What Does Social Innovation Mean To You?

Social innovation is the process of creatively and specifically addressing social issues and developing and implementing solutions to improve society. I believe that social innovation relies on an in-depth understanding of the challenges presented, coupled with empathy and a desire to improve the world around us, not just for the issue or group at hand, but for society as a whole. While businesses create things to improve lives, social innovation is driven by a genuine passion to improve lives for the sake of improving lives and bettering our society. In many ways, I see social innovation as a way to align funds with personal values with the ultimate goal of creating new approaches to solve problems and strengthen society. 

Social innovation can happen in many ways, large and small, and can happen anywhere. At its core, social innovation addresses some of society’s most important and complex problems. On a small scale, I engaged in social innovation throughout my life through small initiatives with school clubs and organizations in my local community, seeing impacts first hand and in some instances immediately. I have also engaged with groups looking to make more wide-scale change. On a larger scale, social innovation relies on the collaboration of individuals, nonprofits, and the government. It’s citizens and systems coming together to passionately and creatively create mission driven solutions to some of our world’s most complex challenges and issues. 

Though there are many ways to define social innovation, and my own definition and how I engage with it has changed throughout my life, to me social innovation is a way to leave each community I engage with a little better than I found it, and that is why social innovation is so important to me.

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What does social innovation mean to you?

In a middle school English class I saw a quote by Mary Oliver that read “I don’t want to end up simply having visited this world”. This idea changed my outlook and, unknowingly, it made social innovation an integral aspect of my life.

Social innovation, in my eyes, is the ability to create meaningful changes that are better than existing solutions. In general, this tends to be tied to entrepreneurial efforts that prioritize a certain community. Social innovation typically has a multitude of definitions though, which leads to different actions with varying goals. Undoubtedly, social innovation requires the collaboration of the government, citizens, and nonprofits and is thus the most rewarding yet challenging form of innovation. The required coercion of three parties with differing intentions and viewpoints constantly blockades meaningful change. This large flaw, in my eyes, results from the inability to develop pragmatic, implementable solutions. 

Social innovation, even with its challenges, allows for endless possibilities for impact. It can restore communities, give power to the powerless, and help bring about a more ideal world. Right now, I see social innovation as the main path forward to normalcy. Following the pandemic, stories of hurt are going to be pervasive. To heal, social innovation will be relied upon to help bring about more equity than we have been used to in a long time. 

Ultimately, social innovation is a convoluted term, but to me, it involves using creativity to fix systemic problems. It is the best path to leaving the world better than you found it.