Hurling and Community Service

 

W05 Reflection

This week we discussed the theory of change and how activities of an organization creates long-term outcomes. We learned about  how to achieve outcomes and impact when it comes to social innovation.  Article on measuring improving results focused on social impacts for the investor.  5 questions investor should ask are: what you invest, how do you address the problem, what steps will you take, how do you measure it, and how to increase your impact.

 Kevin Stars lasting impact made me rethink mission statements in a different light. The company I work for has a lengthy mission statement that as Kevin would say is a lot of blah blah blah.  A unified mission statement that is 8 words or less describing a verb, the people you want to impact, and the long-term outcome makes a lot of sense to me. In our next management meeting I hope to get a few minutes to address our mission statement and what we can do as a company to simplify it.

Article on starfish and hurling is one I've had to read several times this week. I've always I liked the idea of helping one person at a time as you are able so the starfish story has always been meaningful to me. Keith Morton is very cynical of the starfish story so reading his article over and over helped me understand his point analyzing the situation before jumping in and helping.

Social Innovation

 W01 Reflections by Jenni Walker

This week we discussed what Social Innovation means. As a summary, Social Innovation is finding a life's work that helps solve social issues. When you find innovations it benefits  economics, productivity, and individual learning.  Social Innovations that have appeared recently are Charter Schools, Emission Trading, Conservation Plans, Labor Standards and Supported Employment.

One topic that peaked my interest is Supported Employment. Early in my career I was a job coach. My job was to help disabled adult's learn work skills and help them perform their jobs to the best of their ability. After discussing what was expected I would drive them to their jobs in the community where I would shadow them to make sure they stayed on task. Supported Employment is important to the disabled adult as it gives someone in our society a sense of importance and belonging.

I believe social innovation is more prevalent today because people have discovered we can embark on business that can support ourselves and at the same time help solve social problems for others around the world.