Springboard innovation is an amazing community resource for people who want t learn how to launch their dreams, vision and/or innovations into reality. The founder, Amy Pearl, and all of the board, are an amazing wealth of knowlege, resources,and energy. They are eager to help and support anyone who is interested in social entrepreneurship The course I took from them was the best course I have ever taken.
Springboard Innovation is to me the greatest gift that any of us would-be social change-agents could have. I was a 'student' in Springboard's Local Agenda program. It is a content rich, very supportive program. Those leading the program drew on their various experiences including:- experiential course design, non-profit founding and going through the Local Agenda program themselves. When we were fumbling and bumbling around with vague ideas I witnessed Amy Pearl, Executive Director, time after time, collapse those ideas into short, firm pictures. What a joy to us. Paul Osterlund, a Local Agenda graduate, was able to identify with us when we gritted our teeth in the most difficult part ... having to learn to stand up infront of others and verbalize what motivated us to embark on the journey that would lead us to found non-profit organizations. Springboard took us step-by-step through a process that is necessary but so hard to do on one's own. The support of a cohort group is invaluable. There's nothing like watching other people go through the same difficulties that you are grappling with and come out with detailed projects at the end. Throughout the process the Springboard staff, Board members and advisers were there to give us support. I'll bet alot of us were delighted and surprised that we accomplished what we did by the end of the course. We found talents within ourselves that we never knew we had. We simply would not have done that without Springboard. It gave us the courage to keep on keeping on. I would say that at this topsy turvy time of our lives, when we are 'It', if we ever want to see the kind of society about which we dream, Springboard is a model that needs to be copied many, many times over.
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Springboard Innovation is to me the greatest gift that any of us would-be social change-agents could have. I was a 'student' in Springboard's Local Agenda program. It is content rich. Those leading the program drew on their various experiences including:- experiential course design, non-profit founding and going through the Local Agenda program themselves. When we were fumbling and bumbling around with vague ideas I witnessed Amy Pearl collapse those ideas into short, firm pictures, time after time. What a joy to us. Paul Osterlund was able to identify with us when we gritted our teeth in the most difficult part ... having to learn to stand up infront of others and verbalize what motivated us to embark on the journey that would lead us to found non-profit organizations. Springboard took us step-by-step through a process that is necessary but so hard to do on one's own. The support of a cohort group is invaluable. There's nothing like watching other people go through the same difficulties that you are grappling with and come out with detailed projects at the end. Throughout the process the Springboard staff, Board members and advisers were there to give us support. I'll bet alot of us were delighted and surprised that we accomplished what we did by the end of the course. We found talents within ourselves that we never knew we had. We simply would not have done that without Springboard. It gave us the courage to keep on keeping on. I would say that at this topsy turvy time of our lives, when we are 'It', if we ever want to see the kind of society about which we dream, Springboard is a model that needs to be copied many, many times over.
Springboard Innovation has created a completely innovative program, Local Agenda, to support everyday folks in developing a vision and then a business to promote social change. They have taken this concept to an entirely new level by developing a "social stock exchange", ChangeXchange, to obtain seed funding for these new business ideas. I took the first Local Agenda class and am now a "launcher' on ChangeXchange. Amy has inspired me to think in a completely new way and has mentored and supported me every step of the way. I cannot say enough good things about this organization and what they have done for me. Portland is very lucky to have this gift.
My first exposure to SI was attending the first forum. It was like walking into the answer to a big prayer, or a bunch of smaller prayers for the support and development of Rooms for Peace. It was quickly recognized that there was a beautiful match between Springboard Innovation and Rooms for Peace, and Amy and crew made it so easy and comfortable and welcoming to join as one of the Changexchange projects. I would be happy to talk at length about this support. Until SI came along, creative social profit grass roots projects had no road map or champion. That has all changed. I hope many many more of you will choose to let Springboard Innovation bring your ideas to the surface, support their development, and launch them into the world. Amy and her team are social change angels!
Springboard Innovation offers those interested in social profit work support, guidance and opportunity that are not available anywhere else. Springboard Innovation truly supports community led community change! I participated in the Local Agenda workshops, a series of classes that help those interested in developing new ideas for sustainable social profit projects. I would highly recommend the Local Agenda workshops. To read more about the Local Agenda workshops see this site - http://www.learninginnovation.org/LocalAgenda.php I also have attended a number of the Social Innovation Forums. These events highlight current projects or programs in the community. The Forums are a great place to make connections with others. I am most excited about the ChangeXchange, (www.thechangexchange.org ), an online tools that allows new social profit projects to list their projects and for members of the public to support these innovative, sustainable projects though small (or large!) donations. You can support social change with just a $5.00 donation. Give it a try!
The sooner the launchers get off this website the better, so that more great ideas can take their place and the world and all its systems and ways of doing things will make sense once again.
Springboard Innovation is an amazing new organization, offering the missing pieces needed to bring innovation to the masses - from the masses! It has a variety of components, from training "everyday people" to identify the issues that they are most passionate about, to helping them imagine, create and fund solutions to address the core problems. SI leads people from the idea of “be the change” into the reality of their own lives, for the good of their communities. The idea of taking social entrepreneurship from the exclusive few to the mainstream is exhilarating, the power will be massive!
I think Springboard Innovation brings to regular people some of the best curricula, training and web resources that let people like me see a way to get from a problem to a solution. I retired from my professional career and was potently influenced by the work of Springboard, so that I create a social venture called Abundance Farming Project. AFP enables subsistence farmers in developing economies to offset the impact of water scarcity and increase food crop yields, using a starch-based biodegradable superabsorbent soil amendment, distributed through established NGOs. While that is a mouthful, my point is Springboard’s work enables people to make a difference in a powerful way that they would not be able to do on their own. Their Innovative Cities model is a pathway for citizen led social ventures supported by needed infrastructure with cities. With Springboard’s newest capacity building tool, ChangeXchange, (www.thechangexchange.org ) emerging social ventures as well as established non-profits, who want to develop sustaining strategies, can list their projects for seed funding and for connecting with a broad base of supporters who invest in the social value returns, in $5 shares. Springboard Innovation provides tools for citizen led social change that can be implemented on a large scale, city by city, and a wonderful opportunity for grassroots philanthropy with ChangeXchange.
I have taken the Local Agenda Course, a series of workshops that support new social entrepreneurs. Here are some thoughts that I have about what the course offers that I haven't found elsewhere and why I think it is a fantastic and worthy organization to support. Each workshop spoke to the spark inside me that is flickering on the verge of ignition and has empowered me to keep on working toward my goals of 'doing good' and 'making a difference.' The workshops were a container for me, a place where I could be fully present to what it is that keeps pulling at me to be born. The format of the course series has a beautiful way of providing support that is both respectful and nurturing. We are doing difficult work trying to bring forth powerful ideas and these workshops honor that and encourage us to work hard and dig in. I am very appreciative of the opportunity to have been a participant.