Week One: What is Social Innovation?

     This weeks topic during class explained what social innovation is, and how it can effect the world. If I were to summarize what social innovation is in extremely simple terms, it is the ways people can both do things that are a net positive for society and make money. For example, investing in ethical companies that do good for the world is one way the everyday person can participate in social innovation. Companies that hire disabled or other disadvantage workers is another form of social innovation. Starting your own business that assists local communities is yet another form of social innovation. 

    Part of my studies this week included watching a few videos about social innovation, the one I'm going to discuss talks about BYU's The Ballard Center. Link to the video here. What really surprised me while watching this video was how creative the solutions to problems the students were. I found the young man who discussed his solution to the amount of food waste particularly interesting. Turning wasted food into dirt so people can grow more food, what a wonderful idea. Another thing that struck me about this video is that all of the businesses that were featured were started and run by men. That's not to say there weren't women in the video. There are several, one woman even talks about how she could use her advertising skills to work for social entrepreneurs. But none of the actual businesses were women owned/operated. It causes me to wonder why that is. Is it a coincidence?  Are women less likely to start their own social entrepreneurship endeavors? Or are there more barriers that women have to overcome in order to hold their own in the social entrepreneurship sector? These questions also make me think about the struggles that women have in general, and what kind of solutions I could possibly look into in order to help. 

    Social innovation is more popular today than ever. I think this due to a few different factors. The first being non-profits, private businesses, and governments are more willing to collaborate to solve social issues. Another factor is that with how connected everyone today is online, it can be easier for entrepreneurs to see the needs people in their communities have, and do the extensive research it takes to come up with viable solutions for those needs. 

    

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