WE ARE PROJECT ACCELERATE
Making Lasting Change, Together
ABOUT US
Inspiring to achieve potential
Project Accelerate is a collective of inspirational women, who are passionate about enabling and empowering young women with huge potential from disadvantaged / low income backgrounds to gain a new direction in life through mentorship.
We focus on providing work experience opportunities, internships and personalized mentoring to build differentiated skills in our mentees. We connect them to networks that will support and guide them through key milestones in their lives - high school, university and their first career steps.
We partner with schools and higher education institutions to identify high performing, but under-privileged students to who the opportunity for mentorship and work experience would create lasting change.
Our vision is to create an ecosystem where our mentees take on key roles, as advocates, leaders, connectors and mentors within our ecosystem and create a sustainable model for the future by paying it forward.
Our
Story
Get to Know Us
Our founding members come from all walks of life, all industries, nationalities. We’re united by one thing - giving back through mentoring, building the life skills that made us so successful in the next generation of inspirational women. Project Accelerate is designed to give our mentees the skills and experience that helps them level the playing field against those from more privileged backgrounds. It’s a free programme for all our participants, and all our mentors volunteer their time or internship opportunities. All we ask is that each Project Accelerate graduate gives back and creates an ecosystem of women helping women, generation by generation.
What We Do
1-2-1 Mentorship
We have the most incredible network of women who feel passionate about making an impact and helping to level the playing field for young women from disadvantaged backgrounds. Our mentors volunteer their time to guide and advise our mentees, helping them to navigate university, job applications and their early careers
Work Experience
Too often, girls with untapped potential have their horizons limited because they lack access to the opportunities that can help them build skills and networks. Through our mentor network we connect our mentees with work experience and internship opportunities that will help develop both. In addition our mentors support in providing insights into the job market, support on CV writing, interview preparation and assessment centres.
Skills Development
Our aim is to help build up the specific “technical” or job skills and insights our mentees need in their chosen industries to enhance their employability, particularly those soft skills that help our mentees navigate complex environments. e.g. communication, team work, problem-solving, time management, mental health and wellbeing. One of the most important skills we help to develop is that of self-esteem and confidence, through encouragement and support we believe that self-belief will help them achieve their full potential, while breaking down the psychological constraints of underprivilege.
Paying it forward
A key tenet of Project Accelerate is the creation of an ever expanding ecosystem of opportunity. We expect all of our mentees to give back to our community - by becoming mentors themselves, working with their new employers to offer work experience placements and helping new cohorts to develop the skills that make them successful in their chosen careers.
Who we help
Our primary priority is to help young women, who come from disadvantaged backgrounds and who don't have the same opportunities to unlock their potential as those born into privilege. We aim to help level the playing field so they can unlock the same opportunities . These could be young women in Dubai who have reached the end of high school and (who for financial) have no choice but to return to their home country, or who may stay in Dubai but have to look for lower paid employment rather than continue education.
Regardless of their origin story, we support all these young women the same - we offer them skills, mentoring and work experience to enable them to break the cycle of poverty.
Below you can find out how we help young women from different age groups with the right support to take the right next steps for them.
Our Programme
How we help to level the playing field
Levelling the playing field for our mentees is not going to be fixed by mentoring and work experience alone. We know that there is so much more that needs to be done at a systemic, governmental and cultural level to deliver the life changing impact that our girls need early on in their lives. All we can do is to help them as early as possible with valuable skills, guidance and opportunities - all the things that can help them achieve the incredible potential which otherwise risks being lost through a lack of opportunity.
01
Skills and Confidence Building
Our aim is to help build up the specific “technical” or job skills and insights our mentees need in their chosen industries to enhance their employability . On top of that our primary focus is on soft skill development that help them thrive and excel in complex organizations - from communication, team work, problem-solving, time management, mental health and wellbeing.
03
New perspectives and stereotype breaking
A significant challenge for our mentees that keeps them within the cycle of disadvantage is that of exposure to different worldviews, cultures, work cultures and ways of thinking.
02
Career guidance, networking and work experience
​When it comes to careers, many of our mentees haven’t dared to dream of a career in an field that interests them - too often their futures are determined by family members or the lack of alternative opportunities. Our mentors coach on setting realistic career goals and developing strategies for achieving them. We provide insights into the job market, and have experts to support on CV writing, interview preparation and assessment centres.
04
Goal setting and mentoring
Our mentors have all set and achieved many of their life and career goals, and through their 1-2-1 sessions they work to understand and develop our mentees vision of their future, and then help them with creating a practical roadmap to achieve it
How you can get involved
Our overarching aim is to help our mentees gain skills and work experience that helps the to build a career and ultimately, financial independence. With financial independence comes empowerment to make decisions about their lives and escape the financial and cultural constraints of disadvantaged backgrounds. In doing so they act as beacons of hope and as inspirational women themselves to the next generation of women in their communities.
​
But for us to be successful, we need the support of community organizations, businesses and educational establishments - We find those with the greater potential, nurture and grow it, but it's the opportunities to put it into action that ultimately make the biggest difference to our young women in levelling the playing field
Our Inspirational Women
Our mentors are all inspirational women in their individual fields. They have diverse backgrounds, and overcome numerous challenges to get where they are today. They’ve overcome bias and discrimination, challenged social norms to power ahead and succeed both personally and professionally. They’ve juggled careers and motherhood. They’ve launched their own business and hustled to grow them into some of the most recognisable brands in the UAE. They are unified by their values and giving back to those who need it most. They are all passionate about the next generation of women, of helping them to achieve their full potential by navigating challenges and fighting for opportunities that would otherwise be inaccessible. If you want to join as and inspire the next generation of inspirational women, and you think you can commit to our mentees than we can’t wait to welcome you to our programme.
​
Below you can find the bios of our founding and wider mentors - the inspirational women that you would work with to change lives.
