Optimism: A Key Ingredient to Spur Social Innovation

By Jennifer Corriero, Executive Director, TakingITGlobal

This past week, TakingITGlobal joined together with Social Innovation Park and Unicorns for Good in a partnership agreement ceremony that took place at Institute of Technical Education (ITE) College Central in Singapore.

Our shared goal for the partnership is to promote positive change through education, innovation, knowledge development, and capacity building focusing on youth empowerment, ensuring exchange of knowledge and best practices and the cultivation of mindful leadership in communities.

During the event, I was also invited to join a panel discussion on Empowering Youth & Water Innovation alongside representatives from organizations including the Global Water Partnership.

The room was filled with dignitaries together with emerging leaders who have been recognized for their outstanding contributions to community service. It was powerful to be part of a discussion together with the Chair of the Global Water Partnership (GWP), Mr. Pablo Bereciartua who highlighted many examples of innovations in the water sector and an award that will soon be launched by GWP.

My response to the panel question about the role of young people had me delve into the possibilities of igniting citizen science projects that combine monitoring water safety in regions around the world with student project-based learning initiatives.

I reflected back to the Shout project we partnered on years ago with Smithsonian and Microsoft where technology was used for good. In that collaboration, students measured tree growth as citizen scientists, and connected with DeforestACTION, a program inspired by students across Asia-Pacific where youth traveled as Eco Warriors to Borneo to investigate and shine the light on illegal deforestation in a documentary film.

In the panel discussion, I also highlighted how we have recently relaunched our Commit2Act platform as a tool to support youth in reducing their carbon footprint. One of the actions includes reducing single use plastic. There are so many ways that we can approach the response to the global challenges faced by current and future generations.

As social entrepreneurs, my co-founder Michael Furdyk and I were invited to speak about our experiences in a conversation hosted by Elisabetta Jiang from Unicorns for Good. We were asked to share insights on our experiences over the years along with any advice.

My recommendation for policy makers across Ministries of Education, Ministries of Innovation and/or Ministries of Youth is to invest in cultivating a social innovation mindset among citizens through global project-based learning experiences.

We have delivered many forms of micro-grants programs in regions around the world and at TakingITGlobal and we believe that it is critical to provide access to resources and supports for youth to respond creatively to the challenges they face and experience.

In addition to funding, access to mentorship, networking opportunities, along with spaces for citizen voices to be heard across generations are all necessary components to ensuring the ongoing vitality of the social impact sector.

As a final point of input, I want to underscore the importance of optimism. With the rise of eco-anxiety related to the climate crisis, we run the risk of paralysis and fear that prohibits our ability as a society to respond to the challenges we are facing. We need to hold on to our ability to envision a hopeful future as we work towards creating one together.

Unicorns for Good (UFG) is a global platform bringing together global leaders and global institutions from the lab to market value chain, including leading universities, research institutes, tech-for-good companies, MNCs, investors, government agencies and media to create a global impact ecosystem, to accelerate deep-tech translation into scalable solutions to solve UN SDGs and create a more sustainable and regenerative world.

Social Innovation Park Ltd (SIP) is a Singapore based organisation established In 2006, that aims to bring about positive impact to individuals and communities to drive a movement to co-build an inclusive, sustainable and mindful world, through a collaborative network of over 200 partners in Asia Pacific and other parts of the world.