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How supporting social innovators can help drive racial equity

1/28/2022

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  • Systemic and structural barriers have long denied access and opportunity for leaders of colour.
  • A roadmap by the COVID Alliance for Social Entrepreneurship aims to dismantle barriers and support innovators addressing racial inequities.
  • By resourcing and amplifying social entrepreneurs of colour, leaders can accelerate innovation, support marginalized communities and take action against racism.

Across economic, social and political measures, COVID-19 has both revealed and amplified the world’s long-standing inequities. By walking alongside Black, Indigenous and People of Colour (BIPOC) communities worst affected by COVID-19, and as the Movement for Black Lives sparked a global reckoning, we came to recognize how racism is persistent and prevalent in every community, country and continent.

So, as we aim to dismantle racism, and reimagine an equitable post-COVID world, social entrepreneurs of colour deserve our close attention. Social entrepreneurs, by their very definition, are continually finding innovative solutions to societal issues – those not adequately addressed or, perhaps, fully understood by the public or private sector. Their work and trusted vision is vital in tackling the systemic issues that marginalized communities face and offer new models for progress.

Challenges faced by social entrepreneurs
For these leaders of colour, systemic and structural barriers have long denied access and opportunity based on perceived risk, implicit and explicit bias, and unequal power dynamics. When it comes to funding, for instance, persistent barriers to capital slow their growth and put success in jeopardy – from getting connected in the first place to sustaining relationships for ongoing support.
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Of course, those closest to the problem have the power of proximity. Already immersed in BIPOC communities and the issues that they face, social entrepreneurs of colour are going to have the best, most thoughtful and relevant solutions to offer. They deeply understand our world’s increasingly multi-cultural, multi-racial contexts and can help shift and renegotiate power in ways that make for more equitable, just and sustainable outcomes for us all. And by amplifying voices from marginalized communities, they are uniquely empowered to own their own narrative.

For example, Afro-Brazilian Adriana Barbosa is a Schwab Foundation Awardee and the founder of Pretahub in Brazil, an event series and platform aiming to boost Black entrepreneurship. The country has roughly 14 million Black business owners, but 82% are not registered in the formal economy. Pretahub acts as an accelerator and incubator of Black initiatives by offering training courses and bringing these entrepreneurs together to exchange experiences and ideas. Through this growing network, Pretahub has opened commercial channels for leaders across the whole of Latin America.

Many of these early-stage leaders recognize that they must harness the power of markets to achieve scale for transformational change. Deanna Van Buren is an Echoing Green Fellow and the co-founder of Designing Justice + Designing Spaces (DJDS), an Oakland based nonprofit working to end mass incarceration by harnessing the power of design and development. DJDS works alongside individuals and communities most impacted by the criminal justice system and mass incarceration to co-create spaces of restorative justice and community building. By building infrastructure that promotes economic growth, encourages healing, and transforms systems of oppression, Van Buren is helping tackle the root causes of mass incarceration.

Despite their successes, social entrepreneurs of colour – like Barbosa and Van Buren – face predictable challenges. Even though more than $20 billion was awarded to nonprofits globally in response to the pandemic, 46% of Black-led nonprofits actually saw a decline in their grant funding as a consequence of it. These are prevalent issues worldwide, thus requiring global action.
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Dismantling barriers and promoting racial equity
As we aim to work together and restore trust, a roadmap is emerging to dismantle barriers and build a global ecosystem that supports innovators addressing racial inequities. Founded in April 2020, the COVID Response Alliance for Social Entrepreneurship is anunprecedented collaboration between 91 global leaders in social entrepreneurship, representing 100,000 social entrepreneurs and impacting the lives of over 2 billion people. With our network of values-driven business, government and civil society leaders, we are striving to get everyone around the table.

What is the COVID Response Alliance for Social Entrepreneurship?
Led by Saadia Zahidi, the Centre for the New Economy and Society has developed the most comprehensive and progressive agenda on diversity, equity, inclusion and social justice that the Forum has ever seen. Through strong partnerships with organisations including GHR Foundation, the Centre for the New Economy and Society drives impact on a comprehensive and progressive agenda to embed diversity, equity, inclusion and social justice in the new economy.

Just as this pandemic has shown how interconnected we all are, it has also demonstrated the urgency in deploying those best situated to deliver solutions. By resourcing and amplifying social entrepreneurs of colour, business, government, and civil society leaders stand to accelerate innovation and progress, support communities in new and meaningful ways, and take tangible action against racism. This is the moment to commit to transformative change – we invite you to join us in supporting those already working toward it.

Cheryl L. Dorsey, President, Echoing Green
Amy Goldman, Chief Executive Officer and Chair, GHR Foundation
François Bonnici Director, Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship; Head, Social Innovation, World Economic Forum
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Wash U: New Alzheimer’s prevention trial in young people

1/5/2022

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Neurologist Eric McDade, DO, meets with Marty Reiswig, a participant in Alzheimer’s prevention trials at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. Reiswig comes from a family with a genetic mutation that puts carriers at high risk of developing Alzheimer’s. McDade is the director of a new Alzheimer’s prevention trial involving young adults from high-risk families. The trial is evaluating whether an investigational drug can clear a key Alzheimer’s protein called amyloid beta, and slow or stop the disease.
From Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis:

Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis is launching an international clinical trial aimed at preventing Alzheimer’s disease in people genetically destined to develop the illness at a young age. Unlike most other Alzheimer’s prevention trials, this one will enroll people before the disease has taken hold – up to 25 years before the expected onset of dementia.

Called the Primary Prevention Trial, the new study will investigate whether gantenerumab — an investigational antibody under development for Alzheimer’s disease by Roche and Genentech, a member of the Roche Group — can clear a key Alzheimer’s protein called amyloid beta, and slow or stop the disease. Amyloid is the chief component of plaques that dot the brains of people with the disease. Many scientists suspect the disease originates from the buildup of amyloid plaques in the brain that start to develop up to two decades before symptoms of dementia begin.

“Overwhelming evidence suggests that the most effective way to slow or stop amyloid beta is to prevent it from building up in the first place, but most of the drugs targeted to this protein have been tested in people who already have at least some early signs of the disease, such as memory loss – when the disease is far enough along that reducing amyloid alone isn’t likely to stop it,” said Eric McDade, DO, an associate professor of neurology and the trial’s principal investigator. “We’ll be recruiting participants as young as 18. In many ways, this trial will be a necessary test of the amyloid hypothesis, which has had a major influence on Alzheimer’s research and drug development over the past 30 years.”

The new trial involves families with rare genetic mutations that cause Alzheimer’s at a young age – typically in a person’s 50s, 40s or even 30s. A parent with such a mutation has a 50% chance of passing the genetic mutation to a child, and any child who inherits the mutation is all but guaranteed to develop symptoms of dementia near the same age as his or her parent. This certainty gives researchers an opportunity to evaluate the effectiveness of drugs designed to prevent Alzheimer’s.

“It’s exciting to think of the valuable insights this groundbreaking trial will provide in the prevention of Alzheimer’s dementia,” said Fred Miller, GHR Foundation’s chief operating officer and Alzheimer’s program lead. “We’re pleased to partner boldly on the multiple DIAN-TU trials, all made possible by the strong collaboration between academic researchers, government, industry, philanthropy and the DIAN families themselves.”​

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