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Hello, I hope all is well with you today.
As you know, this is a MOOC called
Social Entrepreneurship: A Grassroots Revolution.
and I would like to take a look at the issue, the question,
"What is the social entrepreneur revolution, and why should you be revolutionary?"
Here is the outline for what I would like to talk about today.
First, the meaning of social entrepreneurship.
Second, my model for this revolution.
Third, a project example number one.
Then a project example two.
And last, the importance of following laws and regulations.
But first I would like to be sure that everyone is aware that
we have a MOOC website where you can find
any information about this course and future courses.
Also, our Facebook address.
All you need to do a search for, "social entrepreneurship program."
And then also I would like to again mention the optional book.
It is a small book, written by me, it is not needed for this course,
but you might find it to be helpful as a a written study aid.
The meaning of social entrepreneurship. Let's look at those two words.
The first one is a pretty simple, small word. The second, is a fairly long word that comes from the French language.
Social: refers to people and interaction.
Entrepreneurship: a part of what that is referring to is innovation and finding new ways.
I would like for us to view social entrepreneurship as the following:
Using innovation to find new ways to assist people in need.
What is a social entrepreneur?
This is: "One who starts a new project devoted to helping a category of people in need
or one who improves
an existing project devoted to helping
a category of people in need."
Examples of issues include:
the homeless, abandoned children, drug and alcohol addicts, migrant worker difficulties, and school dropouts.
But the list is very long.
A comprehensive list... I have never constructed a comprehensive list, but there would be hundreds of items and this is because there are so many problems.
The world is open to us, the world is open to you, and wherever your heart leads, that is where you might want to go.
What is my model for this revolution? The grassroots revolution
is in some ways very simple; it involves people who care about others
stepping forward to make a difference. I believe that most people,
at some time in their lives, would like to start a project
to help some category of people about whom they care.
Indeed many famous, wealthy people
are starting big projects to help
people in need, and although this
activity of these famous, wealthy people is wonderful, my model is different.
We do not need to start large, expensive projects to help others
Small, local, grassroots, projects are the key to the model I propose.
Wealthy, famous people are doing wonderful work with the projects that they have and oftentimes they receive worldwide publicity.
But what I want to encourage is normal, everyday people. People who are out there just living their lives like I presume you and I are doing.
In place a big projects
It is possible for us to have thousands of small projects
and in the process change the world.
My model for this revolution invites you to select a category of people about whom you care.
Nobody else tells a social entrepreneur who to help. We help those we want to help.
This is an important issue to me. We our self- determining as a social entrepreneur.
We work with the people we decide to work with.
Just as a business entrepreneur is not told what venture to pursue...So, nobody else is going to tell social entrepreneurs what to pursue. We are self determining.
My model for this revolution involves us building our project model on paper,
and then deciding when in our lives is the best time to initiate the project.
Life is Busy...Life is Crazy Right now may not be the best time for you to start your project to help others.
But may I suggest that now is the best time for you to build your project on paper?
Because life is busy... life is crazy...
I fear that you will never come back to this issue if you walk away now.
This is a fascinating point to me; you are free to leave this course anytime,
but, I'm afraid if you leave that you might not come back. So, I encourage you to participate, Thank you for considering this.
I believe there are millions of of people in our world, right now, who are living good lives but want to do more to help others in need.
The problem is that many people do not know how to truly make a difference.
This course is one answer to those people who want to help but do not know how.
This course explains how to structure a project to help others.
In this course we will start with your idea of how to help a category of people you have selected.
I then share step-by-step tools for you to build your project.
It does not matter where you are or what you are doing;
there is a place for you in this peaceful, grass roots revolution.
You might be a young person looking for a career.
Well, one of the things that I am going to try to do in this course is to provide an explanation to you as to how you can start a career in social entrepreneurship.
You might be a successful business person and, what I would like to help show you is
how you can add to the work that you're doing,
in your successful business, to not only bring positive publicity to your business but also to help people in need.
You might be mid-career and not very satisfied with your work.
I would like for you to consider the possibility of starting a project, and earning a salary as a social entrepreneur.
You might be near retirement or in retirement. You may have had a good life and you want to give back more to your society.
Just about any type of person, any type of normally functioning person in our society, can become a social entrepreneur.
Surprisingly, some of the biggest ideas in our world to help others who are in need do not come from professional social entrepreneurs.
They come from people who have innovative ideas
just as they are living life.
What amazes me, what excites me the most
is when normal, common people have good ideas
and step forward to change a small part the world.
We do not need big projects to change our world.
We need many small, grassroots, local
community projects to change our world.
I would like to share two examples of everyday people
who had innovative ideas to help others.
The first one is Anne Mahlum,
who is from the United States and who
worked and lives in, still does live in, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Notice the site, this is from
CNN Heroes.
Anne, I think when the CNN Heroes project
started reporting on her, I believe, she was
28 years old and she was an avid jogger.
She was a marathon runner, my understanding is that
she would rise early in the morning and be
jogging around 5:30 and she would
jog several miles. I think she had a route
I think she had a route (of) several miles running through the city of Philadelphia
(with) the several miles running through the city of Philadelphia
and in the process she ran by, apparently, some homeless people who were sleeping on the sidewalks.
She ran by at least one homeless shelter,
and she ran by of course many, many other things.
I think that she, I suspect that she ran this route
maybe hundreds of times but one day
when she ran this route she had an innovative
idea. It was like a light bulb
went on in her mind and she thought,
"Why don't I try to start a running
project for homeless people
in this homeless shelter that I run by
every day." So she finished her run,
and sometime shortly after that she made contact with the director of the homeless shelter, that person liked the idea,
she made contact with some businesses,
and she got donations of some running shoes, and some running clothing and
With a relatively small amount work she
started a social entrepreneurship project. She started a
running club that that's called
Back On My Feet.
She had some requirements for this club.
The participants would have to be
staying at a designated homeless shelter
because she wanted people to be supervising the homeless
the she was going to be working with and running with.
She required that anybody who joins her club
has to be clean and sober for at least
30 days. If they show an interest
in (joining) her social entrepreneurship project
would provide free running shoes and running
clothes.
A club started, the club included not only homeless people
but also other people who had homes and who had jobs and
were doing well off financially; and so there was a mingling
of what we might call socially successful people
with these homeless men, in this case, who were having a difficult
time in life. Anna also,
her name is Anne Mahlum. Anne also
started a job training program
and she is wanting to have this program
spread to other homeless shelters.
Well this to me, this is a beautiful,
simple idea that illustrates the type a project that
we can start. I believe that Anne has started
a nonprofit organization based on this
and I'll be interested in in following that
progress.
A second project is from Nepal.
The country of Nepal in the capital,
Katmandu and this project is started by
Pushpa Basnet. Please also note the
reference to CNN Heroes a web link.
I would encourage you to go to each of these links and read more about these people
and the work that they've done. Pushpa, when she started, I think she was 21
years old.
She was a university student and this is when she had her idea, her social
entrepreneurship idea. She was a university student in Katmandu,
Nepal and one of the
course activities at her university involved
going to a local prison, a women's prison
and when the students were touring the prison
Pushpa was intrigued
by the children who were in the prison.
Now, here is the story as I understand it; Katmandu is one of the poorest
nations in the world and
when a parent is convicted of a crime
and is required to go to prison
the parent has a difficult decision sometimes. If there is not someone to take
care
of the child or children then there are two options.
One is to have the children live on the streets
of Katmandu in one of the poorest nations in the world.
Which obviously is not a good situation for the children.
The other option (is that) the Nepalese government
allows prisoners to bring
their children to prison.
Now, in the United States this is an unusual idea but
that is the situation in Nepal.
Pushpa observed these children
(during) this trip in a university course
to the local prison is what stimulated her idea
and she came away from that trip to the prison
formulating an idea. Her first idea was that she was start a daycare center
and she would take these children out of the prison during the day
and try to provide healthy and very positive activities for these children
and then return the children to the parents
in prison at night. later
she started a a home for these children
that involves full-time care.
Pushpa reports that when she started this idea,
when she started talking about this idea she said,
"nobody believed in me." She said,
"People thought I was crazy."
"They laughed at me." That is very interesting
because now, she is being honored by CNN
Cable News Network as a hero
in the world. What Pushpa did,
she was was not deterred.
Her commitment continued even though people around her were laughing at her.
She was able to receive some donation,
some donations from friends. She was able to rent a building
and this is how her project started.
At the present time, or at least at the time that this information was reported
on the CNN Heroes website
she is encouraging the parents in prison
to do some handicrafts, to do some craft
work, to create some products that she can sell
to offset the cost of her taking care
of these children. Also she has the children
making greeting cards that these cards are then sold
and the the money goes to pay for
the service. Pushpa says that
she wants the children to reunite
with their parents after the parents come out of prison.
But again here is ,what to me is, just
a fascinating example of
an idea, an innovative idea. It is the type of idea that
some people might think, "Wow, why didn't I think of that."
Anne Mahlum with the running project.
Simple, simple idea but
I don't think it's been done before and so it is innovative.
Pushpa Basnet,
again, sort of a simple idea. The work that she is involved in
is extensive; she is essentially devoting her life
to this work. Where as Anne's project
does not require Anne to devote her life to it.
She devotes just a small part of her life.
The point is that, to me, these are fascinating projects.
I wanted to share these with you too
to help develop a sense or develop a feel
of the types of projects that I am talking about
in this course.
These people are part have a worldwide revolution.
It is a revolution of goodness.
We are all invited to join this revolution.
The last issue I would like to take a look at today is the importance
of following laws and regulations.
Following laws and regulations, in each of our countries,
is important. The peaceful revolution I promote in this course
involves a commitment to work within the systems
of existing nations.
It is very important that government authorities understand
that we are committed to working within the existing system.
As social entrepreneurs, we add to
the work our government does to help people in need.
To me
the fact that we supplement the work of government, to help citizens in need
is exciting. Someone would suggest
that we are engaging in civic responsibility.
We are strengthening our nation by the good we do.
Indeed there are several levels of good
in social entrepreneurship work.
One is that we help people in need, a second is that we strengthen
our society and our world, and a third
is that we bring greater meaning to our lives.
It is an honor that I join you on an adventure
that might change your life.
Thank you for being a part of this course.
I hope you have a good day.