Alkimos entrepreneur using business to empower

AN Alkimos entrepreneur is using her business to empower women and girls through education and leadership programs.

Cassie Dewar founded an eco-friendly stationery label, Inspirationery, two years ago and donates half of her profits to charities such as Plan International Australia and Care Australia.

Nominated for Uniting Care’s 2016 Anti-Poverty Awards, Miss Dewar said winners would be chosen through online voting and she hoped to garner community support.

She launched Inspirationery in late 2014 through a Pozible crowdfunding campaign, which secured more than $20,000 pre-orders for the launch collection in less than 28 days.

Miss Dewar said that success enabled Inspirationery to develop its products and make an initial donation to Plan International Australia.

“Before discovering my love of social enterprise, I began my career in the fast paced world of global communications agency,” she said.

“It was during this time that I was personally subjected to gender discrimination.

“This very personal and deeply upsetting experience drove me to want to empower women and girls and through my research I found that education was the best way to do this.”

Driven to find more purpose in life, Miss Dewar said the idea for the business stemmed from her love of “beautiful stationery”.

Since the launch, she said it had become about more than stationery, encouraging people to chase what inspires them and harnessing their collective potential to make a positive mark on the world.

Miss Dewar is also looking forward to attending a conference in Noosa from September 14-17 after another win.

“I have also recently won a scholarship to attend the 2016 invite-only Women in Focus Conference as well as for my work with Inspirationery,” she said.

St Stephen’s School in Carramar has also entered its soup kitchen and garden blitz program into the school category of the Anti-Poverty Awards.

People can vote at antipovertyawards.org.au until September 16. The winner will receive $500.