WE and RBC launch young entrepreneurs
At 15, Asalah Youssef is already using her tech savvy and passion for social justice to launch a smartphone app and website that she hopes will make health services more accessible to lowincome people.
She’ s also proving that young people can become social entrepreneurs, given the opportunity, skills and training, with some help from WE and RBC.
Called The Radical and Revolutionary Place (R&R Place), Asalah’s app and platform will enable low-income people, including students and seniors, to access counselling, dental care, optometry and physiotherapy—health services usually not provided by the government and often prohibitively expensive—at a reduced rate. Her a pp taps into business owners and providers who are willing to provide these services at a discount, or even for free.
The Grade 10 student, who attends the Langley Fine Arts School in Langley, BC, was inspired by her mother, a portrait photographer, who had offered her services at a greatly reduced rate to a university student that couldn’t afford to pay full price for a shoot.
Her mom had been inspired to do this after coming across a quote online, which read :“If it’ s in accessible to the poor, it’ s neither radical not revolutionary .”
That’s now Asalah’s mission statement.
Her idea got a huge boost when she was selected as one of three outstanding youth applicants to take part this year’s inaugural WE are Social Entrepreneurs Incubation Program, an initiative of RBC Future Launch, at the WE Incubation Hub in Toronto in August.
The WE Incubation Hub is housed at WE’s Global Learning Centre and is designed to provide young entrepreneurs like Asalah with innovation and entrepreneurship skills to bring their ideas to life.
“RBC began its important, multi-faceted partnership with WE in 2010 with the ultimate goal of helping young people make positive impacts in their communities,” says Jennifer Tory, chief administrative officer, RBC.
“RBC’s purpose—helping clients thrive and community prosper—aligns so well with the tenets of the WE philosophy,including the WE Incubation Hub where young social entrepreneurs can identify the root causes of social issues and apply their passions to create innovative solutions. The skills that WE is helping young people develop are an essential part of empowering our future leaders to transform today’ s world into tomorrow’ s possibilities.”
Erin Blanding, WE’s director of global program innovation, says WE has long supported and em powered young people, giving them the tools to make a difference in their communities, locally and globally. She says the WE Incubation Hub is the next step in this journey.
She says young people can change the world and become social entrepreneurs, once barriersto opportunity and know how are removed.
“If we think about the amazing people that are already changing the world, they’re the ones that typically have less resources—teachers, students, youth who can’t vote yet, nonprofit organizations—these are the folks who, against all odds, are shifting cultures and coming up with ideas to change the world. Imagine if they were able to have the skills, the support, mentorships and guidance that this hub will provide.”
As al ah has huge hopes for the R& Ra pp, which she compares to Groupon, the discounting service platform, but for social good.
As a result of her participation in the program and oneon-one mentorship from industry experts and innovators, she now has a developed business plan that she has successfully pitched to several investors. Asalah hopes her app will be available for consumer use by next year.
She says attending the WE Are Social Entrepreneurs program, sponsored by RBC, enabled her to gain many new skills.
She says she was incredibly “touched” to be able to try out her business pitch in front of other participants, in attendance at WE’s Take Action Camp.
“I felt this wonderful energy while I was speaking and saw many smiling faces supporting me. After I finished I had my peers come up to me and tell me how excited they are to see this idea come to life. That really sparked something in me to go home and take my idea to the next level and spread how important it is for us youth to be social entrepreneurs.”
Fuelled by RBC Future Launch, a national commitment to support youth to better prepare for the future of work through access to skill development, networking and work experiences, WE launched its WE Are Social Entrepreneurs programming in January 2018.
High school students attended a day-long conferences in Toronto, BC and Newfoundland,where they examined the root causes of and innovative solutions to issues they cared about. One student from each summit was selected to take part in the Incubation Program in August. The program will expand to 12 regions across Canada during the 2018-19 academic year.