2017 Springboard to focus on women empowerment
The 2017 edition of the Springboard Roadshow, an annual career and personal development platform, is to focus on mentoring young women to achieve their dreams.
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The Roadshow, which has over the years, impacted the lives of 150,000 young Ghanaians, is to coach young girls in all the 10 regions through mentoring workshops and various breakout sessions.
The Executive Director of the Springboard Foundation, Reverend Albert Ocran, said a new introduction to the 2017 edition road show was the Ladies Entrepreneurship and Advocacy Development (LEAD), a mentoring programme for young women in all 10 regions.
For the past 10 years, the annual road show has recorded, on the average, a 71 per cent and 29 per cent attendance for men and women respectively, and according to Rev. Ocran, their interactions with the young women showed that they had been socialised to fear to dream.
“The new thing we are introducing, this year is a special intervention for young ladies going into entrepreneurship. In every city, we will gather young ladies who are passionate about going into business, and give them a free coaching blueprint to help them build their own business,” he said.
According to him, developing leaders is a deliberate programme, therefore there is the need to create structures to help people achieve this.
“No nation has developed leaders accidentally; it is always a deliberate programme. What we want to do from January 2017 is to be able to deliver into the hands of every single person that attends Springboard a handbook, that tells what they will become on the continent in the next 10 years and the step-by-step guide to achieving it”, he said.
The power of technology
The Springboard Roadshow has evolved into the nation's biggest personal development conference since 2007. The last 10 years has seen over 150,000 individuals in Ghana being trained in regional events entailing career guidance, one-on-one mentoring, training workshops and presentations from various leaders.
Rev. Ocran explained that there would be a gradual shift to the organisation of virtual Springboard Roadshow through the power of technology.
“In the next couple of years, we will initiate something very special; where we will in advance announce a springboard event, where no one has to move. We will set a date for a virtual springboard and link up with all 150,000 people on their phones”, he said.
He added; “The event will be running and all we would need is a tripod and a phone, and our members will participate across the world. It shall be done with the power of technology. We will bring the virtual springboard to them at no cost, just the data they will need and their availability to participate.”
AGENDA 2027
Launching the 100-day countdown to Springboard 2017, Rev. Ocran said Springboard would in the next years raise over one million leaders well groomed for entrepreneurship.
This, he said, would be done on three premises; people, leadership and enablement. He said it will cost GH¢50 for each of the 30,000 participants to attend the road show across the 10 regions. 60 per cent (GH¢30) of this, however, shall be borne by the corporate sponsors, meaning that the GH¢20 would have to be paid by participants as gate fees.
“Pioneering free attendance in 2016 allowed many people to benefit who would otherwise not have been able to afford it. SRSF is for the first time encouraging individuals and Road Show alumni to take up the challenge of co-sponsoring all participants to attend the 2017 road show for free by donating GH¢20 or multiples of it. Every GH¢20 contribution will help shape one person’s destiny in some part of this country,” he said.
