Resilience through international networks

This Ideas Exchange aims to facilitate sessions with young entrepreneurs (creative, social, commercial) who face structural inequalities in Bristol, UK, and Enugu, Nigeria, in order to understand their needs for support and experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic. All young people's well-being, regardless of where they live, their race, gender, or social class, is essential for personal and professional success. Our potential participants are already disadvantaged by their environment and lack of access to opportunities. Some of these young people live below poverty levels, are neither confident of their abilities nor aware of any opportunities they may have to get ahead in their entrepreneurial journeys.
What are the priorities of young entrepreneurs from low-income communities in Enugu and Bristol who are disproportionately affected by COVID-19? What online tools do they use to communicate during the COVID pandemic? What is the value in bringing these two groups together to support each other? To explore these ideas, we will draw on our trans-disciplinary team's expertise and resources to carry out the following sessions:
• Initial meeting between the team to plan a recruitment strategy, discuss ethical considerations and outline group sessions
• Facilitate separate meetings with each group in Bristol and Enugu
• Final team meeting to draw up conclusions, develop a case study and plans to share
the pilot findings with the groups