Building resilience with refugee & migrant start-up entrepreneurs at Capacity Zurich

In April 2019, I delivered a Flow In Action Resilience Workshop for the young entrepreneurs participating in Capacity Zurich’s Incubator Programme for entrepreneurs with refugee and migrant backgrounds.  

Being resilient is something we can all learn, develop and deepen. Starting your own enterprise, means adapting to the everyday challenges, to stay creative in problem-solving and flourish; and resilience is what enables you to do that.

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​​I led this group of talented, feisty, focused start-up entrepreneurs through a series of activities, designed to build their resilience toolkit. From demystifying resilience (it’s not about suffering, it’s about learning to let go and adapt), to reframing ‘failure’ into a trigger for their unique creativity to flow into their ideas and solutions, to understanding what to do when they face specific challenges on their entrepreneurship journeys. 

Here’s some of their feedback about the impact that the session, delivered by me in English and live-translated into German by Isabelle from Capacity Zurich, had on the group.

"Attending the Resilience session with Elaine was a moment of inspiration and supportive coaching to move forward with our project. It was really beneficial as members of a team and as individuals with personal stories to heal and look back on them. The concept of realizing ‘I Am Unprecedent’ is something I´d like to remember all the time. Personally, it gave me an assurance that it´s right to listen to ourselves, not only for personal situations but for all situations we are in. It is not common to find workshops that do this link between how we are inside and how we perform at our 'business level´. I wish more people/Companies could take a look at this. I felt an incredible rapport with Elaine, she is sensitive, knowledgeable and inspiring to be around! Can´t wait to connect again." Spring 2019 Programme, Capacity Zurich
 
"I felt your facilitation and the journey you took us on was more then that. I felt that you shared your life experience and passed on your valuable lessons learned. I felt that your workshop had so much ‘Herzensblut’ as it said in German. Herz - Heart + Blut - Blood ==> so much passion, compassion, commitment and enthusiasm! 
This way - your way - can only be facilitated by someone who knows exactly what she/ he’s talking about! I felt you cared. And this all made your training , facilitation , session on resilience so valuable, so genuine, so wholehearted!"  Spring 2019 Programme Participant 

"Amazing workshop Elaine! Thank you. Your open spirit and joyfulness inspired us to jump in and out and test the tools. You reinforced the power of positivity and how important it is in building resilience, which is essential for entrepreneurship. For me it was the channel which reached not only my understanding but also my emotions." ​Spring 2019 Programme Participant

"I really loved your presentation, it was one of the most honest ones I know. And very encouraging!" ​Spring 2019 Programme Participant

Solution: Resilience Workshop
Topic: Resilience, Entrepreneurship Journey
Commissioned by: Capacity Zurich
​Date: April 2019

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“So, they have a program, they have like every subject, they have kind of I think five subjects, different from, starting from resilience, from prototyping, like soft and hard skills. So, this was amazing because of them. We covered what you needed to do to be an entrepreneur and to run a startup. So, everything was useful. For me the most useful part was probably the resilience part and the business idea. (…) The resilience part, it was a coach and she was talking about resilience within the group, within our cohort. And resilience for everything that you encounter outside and the resilience you need to have it to be successful with your project. This was amazing. And this and the work they do at the end is where you can get exposed. And also, I think what was very useful, the pitching and the contact with the mentors. We really get close to the mentors; we still are in a chat and we try to communicate with them. And they became like really part of our project.“ Spring 2019 Participant