INVOLVING COMPANIES AS CHANGEMAKERS WITH ANA BELLA SCHOOL FOR WOMEN EMPOWERMENT
Women survivors are trained so they are able to release their full potential, focus on work and become leaders in their communities. The Ana Bella School offers a professional training program in sales and empowerment called “Dare to Dream Big” and trampoline jobs in front of the public as Brand Ambassadors to empower them to jump into the labor market and get the job that will directly link with their vocation or dreams. Involving big corporations to accelerate social changes, has influenced some of the government policies creating a movement of companies for a society free of violence in Spain.
Together with the outsourcing company Momentum Task Force and thanks to the collaboration of big corporations as Danone, Fontvella, PepsiCo, Bonduelle, Benefit, Guess, Loreal, Chanel, Bimbo, Disney, Louis Vuitton and others, 2,000 women have changed their lives from victims to empowered women offering a top quality service as well as increasing sales. There has been a reduction in absenteeism from 40% to 2% and reducing staff turnover from 63% to 2%, resulting in an impressive 97 percentage rate of excellent feedback provided by their supervisors. Instead of the invisible and double victimization jobs provided by official labor integration paths, Ana Bella’ School provides visible positions as Brand Ambassadors. The innovation is to portray women as Survivors, not victims. Abused women are not the problem, but the critical part of the solution; if we help them to release their potential as leaders and effective workers, they are capable of utilizing these employment opportunities as a source of personal dignity as well as being committed to the social and economic company goals, providing great service and high performance as promoters. Women become change makers contributing to economic and social growth of companies and positive testimony to encourage other women to get free from violence.
CO CREATION AND TRAINING: Ana Bella has become a world reference in Co Creation with companies, addressing business needs with social solutions that generates systemic changes that creates social and economic value for companies, for women and for the welfare of society.
This approach is helping to change how corporations perceive and support abused women employees. By eliminating stigmatization at work and contributing to their speedier reintegration into the job market, women are able to achieve the necessary financial autonomy to safely rebuild their own lives as victorious women.
Although it is not compulsory by Spanish Law, committed companies involved with Ana Bella are developing a compulsory training program to qualify their staffs as change makers in gender equality and violence awareness, generating a multiplier effect to encourage victims to break the silence supported by coworkers. 100,000 workers trained, goal: 2 million.
INVOLVING GOVERNMENT: Ana Bella also works with the government to change the prevalent current approach of battered women as victims which is at the core of many of inefficiencies in the system. By focusing on the positive abilities women have developed through their tragic experience—strength, determination, and ability to work under extreme pressure—she is improving public resources for abused women. From how staff interacts with women when they first approach social services, to the type of financial support offered, including housing and work placement, Ana Bella is assisting these entities to become more efficient by learning from women survivors.
CHANGEMAKER EXPERT: Ana Bella was selected as one of the Top 100 Women Spanish Top Leaders and is influencing social and political change for a society free of domestic violence against women, actively involved in lobbying and in developing protocols from her perspective as survivors and social entrepreneur. We highlight her involvement in the Working Group of the Parliament on the analysis and review of the situation and measures to promote gender equality and against gender violence in Andalusia. The development of the protocol regulating the communication of violence in Canal Sur TV, in the training program for the General Council of the Judiciary and more than 6,000 tv workers, in the acting protocol for shelters of the Community of Madrid, on the new model of acting and training interpreters for translating victims of domestic violence in court, for the European project SOSVICS, in the Free Application for Mobile Phone Libres with the Ministry of Health, Social Services and Equality, in the Statute for the Victims with the Ministry of Justice and the Spanish State Agreement to generate 200 new measures to protect victims and eradicate violence against women.
SPEAKER: Ana Bella is a recognized speaker at universities (Seville, Madrid, Barcelona, Velencia, IE, ESADE, La Laguna, Jaume I, Segovia, Loyola, Granada, Alicante, Cádiz, Vigo…) and in many national and international forums. As a key speaker in many conferences include the AECOC Congress (Barcelona, October 2012), EVE program for European executive top CEO Women (Evian, France, December 2012), Women Empowerment Tedext Talk ( Barcelona, December 2012), Inspiring Changes Tedext Talk (Burgos 2013), the Congress of Women who change the World (Segovia, 2013), Social Innovation Forum (Milan, September 2014) Cocreation Forum (Switzerland, September 2015), International Congress Gender Violence (Saltillo, México, December 2015), Barcelona de las Soluciones (Barcelona, Mayo 2016), Ashoka Visionary Program (Viena, Austria 2016 and 2017), Companies for Social Change (Brussels, Belgium 2016) and the World Congress of Women Shelters held in Washington DC, USA in February 2012 in which Valerie Jarret, adviser to President Obama, recognized Ana Bella as a role model in the global work against gender violence.
AWARDS: Ana Bella had received more the 50 awards among them: Violence against women Observatory Award from the General Council of the Judiciary, Madrid 2012 ; Best European CoCreation Project with social and business impacts, Ashoka,Switzerland 2014; Vision Award for Social Innovation, Berlin 2014; Best WorldWide Women Empowerment Project, Ecosysteme Fund, Paris 2015; Ondas Award in Communication, Barcelona 2016; Best Practique for Companies in Social Changes, Brussels 2016; Gold Medal By Red Cross, Seville 2017; Best Social Innovation Project, La Caixa, Barcelona 2018.
LINKS:
https://www.opendemocracy.net/5050/ana-bella/from-victims-to-changemakers
http://www.henrydesio.com/soapbox/abuse-survivor-defines-her-own-destiny
Ana Bella’s Mirror http://elpais.com/elpais/2014/04/15/inenglish/1397569912_470498.html
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AMIGA PROGRAM, PEER TO PEER SUPPORT: Ana Bella has created and nurtures the growth of networks that bring together women survivors who have successfully overcome abuse with those who are undergoing abuse and want to break free. Through these networks, she has proven that close references and support from real women who have reconstructed their lives are more efficient in helping women to start their own process of separation and eventually legally report their abuser. To reach those 86 percent of battered women who do not legally report their abuser, Ana Bella focuses on the benefits of “breaking away” instead of the dangers of remaining in an abusive relationship. By building on the strengths of survivors (rather than only focus on treating the negative consequences of domestic violence), she is reducing the time it takes for women to begin the process of moving away from their abuser. Additionally, due to the simplicity of joining an informal peer-to-peer network, Ana Bella is creating shorter bridges for battered women, no matter their social, economic or cultural strata, to reach the point of reporting, which is generally the major access point to official resources and financial support. This network is also filling the gaps in existing resources, as volunteer networks provide key support more efficiently and are better adapted to women’s real needs. 23,000 abused women supported in Spain.
