Spotlight on Women Entrepreneurs with Disabilities (SWED)
Building the data infrastructure to support women entrepreneurs with disabilities.
Women entrepreneurs with disabilities in Canada face compounded barriers
These barriers include fragmented support systems, limited access to capital, and a lack of shared data that would help funders and service providers understand and respond to their experiences. Capital has flowed past this community not because the need is unclear, but because the information infrastructure to act on it does not yet exist.
Funders and service providers want to do better. Without the right information, they cannot.
The Spotlight on Women’s Entrepreneurs with Disabilities (SWED) project is a systemic change initiative to better understand the experiences of women with disabilities in the entrepreneurship ecosystem.
New Power Labs is partnering with Eviance on this project to address the data and information gap in the entrepreneurship sector and support the economic security and prosperity of women with disabilities.
As the process facilitator, New Power Labs is supporting the co-design and piloting of a shared data tool that will give small business program providers and funders the intersectional data they need to better support this community.
Project aims
Data on disability in entrepreneurship
Identify how the ecosystem currently captures and uses disability-related data.
Knowledge mobilization
Bring attention to the gap in knowledge and reporting on the experiences of women entrepreneurs with disabilities.
Supporting women with disabilities
Collaborate with ecosystem actors to increase supports for women with disabilities in entrepreneurship.
New Power Labs is an action-oriented think tank dedicated to expanding access to capital for underfunded and overlooked leaders and communities. We work with foundations, investors, asset managers, credit unions and banks to help channel capital to historically underfunded and overlooked leaders and communities, unlocking the full potential of our country across diversities (gender, Indigenous identity, ethnicity, ability, neurodiversity, socioeconomic status, citizenship status, language minorities, and others).
New Power Labs is mobilizing funders, investors, lenders, and asset managers in Canada to collectively unlock $500 million for underfunded and overlooked founders and leaders by 2030 through the Fund Canada Initiative. By challenging norms and shifting policies and practices in philanthropy, investing, and across the capital spectrum, an inclusive economy that works for everyone in Canada is possible.
About us
Eviance is a non-profit Organization of Persons with Disabilities (OPD). We apply an intersectional, human rights, and reflexive approach in our work. Our vision is a society where persons with disabilities can fully participate in all aspects of community life through equitable, inclusive, and accessible systems.
Acknowledgement
This project has been funded by Women and Gender Equality Canada.