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About This Resource

This session was part of our 2024 REDF Community Retreat in Los Angeles, CA.

Session Description

Economic Power is a big concept and can mean something slightly different for each ESE and each participant. And yet, each of our organization’s missions are tied in some way to the notion of increasing economic power for individuals who have and are currently experiencing myriad barriers to realizing their full potential. REDF is exploring this topic, just as we are sure many within this Community are. 

We invite you to join REDF and your fellow ESE leaders for a thought-provoking discussion to reflect on the field of Employment Social Enterprise and the meaning, potential, and opportunities to enhance economic power for the populations served by ESEs in this Community. Attendees in this session will be invited to share their perspectives on this topic and imagine ways to transform the ESE field with fellow ESE leaders. Recognizing that a key voice is missing from this discussion – the participants we serve – attendees will leave this session with new ideas and inspiration to bring back to their organization, where we will encourage the facilitation of similar conversations. This session is designed for leaders of varying levels of understanding of and engagement with the concept of economic power and its role within employment social enterprise. 

This will be a space where attendees are encouraged to approach the discussions as experts – based on our own experience and observations – and learners – prepared to seek new knowledge and perspectives from peers.

Session Materials

The session materials for our workshop are designed to enhance your learning experience and support practical application. These materials include the comprehensive Power Point deck used during the workshop, providing you with all the key insights and information covered. Plus, we’ve got worksheets and resources for you to try out the concepts and strategies on your own or with your team. These resources are designed to help you understand and use what you’ve learned in your own day-to-day work.

Final Result from the Session’s Graphic Recorder, Griot’s Eye !
PowerPoint Deck

About the Facilitators

Elizabeth Heredia is a senior capacity building manager at REDF. She partners with REDF grantees and borrowers to provide technical assistance that strengthens their businesses and programs. She enjoys supporting social enterprise leaders to achieve their goals, and loves learning from their creativity, empathy, and resilience along the way.

Galiana Fajardo is a capacity building Principal at REDF. She provides program design and employer supports assistance to REDF’s portfolio organizations. In addition to leading a project to benchmark social enterprise characteristics and build a system-wide understanding of the field, Galiana is building a collection of innovative program designs that support employee retention and placement at REDF portfolio organizations. Additionally, she researches best practices to help low-income families achieve self-sufficiency and evaluates the viability of client organization business plans.

Dave Viotti is the founder and CEO of SMALLIFY, a global innovation capacity-building organization based in Silicon Valley and practiced around the world. Dave has delivered SMALLIFY Labs and workshops to 30,000 leaders in over 1,000 organizations around the world in the corporate, start-up, government, and non-profit sectors. Dave serves on the faculty of the Executive Leadership Program at U.C. Berkeley’s Haas School of Business. He was on the founding teams for Fuse Corps, the Civic Accelerator at Points of Light, the Collaborative Solutions Lab with the federal government at the Presidio Institute, and the Westly Prize for innovation in California.

Elijah Evans is the CEO the employment social enterprise Bikes Not Bombs. Their ESE uses the bicycle as a vehicle for social change to achieve economic mobility for Black and other marginalized people in Boston and the Global South. As a life-long advocate, Elijah is very passionate about social justice, creating social change, and positively affecting the lives of youth – especially those who live in underserved, under-resourced communities.