Ashoka
We are delighted to announce and welcome four new Ashoka Fellows elected in the UK.
Ashoka Fellows are selected based on their unique contribution and commitment to solving societal problems on a large scale, by tackling the causes that underlie the issue at hand in innovative ways. They go through a rigorous and lengthy selection process and, once elected, receive life-long support from Ashoka, including training and coaching opportunities to develop leadership and other skills, networking opportunities, and in cases, financial support.
The 2022 Fellows include:
ALISON TICKELL: Founder of cultural organisation, Julie’s Bicycle, Alison leverages arts and culture to shift international policy and change audiences’ mindsets and behavior, in addition to addressing major issues, such as the need for energy savings. Alison works closely with major concert and festival organisers, music labels, globally famous touring bands, and government funding bodies such as the Arts Council. At her model’s core is a free resource base with tools that have been used by 5,000 organisations across 50 countries. Julie’s Bicycle stands for "Change culture, and culture changes the world". You can read more about her work here.
HERA HUSSAIN: Hera is the Founder and CEO of Chayn - a global nonprofit that creates resources on the web to address gender-based violence. The platform provides a unique online space for victims and survivors that honours their agency and context by connecting them with inclusively curated support and nudging them to act. Chayn’s multi-lingual resources, designed by survivor-volunteers, have reached more than 400,000 people across the world including in the UK, US, India, Pakistan, Australia, UAE, Mexico and more. Hera believes in using the power of open-source technology, trauma-informed design and hope-filled framing to solve the world's pressing issues. You can read more about her work here.
TEMI MWALE: Temi is a racial justice campaigner who is committed to dismantling the prison-industrial complex - the relationship between a government and the various businesses that benefit from institutions of incarceration – and, instead, building approaches to address conflict and harm that prioritise healing and empowerment. She is the founder of the 4Front Project, a member-led youth organisation that exists to serve young people who have experienced trauma, violence and racial injustice, by fighting for their rights, supporting them to heal, and empowering them to build communities where they are nurtured, protected and respected. Temi is a Churchill Fellow, a Million Realities Fellow and an Obama Foundation Europe Leader.
TESSY BRITTON: Tessy is the founder of Participatory City, an organisation working to co-create ecosystems with residents that ensure neighbourhoods have the social infrastructure for participation and social cohesion. Participatory City is changing how we live in cities by creating spaces within 15-minutes' walk from every resident, to enable neighbours to participate in practical projects that fit with their everyday life, such as starting a community business or joining carpentry workshops. Tessy has also authored a book titled ‘Hand Made,’ which allowed neighbourhood innovators to describe their unique design processes and provide insight into different perspectives on community and participation from around the world. You can read more about her work here.
What is the Ashoka Fellowship?
For more than 40 years, Ashoka has built and nurtured the largest network of leading social entrepreneurs in the world by electing them as Fellows.
Upon election, we invite Fellows into a life-long Fellowship and a global community of peers, where every member is committed to championing new patterns of social good. While some receive financial support in the form of an unrestricted, needs-assessed stipend, the main value of the Fellowship lies in the support Fellows access throughout their entrepreneurial journeys, for example, through access to pro-bono legal advice, coaching and leadership development. Ashoka offers structured courses on topics such as systems change, social finance and scaling impact; creates spaces for partnership and collaboration and provides ad hoc and personal support. While we navigate and channel our Fellows’ needs and opportunities, it is our community that expands and adds most of the value we can provide.
Nominate a Fellow.
About Ashoka
Ashoka was started in 1980 with one simple belief: that a good idea in the hands of a social entrepreneur could change the world. It is with this aim that we set out to search for and support world-leading social entrepreneurs, those changing systems and mindsets to address the root causes of social problems. Ashoka Fellows include microfinance pioneer and Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus, prominent labour rights advocate Ai-jen Poo, and the founder of Wikipedia, Jimmy Wales.
While Ashoka continues to support these systems-changing social entrepreneurs, we have a broader vision to realise a world in which anyone can be a changemaker – where every person is free to imagine a new reality, one that works for the good of all, and has the skills and capabilities they need to bring that reality to life. We call this an ‘Everyone a Changemaker’ world, and within it, there is place for everyone to play their part.