Empowering Women Social Entrepreneurs
For the Future of Ukraine
About the Project
Empowering Women. Strengthening Ukraine. Building Contacts and Impact Across Borders.
We are launching a new initiative to strengthen social entrepreneurship in Ukraine, a powerful step toward resilience, recovery, and long-term impact. Co-delivered by Reach for Change, SILab Ukraine, and the Ukrainian Social Venture Fund, and funded by the Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs, the initiative connects the Swedish and Ukrainian impact ecosystems to support women-led and impact-driven enterprises, with a strong focus on inclusion, sustainability, and scaling readiness.
At the heart of the project is a clear ambition: to advance women’s economic empowerment and expand opportunities for internally displaced persons (IDPs), veterans, and persons with disabilities to lead change in their communities and beyond. By strengthening leadership capacity, improving market and investment readiness, and fostering cross-border learning between Sweden and Ukraine, the project supports social enterprises on their path to sustainable growth and scale.
Across Ukraine, driven entrepreneurs are already developing solutions to some of society’s most pressing challenges—ranging from workforce integration to green and circular entrepreneurship. With the right support, their impact can go further. Together, we are creating opportunities where entrepreneurship becomes a force for recovery, inclusion, and hope.
What the program offers
Tools, Mentorship and Impact Growth for Ukraine’s social entrepreneurs
The project supports social enterprises through a structured journey that combines social innovation, business development, and international collaboration. It begins with an Innovation Lab, where early-stage ideas are tested and refined, followed by tailored business incubation and acceleration programmes designed to strengthen scaling readiness. While the project primarily focuses on women-led enterprises, it also embraces a broader target group and actively encourages solutions that support the labour market integration of veterans, internally displaced persons (IDPs), and persons with disabilities.
Entrepreneurs receive hands-on support through business incubator and accelerator programmes focused on leadership, business strategy, market readiness, and green and circular entrepreneurship. This is complemented by thematic exchanges—both online and in person—where participants learn from peers, experts, and practitioners from Sweden, Ukraine, and the region.
International mentorship and study visits connect Ukrainian social entrepreneurs with experienced mentors, business leaders, and ecosystem actors in Sweden and beyond. These exchanges enable knowledge sharing, new perspectives, and long-term professional connections that support scaling and cross-border collaboration.
The project also provides direct financial support to selected social entrepreneurs, enabling them to invest in growth and strengthen resilience. Alongside this, ecosystem- and network-building activities focus on strengthening collaboration between the impact ecosystems in Ukraine and Sweden, laying the foundation for lasting impact.
Innovation Lab
Incubation Program
Acceleration Program
Swedish and Ukrainian Mentorship Program
Learnings and Exchange
Funding
Useful information
Project Manager: Olga Leobrandt
If you have any question, contact Olga via email: [email protected]
Project Partners
Reach for Change
Reach for Change was founded in Sweden in 2010 with the mission to unleash the power of social entrepreneurs to create a better world for future generations. To date, we have supported more than 2 500 change leaders across more than 18 countries in Europe and Africa, who in turn have reached more than 5 million indirect beneficiaries. Swedish funders and partners in our close networks include Kivra & Hogia, The Inner Foundation, Tim Bergling Foundation, Allmänna Arvsfonden, Vinnova and the European Social Fund, as well as several international donors.
SILab Ukraine
SILab Ukraine was founded in 2017 with the aim to develop an ecosystem of social entrepreneurship and social innovations in Ukraine via nurturing new and supporting experienced social enterprises, stimulation of social innovations among civil society organizations and social entrepreneurs, cultivation of social investment practices, mobilizing communities and strengthening social partnership for achieving social impact.
Ukrainian Social Venture Fund
Co-founded by SILab Ukraine and officially registered in 2022, the Ukrainian Social Venture Fund is committed to fostering social entrepreneurship and addressing critical social, humanitarian, and environmental challenges in Ukraine. Founded as Ukraine’s first impact investment fund, USVF was created to fill the financing gap for social enterprises and impact businesses, providing them with the necessary support to develop sustainable, scalable solutions that contribute to systemic change.