- Global initiatives working for gender equality, Keychange and shesaid.so collaborate and extend mentoring programme we.grow

- Online events to discuss the role of mentoring in the music industry

Keychange, along with shesaid.so, reveal the successes of their we.grow mentoring programme, launched in April 2020. Keychange, funded by the Creative Europe programme of the European Union, will support 74 women and gender minority artists and innovators in 2020/21, 2022, and 2023 with international development opportunities, creative labs and mentoring. shesaid.so, who are a global community of women and gender minorities in the music industry, have run mentoring programmes in France, Italy, Portugal and Brazil. Keychange and shesaid.so worked together to develop a bespoke peer to peer mentoring programme that officially ended in December 2020. In a special focus week launching on 25th January, the global organisations will work together on content that will show the value of mentoring in empowering individuals, especially in moments of crisis. With no way to predict the huge impact that the COVID-19 pandemic would have on the music industry and the Keychange participants from Europe and Canada, since launching, we.grow has become more vital and valuable than ever.

Some key findings from the 35 peer-to-peer pairings, which lasted 9 months are:

- 83.8% will continue their relationship with their mentor/mentee

- 83.3% would recommend we.grow to a friend or colleague

Furthermore, speaking of the impact of Keychange in 2020: 

- 71.6% feel more connected to relevant international contacts because of Keychange

- 70.6% feel that Keychange has had a positive impact on their career

On Wednesday 27th January at 8am PST / 5pm GMT / 6pm CET / 7pm EET Harriet Moss, UK Director of shesaid.so and 2018 Keychange participant will host a live discussion with we.grow alumni anais and Kimmortal, plus mentee trainer Chi Chi Nwakodo. Sign up for tickets here.

“Being a mentor made me confident to apply to the program which can finance my project. I don’t know the outcome yet but the fact I did it means a lot to me. Besides that I built a valuable personal and professional connection with my mentee, which I am sure will influence both of our careers.” - Keychange Mentor

“I created a plan how to move with the development of my company (team, business model, new products). I finally made a big step forward knowing what is the right order with multiple changes to make.” - Keychange Mentee

Andreea Magdalina, founder of shesaid.so, said “Keychange has played a monumental role in addressing the gender gap in the music industry over the last few years and I am thrilled that shesaid.so was able to contribute to that journey via our virtual mentoring programme we.grow. Thanks to our partnership, we were able to provide connection & professional development support to Keychange participants at a time when it was so needed. We are excited to expand this collaboration in 2021 and continue bringing opportunities to women and gender minorities in the Keychange network as the industry is slowly finding its feet in this new post-pandemic environment. "

Merle Bremer, Keychange Project Lead said,“It’s very important to Keychange and our network that we collaborate and connect with other initiatives doing important work in the music industry to break down barriers for women and gender minorities, and work towards gender equality. shesaid.so are a powerful network, they share our values, and they created an amazingly supportive mentoring programme, we.grow, for our Keychange participants. We look forward to working with them in the future to empower individuals and make industry-wide change”