She Rises

C-Hub: Innovation in Creation concept

The aim of the C-Hub project is to make the youth (18 - 30 years old) more employable through Creative Entrepreneurship in Jordan. IDare has been working into strengthening the capacity of youth in Jordan, building community, and creating conversation around Creative and Cultural Industries in Jordan. We started with an innovation process to build the concept of the C-Hub “The Creative Hub” to enable capacity building, knowledge sharing, and networking to occur within the Creative and Cultural Industries in Jordan. Through the C-Hub: Innovation in Creation we have been running programs supporting the young women and men in Jordan to be part of the Creative and Cultural Industries since 2018. So far, we managed to work directly with 650 people through onsite capacity building and blended learning approach during the Covid pandemia and 1206 indirectly through the 21 Meetups, Open Days and two forums about Creative and Cultural Industries in Jordan.

The aim of the annual forum is to bring together youth-makers, suppliers, and relevant stakeholders. The value of the forum is to create national dialogue around Creative and Cultural Industries in Jordan and to try to understand what is there, where we are and what is missing. Makathones also have been part of the C-Hub activities that were incorporated for the last two years where 26 people participated. In addition to taking part in different bazaars happening in Amman such as Jara Market, Christmas Bazaar and Hands Bazaar. The aim of joining the Bazaars is to give the participants real life experience in producing products and selling them directly to customers. Such hands-on experience is crucial to understanding the customer, the market, pricing, negotiation, what works and what does not work.

The capacity building conducted at the C-Hub is on site and later on we created a DIY video -Do It Yourself- tutorial that is available on our Amman DIY YouTube channel www.youtube.com/c/ammandiy. The aim of the channel is to support the makers community with Arabic DIY content about basics of making certain items. The learning journey is supported with technical aspects related to making products and to understanding basics of social entrepreneurship where the value proposition comes in. In addition to the practical part of the capacity building where the youth spend some time at the C-Hub to make certain products under technical supervision from the C-Hub coaches. Raw materials are always offered to ensure that makers-youth have everything they need in order to create and make.

C-Hub: She Rises… We Rise

The C-Hub is partnering with Google Organization for running a 3 years (September 2022 until July 2023) funded project aimed for women and girls in Jordan 18 - 35 years old from the central region of Jordan.  Through its recently funded project C-Hub: She Rises… We Rise, IDare for Sustainable Development is providing a safe hub for women to gain technical skills in the creative industry.

IDare for Sustainable Development - non profit applied for Google Impact Challenge for Women and Girls in March 2021. Out of 8000 applications in this global competition, IDare was among 34 organizations who got awarded by Google Organization. We are proud that IDare is the only and first organization from Jordan and WANA region to enter and win such a prestigious and global competition.

Through “The Creative Hub (The C-Hub),  200 young women will develop skills in design thinking, product making, and machinery handling within creative industries, including sectors that are traditionally male-dominated (e.g., carpentry). The C-Hub is one of the only central and safe community centers for women in Jordan.

Main activities: 9 components

Women and girls who will be joining C-Hub: She Rises… We Rise project will be part of a rich learning experience within the C-Hub ecosystem supported with coaching and hands-on experience.

Social entrepreneurship on line course in Arabic: based on our previous experience with the C-Hub project and needs cited by the participant, we developed a 5 modules online course in Arabic hosted on Udemy. The video classes are of around 6 hours duration. They take the learner into a full learning experience from the phase of dream into growing their business idea or startup. They will be ready to grow on their own after they complete the C-Hub project.
Design thinking mainstreamed: we realized the importance of mainstreaming design thinking as this is a prerequisite towards having a product that is covering a need in the market which comes with having the empathy being already created.
DIY video tutorial for making-basics: the YouTube channel is to support makers who are speaking in Arabic in basics of carpentry, wood, Artistic Epoxy resin and other topics. More DIY topics will be identified in order to create content for. The DIY video tutorial is to support our on-site capacity building where the participants join the C-Hub to apply what they have learned into making certain items.
Capacity building: onsite capacity building that is covering both theoretical and making aspects. Capacity building is covering; 2D and 3D design, CNC laser and router operation, 3D printing, carpentry and woodwork, and DIY startup kits where the participants get to keep part of the raw material at home to try and produce more prototypes for their experimentation and further idea development.
Makathones: it is a supported 2 weeks learning and making experience to work on tailoring the idea prototype at a tested level that is ready for investment. This is another strength at the C-Hub when it comes to idea development and having a solid prototype that is tested and ready to move to the next phase.
Internships: 18 participants will be hosted in a paid internship for 6 months duration which will provide them with a direct on the job training at a makerspace that represent future jobs as well.
Bazaars: each year we will be taking part in key bazaars in Amman in order to provide for the participants hands-on experience related to selling and dealing directly with potential customers.
Creative and Cultural Industries Forum: so fa r we did 2 forums and the aim is to have the Creative and Cultural Industries forum on yearly basis. The aim of the forum is to bring makers’ community and relevant stakeholders together, to exchange knowledge related to creative and cultural industries in Jordan, and to have a platform for an annual meetup for those who are engaged in the sector.
Coaching: Any ecosystem can not be complete without having coaching and personnel who are supporting an intensive and long learning journey. The whole life of the project is supported by technical teams and coaches.

More information

Timeline: 3 years: September 2022 until July 2025.

The Google.org Impact Challenge for Women and Girls commits $25 million to globally fund organizations creating pathways to prosperity for women and girls. This is an open call for applications, and selected charitable initiatives will receive up to $2 million, as well as opportunities for mentorship and additional support from Google. Link

The Economist coverage

The Google.org Impact Challenge for Women and Girls is funding 34 organizations supporting the economic empowerment of women and girls all over the world. Link