Socially Enterprising — As a platform for development and education
Something wonderful has started to happen. The edges which have defined our organisations, institutions and roles are begining to dematerialise.
They have become a hindrance to how we work with others, and the connective opportunities afforded by the Internet suggest that they are now a legacy of our past.
Socially Enterprising is a platform + strategy which recognises the potential of this process to connect our resources, assets and knowledge in new ways that generate social benefit and create developmental possibilities.
This potential can be realised not only within individuals and communities engaging in community development activity, but also participating CSO’s, institutions, and businesses.
At Socially Enterprising our platform and theory of change brings together communities, business, local organisations and the state in new forms of local partnership that deliver social benefit.
We propose that any social value generated through these partnerships can be greatly expanded upon by connecting together several developmental fields into an integrated model centred on place based action:
- Community Development
- Cultural Community Development
- Personal Development
- Organisational Development
- Company Development
- Workforce Development
It’s a model which would expand on the practice of Community Learning and Development (CLD) to include and deliver benefits to the full range of local actors.
This would mean that a local company participating in a local community project could also utilise the Socially Enterprising platform to develop skills and capacities within their own workforce.
This approach could be facilitated through existing organisations as part of the ‘network’ and/or ideally supported through a wide range of educational and developmental resources and experiences — a ‘College for the 21st Century’.
‘College of the 21st Century’ — A civil society partnership
This app was developed by Alzheimer’s Research UK, guided by people living with different forms of dementia. They were all keen to help you understand what everyday life can be like for them.
Civil Society contains the nation’s wealth of knowledge and expertise, and our charities have lived experience at their heart along with a desire to improve people’s lives.
It is difficult to imagine a more potent mix.
Initiatives such as ‘The Scouts A Million Hands’ and immersive experiences such as ‘A Walk Through Dementia’ point towards different ways of doing things, of expanding potential and reach.
The Scouts worked with Leonard Cheshire to connect disability expertise and knowledge with the development of young people and the needs of their local communities.
Alzheimer’s UK combined their expertise with new technology to produce an immersive experience which educates and informs, creating empathy and understanding that is instantly accessible to anyone anywhere.
The ‘College of the 21st Century’ is a suggestion that an entire learning platform can be created in partnership with civil society by building upon just these kinds of examples.
This would be a type of education which is directly applicable in the real world and purposeful in its aim to improve people’s lives.
It would connect the vast wealth of information, knowledge, and experiences contained within civil society and bring this into the context of people’s lives and communities.
Combining development and education in this way allows us to question assumptions and think anew:
- How could a transition project be delivered with the help of local charities and groups to generate benefits for everyone involved?
- How could a community arts and culture project benefit both people with disabilities and contribute to staff development?
- If people are generating social value is it possible to return this value to them?
- Would traditional education be benefited by linking in to this place-based platform?
- Is it possible for local and national charities to work closer together for greater impact in communities?
- What could a ‘Year of Learning Disability’ look like and what might be the outcomes for a participating town?
- Can we use the generated social value to create and expand on our already existing public goods? Can we invest in common assets of production and manufacturing? Can we build the infrastructure we are missing for a new economy?
It is all of the things we are doing already but done with greater effect.
We are not there to replace the existing networks. Our platform encourages them to be weaved and strengthened in all directions.
We believe that it is from the ecosystem that potential emerges. The local conditions are the key.
Through our platform we:
- connect existing community organisations and local groups
- connect participants, assets and resources
- foster relationships, empathy and understanding
- interconnect and strengthen existing networks
- promote transformational tools, models and practices
- highlight useful examples and stories
- create the conditions/environment for their trial and implementation
- support development and growth at every stage
In doing this we empower people, CSO’s and local organisations to be inspired and collaborate effectively, creating social and economic benefits out of local need and good will.
Getting us there
We have a vision of a world that is ever renewing. It’s a future where our common problems and needs become our greatest source of growth and learning.
It’s a world in which we are all active and creative participants. Intelligently fashioning the world around us and generating the conditions for active lives and a good society.
In this place our most important assets are each other, our imaginations and our humanity.
Together we can develop each and every one.
Related reading:
Imagination unleashed: Democratising the knowledge economy
“The knowledge economy, therefore, calls for education, both in youth and throughout life, that develops character, mindset, and non-cognitive as well as cognitive skills. This style of education crosses the divide between general and technical education. Rather than emphasising job-specific and machine-specific skills, it requires a new model focusing on generic, flexible, high-order capabilities. Moreover, if knowledge is to be shared and used effectively, firms need to trust their workers and grant them greater levels of discretion. The education system, therefore, needs to teach people to exercise such discretion and to deserve such trust.
Yet as crucial as these immediate questions are, they also form part of a larger challenge: how to equip every student with the tools they need not only to flourish within their societies as they currently exist but to transform them for the better.”
A New Vision for Further and Higher Education
“Our systems of further and higher education are no longer fit for purpose. After decades of marketisation and years of austerity cuts, recent high-profile strikes in the education sector signified a service at breaking point. But what to do? How do we pursue education, not as a commodity, but as ‘the practice of freedom’?
How can we dismantle the elitism of higher education, the degradation of further education and create a system that promotes the values of justice, hope and solidarity?”
The Scouts — In Transition
“Socially Enterprising is many things working together — it’s a system for improving a system.
As part of the Socially Enterprising model it’s possible to create a type of education which sits outside of the traditional constraints of bricks and mortar, extending its use and modelling its purpose to what people need to improve the world around them.
Practical, experiential and action oriented.
Immersive, empathetic and developmental.
An educational system in consistent development with civil society, one that allows us to become more human just as much as it helps us to get things done.”
