Taking the pulse on the Nordic Changemaker landscape

Taking the pulse on the Nordic Changemaker landscape

The Nordic Changemaker Map is a collaborative project with the objective to identify key stakeholders, networks, connectivity, and needed support to strengthen the Nordic ecosystem for social entrepreneurship and Changemaking.

The Map uses a Snowball Analysis method that enables a grassroots approach to and thus engaging Changemakers from all parts of the region. The Map will be conducted both through a quantitative approach of an online questionnaire, as well as through in-depth personal interviews.

The Nordic Changemaker Map invites 3 categories of Changemakers:
(a) established social entrepreneurs,

(b) young Changemakers, and

(c) Changemaker initiatives.

You can access the online map here.

Ashoka – Everyone a Changemaker
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Ashoka – Everyone a Changemaker

Ashoka is an international organization that promotes social entrepreneurship by affiliating individual social entrepreneurs into the Ashoka organization. Their stated mission is “to shape a global, entrepreneurial, competitive citizen sector: one that allows social entrepreneurs to thrive and enables the world’s citizens to think and act as changemakers”. Ashoka identifies and supports the world’s leading social entrepreneurs, learns from the patterns in their innovations, and mobilizes a global community that embraces these new frameworks to build an “everyone a changemaker world.”

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RfiY9rRsWqE[/embedyt]

Ashoka supports an “Everyone a Changemaker” world through its programs in more than 90 countries, building and amplifying this global movement in three stages:

  • Identify and support the world’s leading social entrepreneurs

    Ashoka finds and cultivates social entrepreneurs in every corner of the world, whose system-changing innovations solve deep-rooted social problems. After a rigorous application process, Ashoka invites them into the Ashoka Fellowship – providing early stage financial support and a lifetime membership into an expansive network of peers and partners – enabling them to achieve their vision and have even greater impact. The organization then draws on the insights and patterns of these 3,500+ Ashoka Fellows to understand what the future needs and how to create new solutions for building a better world

  • Accelerate the “Everyone a Changemaker” world

    Ashoka mobilizes a network of organizations to join them in shifting mindsets and reshaping how they learn, work, and live together to catalyze changemaking for the good of society. It partners with schools, universities, corporations, citizen sector organizations, media, and other influencers to co-lead this movement.

  • Equip Everyone to be a Changemaker

    Ashoka inspires and enables changemaking in the public-at-large, and work to give all citizens the confidence and tools to solve problems for the good of all. Specifically, it focuses on preparing the next generation to navigate this rapidly-changing world by ensuring all young people have the critical skills they need.

    Ashoka Social Entrepreneurship Programs:

    1. Ashoka Venture and Fellowship

    For more than 35 years, Ashoka has built and nurtured the largest network of leading social entrepreneurs in the world. After a rigorous selection process, they are introduced to a life-long fellowship, where every member is committed to championing new patterns of social good.

    2. Ashoka Support Network

    The Ashoka Support Network (ASN) is a global community of business leaders from a variety of fields who support Ashoka both financially and strategically.

    3. Ashoka Executive in Residence

    The Ashoka Executive in Residence program fosters high-impact collaborations between companies and leading social entrepreneurs (Ashoka Fellows) that have the potential to change the dynamics of traditional markets, enhance competitiveness, and create systemic social impact.

    4. Ashoka Changemakers

    Ashoka Changemakers is building a global movement where anyone, anywhere, can take action to solve a social problem in in their community. We work to build this movement by supporting social entrepreneurs, innovators, business leaders, policy makers, and activists who are changemaking, by delivering ground-breaking analysis, by accelerating intrepreneurship, and creating strong partnerships that will drive the movement forward.
    Read more here: https://www.ashoka.org/

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    This publication has been prepared within INDIGISE project. The content of this publication is the sole responsibility of the project coordinator and may not always reflect the views of the European Commission or the National Agency.

Entrepreneurship Training and Mentoring Circle for Women
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Entrepreneurship Training and Mentoring Circle for Women

Entrepreneurship Training and Mentoring Circle for Women (ETMCW) is a concept delivered by European Activism Incubator. It is a year-long innovative, flexible training programme directed to Brussels – based women, who wish to launch a social or environmental impact business, a social enterprise or a non-profit project. The training has been designed to support a diverse group of women living and working in Brussels in becoming economically empowered through entrepreneurship. Its aim is to provide women with solid and actionable skills, which will increase their initiative’s likelihood of success.

The design of the training will allow its participants to focus specifically on their idea for an impact project that they bring to the table. The skills curriculum is strengthened by a strong ICT element, as today’s entrepreneurial success strongly relies on proficiency in digital skills. The curriculum also addresses systemic challenges encountered specifically by women and teaches specific leadership and professional skills needed to overcome them on the entrepreneurial journey.

Innovative, responsive and inclusive

ETMCW provides a set of directly actionable skills for women, specific to their project. The participants immediately apply the business or project development principles, concepts or tools explained by a tutor to the project they wish to launch.

The progress of each participant is monitored and the content of classes is adapted and tailor-made to the individual’s needs. This markedly differs from a majority of classroom and online-based business and entrepreneurship courses, which teach a variety of principles that may or may not be relevant to a specific project, context, background or situation.

The responsive design of ETMCW also means that the course can address many important aspects that hold women back in addition to their gender, such as race, origin and class, making the programme truly intersectional.

The course departs from the traditional top-down, classroom-based approach to education, applying instead a mix of teaching methodologies that are highly empowering. It is interactive and participative, and includes circle discussions that build on emergent collective knowledge, experience exchange and mutual support.

The concept has been developed from experiences gained through the Beginner Entrepreneur Mentoring Programme for Women, which provided solid insight into the needs of women with entrepreneurship aspirations.

 

More information can be found here: https://activismincubator.eu/training/etmc-women

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This publication has been prepared within INDIGISE project. The content of this publication is the sole responsibility of the project coordinator and may not always reflect the views of the European Commission or the National Agency.

 

 

How to be a social entrepreneur?
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How to be a social entrepreneur?

For all those of you who think about becomming a social entrepreneur , we highly recommend watching a very inspiring speach by Andy Stoll at TEDx UIowa:

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8LVa9pb-n8[/embedyt]

Andy Stoll –  a Senior Program Officer at the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, which is one of the largest entrepeneurship & education – support foundations in the world. A storyteller and connector-at-heart. He committed to social entrepreneurial work  where his main focus is innovation, creativity, community-building, cities and most of all turning ideas into reality. He is a co-founder of a community-building creativity- and social entrepreneurial-incubator  The James Gang and Seed Here Studio.

During his 4 year long trip around the world he explored entrepreneurial opportunities and had a chance to study communities, economies, different education systems, cultures, media industries and of course people.

For his public service and social entrepreneurial work Stoll has been nationally recognized  by such organizations as Rotary International, The American Institute of Public Service and The Harry S. Truman Foundation.

Stoll is also a global facilitator for an initiative called Startup Weekend, which is a 54-hour event organized in more than 500+ cities worldwide, to give anyone that chance to try entrepreneurship.

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Where is entrepreneurship education heading?
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Where is entrepreneurship education heading?

What challenges of today’s world is the social entrepreneurship education facing? Should its’ content be reshaped and if so – how it should be done to make it effective?

As one of our main objectives at the social-impact-oriented Erasmus+ project – IndigiSE is to promote the concept of social entrepreneurship among youth and shape youth entrepreneurial mindset.  Thus we encourage you to read the article ‘Entrepreneurship education not enough?’ by Antonis Polydorou – Educator from Pool of Experts at the Out of the Box International, where the author explains why the one-dimensional approach to social entrepreneurship education needs to be changed.

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‘Entrepreneurship education is very important today not only because it promises long-term socio-economic benefits but also because young people benefit from entrepreneurial learning regardless of whether they are to set up companies or social enterprises. Through entrepreneurship they develop knowledge and basic skills, but also the required business mentality that helps them to turn their ideas into practice. It provides students with the tools they need to analyze and solve problems, to become familiar with uncertainty and risk taking, identify and create opportunities, make decisions, be able to communicate clearly and effectively and be able to innovate.

At the same time, however, entrepreneurship education as a child of the capitalist system focuses unilaterally on the pursuit of profit as the ultimate measure of the success of an entrepreneur and a business, ignoring the changes and the current needs of the modern world reality.

The results of this one-dimensional approach are more than visible today as for the sake of profit we witness social inequalities widening, the gap between rich and poor rising, the earth’s natural resources depleting, forests declining and climate change already showing its teeth.

  • Is it time to reshape the content of entrepreneurship education?

We are seeing a significant shift in the world today and new forms of action are emerging alongside traditional entrepreneurship, such as social and green entrepreneurship.

Social entrepreneurship emerges from the need to provide answers to the social problems of today’s world and to introduce the concept of sustainability and social justice alongside economic growth. Green entrepreneurship, which is essentially a form of social entrepreneurship, aims to develop business ideas that address specific environmental problems and needs that are at the same time economically viable.

Social entrepreneurship is a necessity of our time that must be incorporated into school curricula for entrepreneurship, but in order to do so, a set of challenges that accompany this endeavor must be addressed.

Firstly, the skills and expertise in social entrepreneurship lie with those who are setting up and running social enterprises and these people are not part of the educational system. Social entrepreneurs can undoubtedly provide considerable value and inspiration as role models but not all of them can or have the time or interest to teach. So, social entrepreneurs could substantially influence the quality of social entrepreneurship education by actively engaging in the design of educational curricula and in the design and delivery of professional training for educators.

Teachers on the other hand are more or less a group of people who are not characterised by a passion for entrepreneurship otherwise they wouldn’t be in the classroom. Often, talking about entrepreneurship in a school setting and focusing on economic value, profit and creation of companies can trigger resistance among teachers as it is connected with commercialism and consumerism, notions that oppose the traditional values of education. Social entrepreneurship as directed towards the concept of doing good to the society and the environment is more appealing in that sense so teachers can be more easily persuaded to be engaged. Investment is also needed in social entrepreneurship experience and development for teachers as part of teacher training programmes as well as to create opportunities for collaboration between them and social entrepreneurs.

Although there are similarities among educational systems globally, there are also differences and particularities influenced by the local context. So, a single model of social entrepreneurship education could not be implemented universally as every program should adapt to the local situation. Therefore social entrepreneurship education should align with national educational policies that should leave room to each school for flexible adaptations to the local conditions.

Another challenge is the risk of social entrepreneurship becoming just another subject within the curriculum, a danger that could undermine the potential and the essence of the concept. If social entrepreneurship is to create an impact for children and teachers as well, it should be based on a hands-on approach with authentic and real opportunities to experience the process of solving problems and creating value for others through creativity and collaboration. This could be more effective if social entrepreneurship was embedded into the life of the school as a cross-curriculum subject.

Overcoming the challenges towards effective social entrepreneurship education integration to the school system is yet another big challenge, yet a necessary one. Social entrepreneurship education is vital not only for creating new value in the education process, but also because our world today more than ever before needs people who will have the skills, the persistence and the creativity to develop innovative solutions to social and environmental problems.’

Source: http://outofthebox-international.org/

 

Am I a Social Entrepreneur? Jason Aviles
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Am I a Social Entrepreneur?
Jason Aviles

Youtube video is here.

Are you a social entrepreneur? Jason Aviles, born and raised in The Bronx, tells his inspiring story of working professionally with youth and what lead him to adopting a Yoga lifestyle and transforming his life. While on his journey of service and self discovery, he takes a moment to reflect on the topic of what it means to be a social entrepreneur.

Jason Aviles is CEO of FLYOGI LLC, Executive Director of Wilmington Placemakers Inc., Program Director of Wilmington Green Box and Co-Founder of Artist Ave Station. Jason graduated from consciousness-based institution, Maharishi University of Management (MUM), where he developed an original interdisciplinary course of study in Youth Development and Social Change. While attending MUM, Jason was introduced to Yoga and lost over 60 pounds. Jason later obtained his Yoga instructor certification and after graduating transitioned back to Wilmington, Delaware to launch his Yoga company, FLYOGI, which offers Yoga classes and outreach to schools, community spaces, and corporate workplaces. Since being back in Delaware he has lead several social impact ventures in Wilmington to support the arts and culture under his NPO, Wilmington Placemakers Inc., including programs like Artist Avenue Station and Wilmington Green Box. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community.

Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx

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This publication has been prepared within INDIGISE project. The content of this publication is the sole responsibility of the project coordinator and may not always reflect the views of the European Commission or the National Agency.

Why values are important
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Why values are important

Why are values important because they define you (and your social enterprise). They define the decisions you make. They are a means to communicate how and why you do the things you do.

 

Your compass

When you take a journey, even a day trip, what do you usually equip yourself with? A map or in most cases today Google Maps on your phone. In addition, in the adventure stories of pre-technology, the adventurer was equipped with a compass. Our compass is our values. They are the basis upon we make decisions. They point us to the proverbial “true north”. Without a clearly defined set of values we will falter in our decision making process and ultimately, lead us off the track of our end destination, our mission. Our purpose is the fuel that keeps us going, never giving up on our journey. Our vision, well that’s your binoculars (smile), to see beyond the horizon to know what is coming and how to fine tune our steps on our path. And finally the map. As with any map, we have various choices of routes to take to get to the end destination, whether it be the scenic route or the bullet route where bathrooms stops aren’t an option. The ultimate route is the silver lining path, it’s the balance point, and it’s the path of least resistance.

 

Every day we are faced with decisions. As social entrepreneurs we will likely come across challenges that ‘test our metal’, decisions that other’s lives depend on and discussions that re-iterate your leadership abilities. Values are our friends, they are essential to understand and clearly define for ourselves. They set the culture of a company, as culture is defined as “how we do things around here”. For any partner, employee and customer, by clearly stating your values you’re demonstrating the core of the ‘how’ you operate your business. Statistics show that the highest ranking page on any business site is the ‘about us’ page. People want to know who you are, what your purpose is and how you do your business. So including a section or page on your values is truly, invaluable.

 

 

Common ground for change

 

Our world is changing and we’re seeing increasing collaboration in the fourth sector (social enterprise, social business, BCorps) with the public, private and voluntary sectors in finding collaborative solutions. But the question that remains in non-capitalist sentiments is how can a social changemaker bridge these differing views of ‘how we do things’ and actually come to an agreed upon set of principles that all collaborators base their decisions on. I see the answer to that is: values. We can agree to a common set of values in our collaborative efforts no matter from which sector the individual or organization stems from. With defined values we have a clear set of guidelines to enable effective decision making.

 

In Muhammad Yunas’ book “Building Social Business: The New Kind of Capitalism That Serves Humanity’s Most Pressing Needs” he sees crises as an opportunity to exercise change:

“Furthermore, the current crisis— or, more accurately, the intertwined economic, environmental, agricultural, energy, health, and social crises— provides an opportunity for bold experimentation with new solutions. Social business has a better chance of changing the world than some past ideas because the concept is so powerful yet so flexible and accommodating.”

 

Values challenge us; sometimes it may not be easy. But at the end of the day, if we remain true to our values we achieve “success beyond success”

 

Related article

The Mathematics of Core Values

How to Build a Values-Driven Business

 

Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash

Flow State – a social entrepreneur’s ideal mindset
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Flow State – a social entrepreneur’s ideal mindset

Being in a flow state is the epitome of being in a state of being in the moment. Flow state is what I believe we’re all looking for when we’re fully engaged in something on our own or co-created with others. It’s when everything seems to perfectly come together when you, others and everything around you is in perfect harmony.

 

 

The flow state

The flow state is something when we’re engaged with an activity we feel absolutely in harmony with the said activity. To attain a flow state the activity would have some level of challenge, engagement and complete enjoyment or fulfilment. This is the goal for example in gaming; that developers attempt to mimic or create for the gamer. A degree of challenge (too little and you get bored and too much and you feel frustrated), complete focus on one’s attention, enjoyment (as it’s a game after all) and a relaxed state of mind.[1]

 

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi [2], a flow state researcher notes the following on characteristics of flow state:

  • Completely involved in what we are doing – focused, concentrated.
  • A sense of ecstasy – of being outside everyday reality.
  • Great inner clarity – knowing what needs to be done, and how well we are doing.
  • Knowing that the activity is doable – that our skills are adequate to the task.
  • A sense of serenity – no worries about oneself, and a feeling of growing beyond the boundaries of the ego.
  • Timelessness – thoroughly focused on the present, hours seem to pass by in minutes.
  • Intrinsic motivation – whatever produces flow between its own reward.

 

I am sure there is something we have all participated in where we may have touched upon this sense of flow: it could be writing, cooking, gardening, painting or drawing, dancing or coding (if you’re a programmer), or as a social entrepreneur contributing to your project and  its success. It’s when you’re so fully engaged with the process and focused on the task at hand, yet completely relaxed and positively enjoying what you’re doing. You often walk away from these experiences feeling uplifted; you have gained something from the experience.

 

State of flow with others: teamwork

It is a masterful art to create a team that can not only jam together, but can create a state of flow together; harmony. In those moments all are equal, and all are completely respected for what they have to offer the whole. Awareness of purpose of all members is the uniting force, for all passionately pursue it in their own respects and as a whole unit. Their values are the guiding force that deems what is OK and not OK, in the circle of co-creation. In the state of flow in a team, there is nothing needed to be discussed in these respects as each individual instinctively and intrinsically hold it as given (purpose and values). In Tuckman’s stages of group development the ultimate state is performing. But I dare say there is even more. It is harmony. It is as if as a whole, each person knows exactly what and when to contribute their part instinctively, they’re tuned into each other. They know, as with dancers, what the next step is, without having previously rehearsed. It just… flows.

 

Flow state inspires creativity

Ever been stuck and looking for inspiration? That usually implies you’re not in the flow. Flow can happen in your daily life, when people and situations just naturally come together. You couldn’t in those circumstances have planned it better, even if you tried. And that’s the point, you didn’t plan, you flowed. You allowed it to unfold and were open to the experience. Creativity is unplanned, unexpected. It is stimulated when we step out of the ‘usual’. Letting our life and experiences talk to us, in serendipitous occurrences.

 

Flow state is mastery. And none of us, not that I know of, can say they’re in it all the time. But I have have observed that people who do what they love and love what they do, more often step into the flow than those who don’t. Flow is one of those gifts we receive, when we step into the unexpected and allow ourselves to be vulnerable: to be open to the unknown, to experience and just “go with the flow”. I have never met anyone in a state of flow who regretted it. It’s highly recommended, and something we (me included) can all learn to cultivate a bit more in our daily lives, alone or with others.

 

How to attain a flow state ( an experiment)

Flow state is best discovered in a group environment. And the easiest and most available I have found is through music:  a good old jamming session. You would require a few members who are musically in tune and have the skills. They would provide the base or continual movement. Other’s more novel to the experience would join in at moments when they feel they want to add into the song: be it a different octave vocally, hands clapping on the table, cups or spoons. To feel the state, it requires a bit of letting go, and going with the flow.

 

References

[1] Jon Radoff in Game On: Eneregize Your Business with Social Media Games discusses a section on flow state.

[2] TED Talk: Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi: Flow, the secret to happiness

 

Photo by Owen Hartley on Unsplash

How Buying Social Is Changing The World?

How Buying Social Is Changing The World?

How Buying Social Is Changing The World – Great feature in @Forbes  by Judith Magyar.

This content is delivered to you in the framework of the SEBS2 project co-funded by the Erasmus+, as our aim is to popularize social business and social entrepreneurship in the Baltic Sea Region.

At the Houses of Parliament in London earlier this year, SAP Executive Board member Adaire Fox-Martin (pictured above) appealed to an audience of the United Kingdom’s leading social-enterprise CEOs and corporate executives to come even closer together to find “a better way to grow.”

Together with Chair Lord Victor Adebowale and CEO Peter Holbrook, Adaire announced SAP’s partnership with Social Enterprise UK, through which the two organizations plan to further scale the burgeoning social enterprise sector.

Social enterprises are normal businesses in that they generate the majority of their income through trade – albeit with several important differentiating characteristics. First, they have a clear social or environmental mission set out in their governing documents. They reinvest the majority of their profits back into their business or mission. They are autonomous of state. And they are majority controlled in the interests of their social mission.

Read full text on Forbes website here:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/sap/2019/07/25/how-buying-social-is-changing-the-world/#1bf46aaf7e76) forbes.com/sites/sap/2019… \

#BuySocial #socent

Read the newset article: ‘Social Entrepreneurship Education: Is it Achieving the Desired Aims?”
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Read the newset article: ‘Social Entrepreneurship Education: Is it Achieving the Desired Aims?”

We recommend a very recent research article (2019) on social entrepreneurship “Social Entrepreneurship Education: Is it Achieving the Desired Aims?” by  Debbi D. Brock and Susan D Steiner. This content is delivered to you in the framework of the SEBS2 project co-funded by the Erasmus+, as our aim is to popularize social business and social entrepreneurship in the Baltic Sea Region.

 

Please see the abstract here:

 

This study’s purpose was to uncover the challenges and best practices in the field of social entrepreneurship. We examined definitions of social entrepreneurship; the most widely used cases, articles and textbooks; and the most popular pedagogical approaches in 107 social entrepreneurship courses. Our findings suggest that faculty have done an excellent job of utilizing powerful pedagogical methods like service learning. In addition, the majority of courses covered opportunity recognition, innovation, acquiring limited resources, measuring social impact and building sustainable business models as core elements of social entrepreneurial activity. The greatest challenge involved teaching students about scaling social innovations*.

 

  • Brock, Debbi & Steiner, Susan. (2009). Social Entrepreneurship Education: Is it Achieving the Desired Aims?. SSRN Electronic Journal. 10.2139/ssrn.1344419.

The full text is here: Social_Entrepreneurship_Education_Is_it_Achieving_