ENTREPRENEUR BIZ TIPS: Entrepreneurship as a Pathway Out of Crime | Sheena Leaf | TEDxTorquay

Here’s Great Tip: Entrepreneurship as a Pathway Out of Crime | Sheena Leaf | TEDxTorquay

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Founder of The Entrepreneur Inside and advocate of rehabilitation for offenders, Sheena Leaf shares her story of delivering the UK’s first comprehensive in-prison entrepreneurship programme. Sheena trained as a mental health nurse and, since 1998, has been a co-director in two family businesses. Since 2011 she has been working in the social enterprise sector, supporting the development of start-up social entrepreneurs.

Currently, Sheena is the founding director of a new social enterprise, The Entrepreneur Inside CIC, which aims to develop legitimate entrepreneurship in people who have lived experience of the criminal justice system.

In 2015 she was awarded a Churchill Fellowship to visit Norwegian and Texan prisons to research entrepreneurship and the role of social enterprises in the criminal justice sector.

Through the 2014 ‘Frontline London’ programme, sponsored by the Evening Standard, School for Social Entrepreneurs, the Cabinet Office and Lloyds Bank, Sheena supported young people with convictions and former gang members in London to develop their legitimate entrepreneurship. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at