Derry Social Prescribing advocate finalist in Women’s Awards

Award-winning Derry businesswoman Jennifer Neff has been named as one of the finalists in this year’s Northern Ireland Women’s Awards.

This is the second year of the awards ceremony hosted by Oceanic Events, which is a celebration and recognition of the talents and achievements by women across Northern Ireland.

Jennifer is up for one of the two ‘Businesswoman of the Year’ awards, going head-to-head with eight other finalists. The results will be announced at the prestigious awards ceremony on Friday November 24 in Belfast.

Jennifer began her career working in social and economic regeneration; this experience is what led Jennifer – and co-founder Leeann Monk – to launch Elemental; now the UK and Ireland’s leading social prescribing technology provider.

Their success has seen the Elemental platform used by NHS health and social care teams and Voluntary and Community organisations across Northern Ireland, Wales, Scotland and England, but also saw Jennifer win awards at the Digital Leaders 100, Tech Nation Rising Stars 3.0 and Entrepreneur of the Year in Tech Excellence.

Jennifer now works directly with Integrated Care Boards; designing, implementing and demonstrating the value of integrated care innovation and mental health transformation across healthcare systems. She also acts as a youth mentor to promote social innovation, and previously founded and ran the Young Innovator programme in Dubai which she led for 4 years.

Speaking about her award nomination, Jennifer said: “I have devoted myself to halting avoidable health inequalities via social prescribing and have surrounded myself with the best co-founder, team and mentors throughout the co-founding and scaling of Elemental. I take great pride in representing my city, and Northern Ireland, in being nominated alongside some of our most creative and successful women. I am proud to be a woman in tech and am looking forward to attending the awards with my daughter and all the other nominees”.

A Spokesperson for the Northern Ireland Women’s Awards said: “We are truly humbled by the overwhelming response we received for this year’s Northern Ireland Women’s Awards. The sheer talent, resilience, and commitment exhibited by the finalists have left us in awe. Their achievements are an inspiration to women everywhere, empowering future generations to aim high and break barriers.”

The La Mon Hotel & Country Club in Belfast will play host to the awards ceremony on Friday November 24, with an evening of keynote speeches and performances as the winners are revealed.