Innovation from both ends: linking the government with social entrepreneurs

Jieying Zheng

September 22, 2009

Last Friday, Volans organised a workshop on social entrepreneurship at the Hub King’s Cross London, bringing together representatives from both the UK government and social entrepreneurs based in London. The government participants came from the UK Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS). The social entrepreneurs were founding members of Project Dirt and My Bank, the former a creative online community of environmental projects, the latter a forerunner in financial education for the youth.

Charmian Love, COO of Volans, led the dialogue by firstly offering an overview of the social entrepreneurship in the UK. Then, the contributors from the entrepreneurial side shared inspiring stories of their organisations’ missions, key activities and connections with the local authorities. The officials presented BIS strategy toward capacity building and innovating thinking within the government. The discussion was highly interactive, covering a range of key issues around forming meaningful partnerships, promoting media engagement, enabling knowledge sharing and capturing best practice.

What struck me the most was the enthusiasm from the both ends to connect, to understand and to continue the dialogue with each other. A theme throughout the discussion was around building effective channels to connect social entrepreneurs with the government, and vice versa. It was undoubtedly uplifting to see government’s interest in getting engaged and wanting to maintain the conversation moving forward.

The session featured only at the beginning of a potential series of rich and complex discussions between social innovators and the government. To make paradigm shifting come to pass, collaboration as such will, without a doubt, need to continue.