At the heart of the most significant and lasting social innovations you will invariably find a social entrepreneur. Those 'unreasonable people' who seek solutions where most have given up trying and take 'no' as an opportunity are central to the positive social change we at TACSI are working towards.
It is fair to say that there are as many descriptions of a social entrepreneur as there are challenges to face. Yet, there are common threads to the character, motive and method of people like Muhammad Yunus, Michael Young or Steve Lawrence. Here are a couple of the more pervasive definitions:
Social entrepreneurs are individuals with innovative solutions to society’s most pressing social problems. They are ambitious and persistent, tackling major social issues and offering new ideas for wide-scale change.
Social entrepreneurs drive social innovation and transformation in various fields including education, health, environment and enterprise development. They pursue poverty alleviation goals with entrepreneurial zeal, business methods and the courage to innovate and overcome traditional practices. A social entrepreneur, similar to a business entrepreneur, builds strong and sustainable organizations, which are either set up as not-for-profit or for-profit companies.
It's not easy, being unreasonable, and many social entrepreneurs find that they lack the support structures they need to make their enterprises effective and sustainable. But what's the most effective way of developing that support?
In an effort to find an answer, we'll be assessing the feasibility of existing models of support, such as the School for Social Entrepreneurs (UK & Australia), the Hub (Global), UnLtd India (India) and Heart (South Africa). We'll also be talking to as many local changemakers as we can find, to gain a better understanding of their needs and the challenges that they're facing.
We'll be investigating how best to nurture the rise of the social entrepreneur and using South Australia as our laboratory. Like anywhere in Australia, South Australia can be a tough place for emerging social entrepreneurs and their enterprises so let's find out how we can provide better support to these 'unreasonable people' and help positive social change to occur.
If you feel like you might be able to contribute, know someone who would, or if you would like to join our growing community of social entrepreneurs, get in contact with Jason Quin, the Social Entrepreneur Project Leader.
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