There are lots of really huge social challenges facing us at the moment - from climate change and COVID to ensuring that equality and diversity are at the heart of everything. In some form, these are common challenges faced by both the biggest governments and the smallest communities. The roots of the challenges run deep and cut across geographic borders, public policy, organisational jurisdictions and popular culture. Often referred to as wicked problems, it’s impossible for any single government, organisation or community to solve them on their own.
I’ve long been an exponent of taking a ‘scattergun approach’ to these kinds of challenges, rather than wasting time searching for a silver bullet solution that ultimately doesn’t exist. On an international scale, whilst government consortia undoubtedly play a pivotal role by defining the political strategies required for addressing such issues as a ‘global society’, on a hyperlocal level, it’s the many scattered, grassroots initiatives which often start to make change actually happen.
Over the past year, there has been much written about communities pulling together in order to overcome the challenges posed by COVID. Often, overnight, small groups have mobilised themselves and devised solutions to meet the particular needs of their local communities. National and regional governments have quickly adapted to devolve funding and power to the private, voluntary and community sector. Many commentators believe that there may indeed be a permanent shift in balance towards the devolution of power to local communities. For many, this feels like it could become a positive legacy of a truly terrible global catastrophe.
It is perhaps, therefore, through a growing number of social enterprises, community interest companies and community groups that the most pressing social issues will be tackled as we move further into the 21st Century. The way we educate a future generation of ‘social entrepreneurs’ will, therefore, be critical to our success or failure to tackle issues such as climate change and inequality.
I was recently invited to join a panel and offer feedback to the 2020/21 cohort of Year Here Fellows. I joined a work in progress showcase to hear Fellows feeding back on their recent placements with organisations operating at the frontline of tackling social issues in London. I felt inspired by the ideas that the Fellows had for new social ventures which could address some of the challenges that they had observed at first hand, and I was extremely happy to offer what feedback and support I could.
The ethos of Year Here is around providing Fellows with learning in the real world rather than in a lecture hall - training the next generation of social innovators and entrepreneurs by providing them with front line insight, enabling them to step into the shoes of a homelessness support worker or care home assistant and forge relationships with people whose lives are full of tough realities. Combined with training in service design, business model development and community organising with a range of partners, as well as leadership development via an impressive network of mentors, Year Here has over the past 13 years, produced an equally impressive number of social facing startups which have continued to grow and have a huge impact on the communities they serve. Look up the Alumni and you’ll find a range of brilliantly innovative ventures tackling social challenges such as the housing crisis, educational inequality, community resilience, vulnerable youth, and health and wellness.
Just as no single government or organisation can solve a wicked problem, nor too can a single social enterprise, community interest company or local community group, but, providing a platform for such groups to thrive by devolving funding and power to them could create the conditions for ecosystems to evolve which could, themselves, act as antibodies to a growing number of global crisis.
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