This year’s Deutsche Bank Awards for Creative Entrepreneurship (DBACE) has recognised five young change-makers pioneering positive social impact.
The awards, run in collaboration with MeWe360, will see the five receive a share of business investment from the £60,000 prize fund, as well as the equivalent of £100,000 in mentorship support.
“The creative industries remain one of the hardest hit from the pandemic, and yet despite the challenge the leaders and thinkers who make up the sector are adapting their businesses to be resilient to the impact. We are proud to celebrate and support these innovators through DBACE year on year,” said Lareena Hilton, from Deutsche Bank. “Sitting at the heart of Deutsche Bank’s social responsibility strategy within our Made For Good social enterprise pillar, the awards receive hundreds of applications and the competition is fierce. We’ve recognised the quality of ventures and ideas increasing year on year, which is why we upped the prize fund by an extra £10k to a £60k prize pot for the five winners, alongside bespoke business support from our excellent partners MeWe360.”
Lareena added: “This year’s breadth of creativity and drive for positive social impact combined with potential for leadership gives reason to be optimistic about the road ahead for our winners.”
Selected for their innovative business models, the five winners are:
- Neba Sere, Selasi Setufe and Akua Danso, Co-Directors of Black Females in Architecture (BFA), a social enterprise and global membership organisation with almost 400 members offering shared knowledge, advice, guidance, access to the personal networks, job opportunities and more.
- Jameisha Prescod, Founder of You Look Okay To Me, an online space for the chronic illness community. The platform aims to expand into a film production company, telling more stories about how illness, race and cultural identities collide.
- Nahum McLean, Founder of African Diaspora Dance Association (ADDA), an organisation aiming to expand the curriculums and the training of dances that fall under the African Diaspora.
- Ameenah Begum, Founder of Cos Colours, repurposes waste produced by the cosmetics industry by upcycling make-up into watercolour paint.
- Charlie Blair, Founder of The Blair Academy, reaching over 5000 people across care and community settings so far, the Academy combats loneliness and promotes the improvement of physical and mental health through hip hop dance.
MeWe360’s Kevin Osborne added: “Now in our third year of partnership with Deutsche Bank in delivering and helping to shape the DBACE programme, it is with great excitement that we welcome the five DBACE 2021 winners to our 12-month incubator programme. Alongside the funding awarded, our individually tailored business support, access to networks and peer learning are critical to help ensure the five winners’ enterprises come to fruition. We look forward to seeing these individuals flourish as creative changemakers.”
