Social enterprise founded by SOAS student selected for Santander X Entrepreneurship Awards

8 June 2021

Vocal Communities, founded by SOAS MSc International Politics & Diplomacy student Angelo Eduardo Da Costa Mengowako, has been selected to represent SOAS University of London at the next Santander X Entrepreneurship Awards 2021.

The Santander X Entrepreneurship Awards is one of the UK’s largest student and graduate business pitching competitions. Participants are competing to win up to £75,000 worth of business support.

Vocal Communities attend an All-Party Paliamentary Group (APPG) meeting (pre-lockdown) to discuss how school exclusion can lead to crime. They were joined by the then APPG on Knife Crime Chair Sarah Jones (Labour MP for Croydon Central) John Cryer (Labour MP for Leyton & Wanstead).

Vocal Communities is an ethnic minority-led organisation that gives disadvantaged communities the skills and education they need to influence change. Founded by activists and young local politicians from Waltham Forest, East London, the organisation has since advocated for various issues that affect communities from knife crime and school exclusions to Covid-19 Outbreak Panel and Parliamentary debates.

Angelo said: We're on a mission to give communities open democratic access, a voice, and promote economic literacy by working with educators, corporates, policy-makers and third organisations. Our Councillor Academy programme will seek to broaden representation across local government. This is why we want to provide individuals from disadvantaged backgrounds an opportunity to become a leader for their communities and reflect the true diversity of London at the Local policy-making level.

The Santander X Entrepreneurship programme will provide a bespoke online programme to help businesses scale, culminating in a pitching competition this autumn.

Read more on Vocal Communities #DemocracyThroughConversation #DemocracticEducation WWW.VOCALCOMMUNITIES.ORG