#young foundation

[citybench]

Solitude in public, sociability for free. http://youngfoundation.org

[intelligenthq]

Inequality: Taking Responsibilities

[dcidglobal]

Social Innovators without borders

Last week, we had five social innovators from Europe with us @the_young_fdn for an intensive weekend introduction to the UK market.

I had the opportunity to be part of a discussion in the social media cohort for one session. Here is the work that two of these inspiring social innovators from Italy and Spain are doing!

TwLetteratura 

TwLetteratura is a social reading community based on Twitter: They facilitate chats about books, allowing readers to explore, comment, modify and rewrite “tweetbooks.” After winning a prize on cultural innovation in February 2014, TwLetteratura is currently undergoing a business incubation programme at Make a Cube in Milan.

When I asked co-founder Edoardo Montenegro how they deal with the issue of young students being constantly on social media, he told me that the younger students are allowed to feed in their thoughts on paper; then their teacher tweets them. These and some other simple practices make them stand out as compared to many other social media initiatives.

Sustainable Reference

Nowadays significant time and money gets invested in clean tech (electrical cars, wind generators, biofuels, etc.) that contribute to reducing CO2 emissions. At Sustainable Reference (the makers of SustPro), they believe that if we collectively share all those sustainable solutions that are already available and can be applied in our jobs, companies, cities, homes and lifestyles, that we’ll gain a much bigger benefit than what’s gained by any individual technology by itself. Their ambitious objective: Contribute to a reduction of at least 1 percent of global CO2 emissions by the end of 2016.

Preeti Prabhu, Master of International Development Policy, DCID

[dcidglobal]

Lunch & Learn @ Young Foundation

The Young Foundation was set up as an urban studies think tank that combined academic research and practical social innovation.

This combination of research and innovation makes it a unique place to work among others. In order to facilitate information sharing, and to learn about the projects on which colleagues have been working, we organise what is called ‘Lunch and Learn’ sessions. Today’s was led by Tricia Hackett, Director of Applied Innovation.  

She shared with us the EU initiative on Innovation and Inclusion with URBACT working with the City of York (UK), Tallinn (Estonia), San Sebastian (Spain) and Syracuse (Italy). The initiative is designed to transfer open innovation methods for engaging citizens in identifying and solving urban challenges.

Like most engaging presenters, she shared a really cool video of the URBACT project in Syracuse that highlighted the impact of the work. (Unfortunately the video is not yet public). This was followed by a comparative analysis of the main results in each of the cities.

The key outcomes she shared are a powerful testimony of what can be achieved by low cost open innovation through a participatory approach.

“Our most grand reflection on the success of the transfer of practice related to how willing each city was to be humble, open, curious and brave!” said Tricia. The more they embodied these traits, the more successful they were in engaging citizens, generating ideas and creating better places.

Read more about the initiative.

PS: Notice that I use different spellings, organise and not organize for example. I’m not making a spelling error, my fellow American readers, this is the English way of doing it! :)  

Preeti Prabhu, Master of International Development Policy, DCID

[dcidglobal]

Unequal Nation!

Last week, the Young Foundation offices were buzzing with talk and tweets about the launch of a new report: Unequal Nation: The case for social innovation to work for a gender equal future.

Despite progress in the UK and across the world, women own less, earn less and have less power in decisions that affect their own lives and wider society. Levels of gender-based violence remain high, and gender stereotypes continue to limit what women and men can be and do. Young Foundation believes this doesn’t have to be the case, and society has the power to create a new gender equal future.

Gender Futures is working to develop a gender innovation ecosystem. This will bring together gender equality and social innovation actors to expose and challenge the root causes of gender inequality, and produce credible and inspiring alternatives.

‘Unequal Nation’ presents an up-to-date picture of gender inequality in the UK. It explores how gender equality and social innovation can come together to create a positive, gender equal future for men and women.

The report was launched with a panel of eminent speakers who have done extensive work in gender and innovation. They were all warmly welcomed by CEO Glenys Thornton @GlenysThornton.

Natalie Campbell, Unltd @NatDCampbell

Sarah Green – Acting Director of the End Violence Against Women Coalition, @sarahthegreen

Jon Huggett – Chair of Social Innovation Exchange @jonhuggett

Anne Kazimirski – Head of Measurement and Evaluation at New Philanthropy Capital @AnneKazimirski

Sara Llewellin – Chief Executive of the Barrow Cadbury Trust  -- Barrow Cadbury Trust ‏@BarrowCadbury

Read the Huffpost article about Unequal Nation.

Preeti Prabhu, Master of International Development Policy, DCID

[intelligenthq]

The Young Foundation: Fostering Social Entrpreneurship

[intelligenthq]

The Open Book Of Social Innovation

[wolffolinsblog]

Making social change happen

By Alisha Mody

Thursday's going to be a Good day. Good with a capital G.

Our friends from The Young Foundation will be at Wolff Olins London and together, we'll help kick start some VIP brands - those of The Young Foundations' Accelerators.

Ten (TEN!!) extraordinary, ambitious, change-the-world-through-business social enterprises will showcase their passion and business models and, in return, we'll help them clarify their brands and bring their businesses to Life.

The Accelerators survived a rigourous selection process during which they had to prove that they met the following criteria:

Focus on changing lives for the better Target customer groups who are inadequately served Operate a robust, sustainable business model Have the potential to grow and broaden their social impact Are thinking about routes to financial independence

Now, they are being propelled through an intensive, highly supportive four-month programme that will help them achieve their business and social goals.

We're meeting them in the midst of this process, so we're looking forward to hearing how they're faring and how they value such an innovative incubator. Our hunch is that these Accelerators will teach us a thing or two about the future...and how to get there.

Stay tuned for live tweets and insights from 2pm GMT Thursday 13 December.

  Alisha Mody is a senior strategist at Wolff Olins London.