Final Reflections

 

 

 

Final Reflection

Susan M. Scott

BUS374:  Social Innovation

Brother Ian Davis

July 21, 2021

 

Introduction

Social Innovation is an important topic in today’s world.  For decades, organizations and individual people have worked toward solutions to social problems such as poverty, health care, housing and the environment yet these problems not only still exist, they are increasing in severity.  Previous models of charitable donations, grants and volunteerism help alleviate symptoms of the problems, but do not address the root causes.  This is where true innovation comes in.  By using creativity and different approaches to social problems, social innovators are finding ways to create sustainable programs that address the cause of the problem rather than simply applying a temporary fix for symptoms.  These innovators and entrepreneurs have the best chance of finally reversing the upward trends of large social issues and building a better, healthier, more sustainable world for our children and grandchildren.

Personal Experience

My overall experience during this course was one of increased understanding, enlightenment and excitement.  I was unaware of the concept of social innovation, and throughout the course discovered inspiring ways that entrepreneurs and innovators are changing the world.

Learning Progress

            At the beginning of the course, I was confused.  How did creating a social business apply to my major of Applied Health?  I had a negative attitude toward the course for the first few weeks, because it felt like a waste of valuable time and money.  Once we started studying cases in the text, and listening to TED talks by entrepreneurs and innovators, I began to see how the concepts of social innovation did apply to public health, and I became engrossed in the concepts and processes of developing self-sustainable interventions to solve health problems.  I even found myself excitedly sharing my new learning and insights with friends, explaining how innovative social business could be applied to problems in our local community.

Difficulties and Successes

Because I tend to be a “skimming” reader rather than reading deeply, I struggled with the course content.  I learn more easily when important ideas and constructs are presented without extraneous fluff and back-story.  Given lists, charts and tables of facts I am able to absorb and remember information, but when it is presented as an extensive article or biographical story I quickly lose interest.  I overcame this, especially in the textbook readings, by skimming and highlighting important parts of the text, then going back and reading deeply to absorb contextual nuances.  This added to my understanding of topics and concepts, while allowing me to preserve my habit of separating concrete information from extraneous content.

My preconceptions about the course as well as my world view of social problems were both challenged during this class.  While I knew that throwing money at problems was not a sustainable solution, I had no idea that charity often exacerbates a social problem by creating dependency rather than fostering self-reliance.  This was an important revelation both for my career as well as my personal life.  I was especially engrossed in the content describing how innovators created social businesses, where populations who had been dependent upon grants and charitable handouts were given tools and skills to become self-reliant and rise above their situations.  Because I live in a low-income community where we have a large homeless population and a significant number of community members depend on government assistance, these parts of the course were especially inspiring.  I was less interested in the large corporations who integrate social causes into their business models, because without a deeper understanding of corporate structures and finance, it appears to use extensive resources with little impact. 

Applications and Chosen Innovation

My chosen topic was originally “Released Prisoners Experiencing Homelessness and/or Substance Abuse.”  This evolved during the course to focus on reintegration resources for released prisoners.  Through the weekly applications, I was able to more deeply understand the foundations of why the formerly incarcerated have difficulties reintegrating into their communities.  Going into the topic, I held the preconceived notion that this population had a high instance of substance abuse and criminal activity upon release, and did not have a desire to gain education, job skills or stable housing.  As I worked through the various applications, studying existing programs in other communities and evaluating their impact, I gained insight about the real needs of the real people involved in this social problem.  I believe that the problem of reintegrating released prisoners to become self-reliant members of a community can be solved by creating hybrid social businesses that provide temporary safe housing while allowing population members to gain education, certifications, skills and job experience necessary for reintegration.  There is a difference between giving handouts and providing opportunities, and in this situation the need is for building skills, providing opportunities, and increasing self-efficacy.

Future Applications

            This course has inspired me to look at social problems, both large and small, from different angles.  Historically, grants and donations can only go so far in helping a population and innovative solutions that support self-reliance and sustainability are the future of solving these issues. 

It is exciting and inspiring to think of ways to solve problems within my local community using the principles from this course.  For example, my small town has three food banks, four free meal programs, as well as interventions from the nearby larger city like Meals on Wheels to combat food insecurity in our impoverished population.  However, there are no programs to provide sustainability or encourage more self-reliance.  These programs are all entirely charity-based and create a drain on resources with no plan for replacing those resources.  While I do not have the answers yet, I plan to investigate possibilities and try to develop innovations to help these food resources become more sustainable.  Instead of operating as separate entities, a coalition/cooperative would be a good starting point, where members of each organization could contribute ideas and input and resources could be pooled to create greater impact.  I hope to be able to use the insights and information gained in this course to make an impact on social problems as I move on to a career in public health.