The 2011/2012 SiG Social Impact Series examined the latest thinking by the SiG leadership team on social innovation and its related topics. You can view all of the presentations by following the links below.
Frances Westley on Social Innovation and Resilience
Frances Westley launched our series in early November. Frances is the JW McConnell Chair in Social Innovation at the University of Waterloo and the co-Founder of the Waterloo Institute for Social Innovation and Resilience. Frances is an internationally-renowned social innovation academic and is co-author of Getting to Maybe: How the World is Changed. Frances frames her discussion around Social Innovation & Resilience. Resilience is, like sustainability, linked to the capacity to balance a healthy environment with a vibrant economy with social justice. Click here to view her presentation and to access further resources.
Stephen Huddart on Managing Social Innovation
* why do we need managers who are skilled at social innovation?
* what are the key capacities that leaders and managers bring to social innovation?
* how do we create a social innovation culture inside our organisations?
* how do we become a society that practices continuous social innovation?
Allyson Hewitt on Shared Value and what it means for the non-profit sector
Allyson discusses Shared Value, the concept first popularized by Michael Porter and Mark Kramer in their Harvard Business Review article, and shape the discussion around the impact & import for the non-profit sector.
Cheryl Rose on Supporting Social Innovation through Community-University Partnerships
Really effective collaborations between communities and universities are of increasing interest to organizational leaders, policy-makers, students, teachers, and researchers. They have the potential to be a crucial source of social innovation in the 21st century. SiG@Waterloo has worked with five outstanding examples of such collaborations to find out what perspectives, processes and practices allow them to significantly support innovation to emerge, be sustained and to positively affect some of the most challenging problems of our time.
Tim Draimin on Global learning: From Canada to Oz and Back
During this presentation, Tim discusses a recent visit to Australia where he was invited to speak at the Social Innovation Summit, an initiative of the Macquarie Group Foundation. "From Canada to Oz and Back", compares Australia and Canada and their respective social innovation and social finance ecosystems, looking for synergies for development and lessons we can learn.
Care, caring, and caregiver are words used to describe those who take care of family members or friends out of love. These terms are also used by those who are paid to help and support others. This is confusing on a number of fronts.
That the dimensions, requirements and scale of natural care is invisible is a serious public policy issue. We have relegated it as a private matter. In fact, it defines us as a species, as a country, as a society, as an individual.
Tim Brodhead on Key trends in philanthropy for grant seekers from a SI perspective
Tim Brodhead outlines the challenges for the non-profit sector and the areas of opportunity. In an age of decreasing government support, and a changing donor demographic, what can charities and non-profits learn about how to maintain their missions and scale their impact?
Dr. Ilse Treurnicht on Innovation: then, now and next
Rounding off our first Canadian Social Impact Series, Dr. Ilse Treurnicht, CEO of the MaRS Discovery District took us through the evolution of the Toronto-based innovation convergence centre, its embrace of social innovation by its Founder, Dr. John Evans and its plans for the future. The great thing about this final presentation from the SiG leadership team is that it showcased the strength of the partnership that has been created over the last 5 years.
Speaker bios in order of appearance:
Frances Westley: JW McConnell Chair in Social Innovation, University of Waterloo, SiG@Waterloo
Stephen Huddart: President and CEO, JW McConnell Family Foundation
Allyson Hewitt: Director, Social Entrepreneurship at MaRS, SiG@MaRS
Cheryl Rose: Director, Partnerships and Projects for SiG@Waterloo
Tim Draimin: Executive Director, Social Innovation Generation (National)
Al Etmanski: President and Co-Founder of PLAN, Director, SiG@PLAN
Tim Brodhead: Senior Fellow, SiG National. Fmr President, JW McConnell Family Foundation
Dr. Ilse Treurnicht: CEO, MaRS Discovery District
Visit our Inspiring Action for Social Impact Series page to view our past global leadership events.
