Annah Stretton is the founder of the Annah Stretton fashion label, a successful New Zealand entrepreneur (celebrating 25 years in the business of fashion this year), an author of seven books and an in-demand public speaker. With a strong digital platform and 15 retail stores, her philanthropic efforts provide substantial support to a very wide range of charitable groups and organisations across New Zealand. She has also been the recipient of the coveted Veuve Clicquot business award, and has an Order of Merit for services to business, fashion and community. Annah also currently chairs the Waikato Women’s Refuge governance board, and sits on the UNICEF NZ board.
In 2013 she set up her own Foundation and formed RAW (Reclaim Another Woman). RAW, a national model, was launched in the Waikato in February 2014, where the first stage of the pilot looked to get change for socially disadvantaged women from the Womens’ Refuge environment. RAW is now in its second pilot stage working with incarcerated recidivist female offenders for whom the current Corrections supported re-integration models fail to achieve a permanent successful return to our communities.
To date RAW has had an 86% success rate. RAW is a first for this country (and has now been fully endorsed by Corrections) as Annah has made real inroads into the huge problem that this country has with repeat offenders. The strength of this work is such that, in September, she was awarded the Ernst Young/ASB social entrepreneur of the year for 2015.
Log in to view