Gender equality front and centre
Profits from business would go to support girls participating in organized sports
Combining her love of athletics with her business acumen, Anne O’Neill will be showcasing her social enterprise concept at the second annual Youth Innovation Summit in Ottawa on Monday. The Sydney resident, who graduated from Cape Breton University’s MBA program in the fall, is one of two Cape Bretoners attending the summit — a meeting of 15 of the best young social entrepreneurs across the country. Rebecca Dunphy of Sydney will also be in attendance.
While O’Neill focused her studies at CBU on community economic development, she came up with a social innovation idea to promote the role of girls in sports. O’Neill said her idea to sell branded I AM athletic wear would see 10 per cent of the profits go to support girls participating in organized sports in their communities.
The concept was developed as a school project during her MBA program and she hopes to receive guidance in how to proceed with it during the twoday conference.
“As a tennis coach, I noticed that this past summer, of the 130 juniors at my club about 30 were girls, and as a child growing up in my tennis lessons I was always outnumbered by boys,” said O’Neill, 23, who currently works as the manager of operations at the Elizabeth Fry Society of Cape Breton.
“This trend that happened 10 years ago is still common, therefore I knew I had to come up with a solution to create awareness of the problem and to try to find a solution to mend the gap of gender inequality in athletics.”
She would like to see the initial profits from the sale of athletic merchandise be rolled into a foundation that would hand out scholarships to assist
girls in Cape Breton who do not partake in organized sports for whatever reason.
Right now, it’s a concept, but she’s hoping to get a lift from mentors at this week’s conference.
The idea would have to be self-sustaining with its own cash flow so it wouldn’t have to be dependent on grants in order to survive, she said. More companies are seeing the value of social innovation and giving back to the communities they rely upon, and that’s why O’Neill believes her I AM brand of athletic wear could work.
“Millennials are very attracted to making the world a better place to live in and I think the business model has to shift towards the social aspects of things more,” she said.
“You can make a profit while creating that social value and that’s what I hope to achieve.”
O’Neill was chosen to attend the Youth Innovation Summit due to her performance at the second edition of The United Nations in Canada and British Council’s Active Citizens Social Enterprise program last fall.
The summit provides an opportunity for networking and partnership development, with an audience of more than 100 guests including some highlevel government representatives.