Move It Forward+ project and pitching of ideas, the work began, with six projects. Between a few cups of coffee and a piece of fruit, everyone gave their best, all in a studious and productive atmosphere.

The lunch break was an opportunity to recharge the batteries and to exchange with the whole group.

“The presence of the qualified coaches at the event gave me courage to pitch my idea and helped me build confidence to consider entrepreneurship as a career option.”, said one of the participants.

In the afternoon, the work continued and each project progressed at its own pace. At the end of the afternoon, it was time to wrap up the projects and prepare the pitches.

Three projects were rewarded with a jury composed of Nizar Ayed, Anne-Claire Buléon and Guylaine Bouquet:

  • Best pitch: “Friendly Advice”, which aims to help students and newcomers solve their problems of settling in Luxembourg thanks to student volunteers and good samaritans who seek to build community and help newcomers and other young people better integrate into Luxembourg by offering their advice.”
  • Best innovative project: “Femart Gallery”, which is a web gallery platform where female artists can share and sell creations to increase their visibility in the digital world with non-fungible tokens (NFTs).
  • Best impact project: “Childs Play”,  which aims to create a safe discussion platform among young children to educate them regarding the better use of social media.

Our winners of the day will therefore have the opportunity to follow a four-month personalised mentoring programme in order to make their projects a reality.

It is unanimous that this Hackathon was a success, and was beneficial for both the participants and their coaches, and we hope that these collaborations will bring new perspectives.

Congratulations to all our participants for their involvement, their motivation and their work during this day, congratulations to our coaches who were very professional and caring, and thanks to our jury, the choice of the winners was not easy!

This article originally appeared on MIF+ partner WIDE‘s website.

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We4Change Launches Train-the-Trainer Workshop

The We4Change consortium is looking for enthusiastic youth workers and trainers to support We4Change Changemaker events by learning to organise and deliver these events targeting our key beneficiaries. Details on the call for applications for a Train the Trainer workshop to take place in Brussels on 2-4 February 2022, may be found here and a draft application form here.

What is the Train the Trainer Workshop?

It is a training dedicated to youth workers and trainers that are interested to learn how to effectively deliver a We4Change Changemakers event – a hackathon-like event that offers an innovative combination of hands-on activities, training on digital, innovation
and environmental awareness skills, problem-solving and co-creation skills to young girls and women to address climate change.

The participants will learn a series of methods of facilitation of such type of event, which includes an important gender element, but also entrepreneurship and environmental activism.  They will develop their communication skills to work with a diverse audience, to change and adapt to different situations and how to handle complex group dynamics to keep things running smoothly. In addition, they will be trained to deliver or assist several workshops on themes such as:  digital, design thinking and pitching.

When will the Train the Trainer Workshop take place?

The training will take place in person between 2-4 February 2022, In Brussels (Belgium). Applicants must be available to participants to the entire 3 days training.

Who can apply?

The training program is addressed to youth workers, trainers, coaches and mentors working or interested in working with girls and young women on the themes covered by the We4Change project, including youth empowerment, environmental action, digital skills, entrepreneurial mindset.

Application and selection procedure
All applications must be submitted before the deadline of 10 December 2021 at 23.59 CET, via the online application form. By submitting the application, applicants accept the eligibility criteria and practical information related to this call.

More information on the WE4Change Changemakers Train the Trainer seminar, including eligibility criteria and practical details, may be found here!