Sprouting Ideas: Understanding Social Innovation

Innovation has become the buzzword ringing through everything from non-profits to the education system. We use it frequently and unsparingly, but what does it really mean and how do we use it to address the countless challenges we see in our communities and the world?

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For two months TakingITGlobal’s Sprout Ideas team has offered a week-long summer camp for students from grade 9-12 in attempts to help them answer this exact question: What is social innovation and entrepreneurship and how can we use it to change ourselves, if not the world?

In this process of answering this question, it was not just our goal to discuss what social innovation and entrepreneurship are, but to explore, develop, and build it. For a week (and hopefully much longer!) our camp participants became social innovators, developing and building projects and prototypes to address some of the world’s most pressing and difficult issues. From mental health to gender equality in the workplace, water filtration to global education, these students have immersed themselves into the world of social innovation and the results have been awe-inspiring to say the least.

Beginning with understanding the issues on day one, students are asked to start thinking of some of the most challenging issues that they can identify in their communities— ones which they want to, and actually feel they can, address. With the help of Twenty One Toys, which helps students work on building empathy and a way of understanding each other, students begin to develop an awareness and a sense of compassion for an issue. They learn that the only way to truly address a problem is to see it from the point of view of the person in need.

For the remainder of the week teams go through the process of Design Thinking and entrepreneurship training. From these activities they begin to develop an action plan for a project or business they feel will start to ignite a passion for change in everyone they have the chance to speak to (and it has!). However, the planning process is only the first step!

After participants have worked on understanding and planning their projects, they have the opportunity to start developing a product or service. With the help of our Graphic Designer our participants even get the chance to design their own logos and start building a brand around their project.

On the last day of the camp participants have the incredible opportunity to pitch their projects to a panel of experts for a chance to win a $200 gift card to kick-start the next step of their projects.  

In the five weeks that the camp has been run, campers have developed everything from energy saving devices to websites and apps that offer support to LGBTQ+ youth. 

It has been incredible to watch these youth begin to delve deeply into their issues and observe as their projects begin to change from ideas to actual goals they hope to achieve. As one camper stated, “the mentors gave me more courage to pursue my social issue project because I realized that carrying out my project isn't nearly as difficult as I thought”. We hope that this camp has only sparked the first bit of passion for these youth and that they continue onto the next steps of their projects.

In fact, at our last camp held at York University we had two students who proposed an idea, an idea which has already begun to take root in the York community.

Fatima and Maryan of the project Continuing Higher have decided to use York as a resource to inspire secondary school students to continue on to post-secondary. By connecting current university students to high school students in their community, Fatima and Maryan believe that they can encourage more youth to continue higher; but they’re not the only ones that believe this! Peter Chang, the Superintendent of Toronto District School Board has decided to take this journey with them and has offered to help them begin facilitating and fostering these connections. We are so grateful to have been a part of the first steps of these projects and we cannot wait to see all the amazing things that these youth go on to do. 

Our staff have been incredibly moved and inspired by everything these students have put together and have told people numerous times that these students have become a constant reminder of the reason why we are so passionate about TakingITGlobal’s mission of empowering youth to understand and act on the world’s great challenges. These students have come to embody what social innovation is at its core. Thank you to the Ontario Ministry of Economic Development, Employment and Infrastructure for providing the financial support allowing us to offer the camps free of charge to all participants! We also appreciate the support of partners OCAD University, York University, Crescent School, Toronto Public Library for providing great venues for the camp. Finally, our collaborations with the Toronto District School Board, Simcoe County District School Board, and Dufferin-Peel Catholic School Board have been instrumental in helping us recruit amazing student participants. A final thanks to Apple Canada and Fluidsurveys, who provided the in-kind technology needed for us to offer and evaluate the camps!