Our aging nation – a creative residence idea for seniors
I heard on NPR (National Public Radio) yesterday a very simple and sensible idea to help aging people who have no assistance from others, such as those who are single and have no close relatives nearby. This idea focuses only on women, but the same idea can apply to men.
In the radio report, four women over the age of 60 are roommates in one home. Bonnie Moore lived alone in her five bedroom house, and she wanted financial assistance to maintain her home. She selected three other interested women over the age of 60, and they now live together in Bonnie’s house. Bonnie says it is “a little bit like family, a little bit like roommates, a little bit like a sorority house.”
Bonnie has started an organization around this idea called the Golden Girls Network. Her web site is GoldernGirlsNetwork.org.
How many older home owners live alone and could benefit from this type of companionship and extra income from rent? How many people renting a residence by themselves have an interest in spending more time with others? I suspect there are many such situations in most communities.
I like this idea. I like the simplicity, and I wonder if nonprofits might spring up in different communities to help coordinate this type of home creation. Maybe existing organizations could expand their activities to include this service. It seems that some churches could be ideal providers of this matching service.
The name “Golden Girls” is from a TV comedy from a couple decades ago, where 4 older women live together. The living arrangement and “hominess” from this TV show are copied. The Golden Girls Network web site says:
“We’ve taken a great idea and made it a reality. We bring women together through housing, networking, and social activities, and it’s called a “Golden Girls’ Home.” It’s women who share their homes with other women as friends and companions. And yes, sometimes we sit around the kitchen table and talk about the same things….and someone usually has something going on in her life that needs a gentle ear….”
Cool idea! I want to think more about this.
Thank you for reading my small blog.
Best wishes. – Keith
http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2013/05/22/183903991/Boomer-Housemates-Have-More-Fun
http://www.goldengirlsnetwork.org/
For-profits making a difference
This is a guest blog post by my friend, Kevin Wilson. Kevin worked 14 years for a for-profit social enterprise serving people with developmental disabilities. He recently took a job at an organization that provides vocational rehabilitation. In addition, Kevin just started a nonprofit named Growing Together, an organization that promotes civic agriculture to address hunger needs in Columbus, Ohio.
Kevin’s ideas are important because he emphasizes the role of for-profit enterprises. My focus in this blog has been, and will continue to be, on nonprofit initiatives. But important social entrepreneurship work also occurs in the for-profit world.
Thanks, Kevin! – Keith
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In the social enterprise world we can see a spectrum where on one side there are for profit enterprises and on the other side there are non-profit enterprises. Somewhere in the middle there are hybrid enterprises where combinations of practices from both sides meet. Often when I hear people talk about the field of social entrepreneurship, the discussion is mainly on the non-profit side of the spectrum, but social entrepreneurs can also venture into for-profit enterprises which address social problems while at the same time make a profit. One of the main differences between for and non-profits is the legal structure of the business, but that is for a different conversation.
While there are differences in the structures between for and non-profit organizations, they both have the same core, inherent qualities. A successful for–profit social enterprise, like a successful non-profit organization, will possess these particular qualities, which sets it apart from other for-profit businesses.
- A mission that is serving people or the greater good
When we look at examples of social enterprises, both for and non-profit, we see that they are working to help others, whether it is dealing with hunger and health or education and housing. For-profit social enterprises are businesses that are working to help where help is needed. The mission should be considered the most important aspect of any social enterprise.
- Addressing important social issues
Examples of social enterprises also show they are dealing with serious social problems. Both for and non-profit social enterprises can often be found addressing social issues that have become chronic.
- Use of innovation
For and non-profit social enterprises use innovation to be successful. These enterprises come up with new ways to address problems. The social world is constantly changing and innovation is required to come up with new ideas. As our society evolves, new problems arise, and a successful social enterprise will be able to adapt to all of the changes that will occur.
- Led by visionaries
Those who create, lead and direct social enterprises are people with a passion. They are individuals who feel so strongly about a cause that they have decided to make a career out of it. They see a solution and they have the drive to take action and make change happen.
- Creating solutions
Social enterprises don’t just address the results of a problem; they often address the causes of the problem as well. In order to do this, enterprises need to find real world solutions that focus on the root of the issue.
- Challenge and change current systems
Most businesses that are addressing social problems are working in a system that isn’t adequately addressing those social problems. Because of this, these businesses are often challenging the current system and attempting to offer solutions.
I work for a for-profit social enterprise and I think it is a great example of how a business can make a profit, while at the same time providing a much needed service to the community. Greenleaf Job Training Services is a great example of a for-profit social enterprise. The mission of Greenleaf is to help people with differing abilities find employement in the community in which they live. Their main goal is to serve people. They are also addressing an important social issue, unemployment. The business is also innovative, being able to change and remain successful as funding from the government has decreased and requirements and restrictions have increased. The work of Greenleaf is helping to find solutions, creating a system for finding people employment. The current world of employment is not designed for those with obstacles, such as physical or mental disabilities, so the work of Greenleaf is challenging the current system by providing help to those with barriers to the employment world.
So whether we, as social entrepreneurs, want to start a for-profit or non-profit business, we will need to possess these same qualities to be successful. Does it really matter if we are making a profit or not, if we are ultimately accomplishing our mission and providing a service to help others? That is the question we need to ask ourselves as we venture into the social enterprise world.
A social entrepreneurship MOOC
For the last four weeks, I have been preparing comments and being video recorded for a free course on social entrepreneurship available to anyone in the world with Internet access. I hope to finish my recording this week.
Wow…a free course for anyone in the world.
Have you heard about what are called MOOCs? The letters stand for Massive, Open, Online Course. They represent a fairly new educational model, and some people believe the core structure of university level education may eventually be changed by this movement.
Successful MOOCs attract a few thousand students per offering. The largest MOOC I have heard of had 160,000 students, but I think most attract only a few thousand.
My fear as a new teacher in this arena is that my course will end up being a TOOC – a Tiny, Open, Online Course. But for better or worse, my university is putting me out there in the MOOC world.
I’m excited about the many people I might be able to reach with the social entrepreneurship message. My core point in the 5 week course (that won’t start until October, 2013) is that you and I as common, everyday people can change the direction of the world.
Hmmm… That sounds pretty bold as I read the above statement.
But it’s true. There is a peaceful revolution of social entrepreneurship that is sweeping our world. As the civic/nonprofit sector of a modern economy emerges in China and other nations, there will be a world explosion in social entrepreneurship activity.
In my MOOC, I have taken a “get your hands dirty” approach. The course is short on theory and strong on how-to. I have tried to build a guide that can help steer people toward successful social entrepreneurship projects.
I assume that everyone has thought about starting an innovative project to help people about whom they care. This course is designed to be a first step to encourage people to move from thought to social action.
I’m nervous and excited about this course. It’s on my mind, so I decided to mention my upcoming MOOC in this post.
Thank you for reading my small blog.
Best wishes. – Keith
My scale applied to the homeless shelter running club
Spring seems to have finally come to the Kansas Plains. This is a wonderful time of the year!
In my last post, I referred to the simplicity of a running club for men in a homeless shelter. I love the simplicity of this project. (I think highly of simplicity in general.) When there are few moving parts, less can go wrong.
Anne Mahlum is the founder of the “Back on My Feet Running Club,” and I encourage you to read more at the CNN Heroes web site: http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/cnn.heroes/archive/anne.mahlum.html
In several recent posts, I shared 10 scale items that can help us identify strengths and weaknesses of our project ideas. I then applied that scale to Doctors Without Borders and found that this project received a fairly low score.
I would now like to apply my scale for identifying strengths and weaknesses to Anne’s project. I think her simple project will score high.
Recall that there are 10 items in this scale, and a project idea can receive from 0-10 points on each item. The highest possible score is 100.
Here are my estimates of appropriate scores for each item.
6 Seriousness of the problem (6 indicates moderate seriousness)
9 Amount of human labor required (9 indicates low labor required)
9 Level of skill required (9 indicates low skill level required)
9 Financial cost (9 indicates low cost required)
9 Ability to generate volunteers (9 indicates strong ability)
2 Ability to generate sales (2 indicates no good idea for sales)
9 Ability to obtain grants and donations (9 indicates good chances for grants and donations)
10 Emotional support from clients (10 indicates high client support)
10 Emotional support from the local community (10 indicates high community support)9 Bureaucratic challenges (9 indicates few bureaucratic hurdles)
82 is the total score on a 100 point scale.
The average per item score is 8.2, with 10 the maximum.
This project scored very well. This project is simple and tight. By my scoring, there were only two items that scored below 9. Great project idea!
Following my suggestion from my last post, I encourage us to start small and simple.
Thank you for reading my small blog.
Best wishes. – Keith
The importance of starting with a simply structured project
Hello.
I am working on a book about social entrepreneurship, and I am also recording presentations for a social entrepreneurship MOOC (massive, open, online course). This wonderful work has forced me to think more intensely about several issues.
Yesterday, I recorded a presentation for the MOOC on preparing a “business plan” for our intended project. I call this business plan the Project Development Report. It became so clear to me as I was preparing this presentation that we need to focus on small projects in the beginning.
If you are wealthy and famous, this idea does not apply to you. You have the money to pay for experts to do whatever needs doing, and you can attract donations with your fame. If you are wealthy and famous, you can begin with a big project.
For the rest of us, I believe we need to begin with a simply structured project.
The beauty of doing good and helping others is in no way tied to bigness. Small, simply structured projects can have the same beauty as a big world project promoted by Bill Gates or Bono.
Anne Mahlum (CNN Heroes.com) is one of my biggest heroes in this regard. Several years ago, she started a running club for men in a homeless shelter in Philadelphia. This running club then expanded to include other homeless shelters.
Beautiful!
The Project Development Plan for a project like this is easy. But planning and implementing can become a nightmare if we start with a big project idea that has some complexities.
If you are not wealthy and your innovative idea to help others is a big plan, I encourage you to select a piece of your big plan and focus on that in the beginning. I encourage you to start small.
Bigness can emerge if appropriate. We can start small with a plan to become big if we want to, but let us take small steps in the beginning.
…Just a thought. You know what is best for you. I’m just free thinking.
Thank you for reading my small blog.
Best wishes. – Keith
Doctors Without Borders – Applying my scale
Over the last several weeks, I have been sharing my 10 item scale that can help us identify weaknesses and strengths in our project ideas. The application of this scale is useful in the early stage of planning, before a commitment has been made to start the project. My hope is that the application of my scale will allow us to see our project idea more clearly.
I will look at the wonderful nonprofit Doctors Without Borders in this post. I want to analyze them using my scale partly because I want to emphasize that my scale does not predict success or failure. My scale predicts level of difficulty involved in the process of startup.
As you may know, Doctors Without Borders sends teams of physicians to parts of the world that are in deep need of certain types of medical intervention. I view Doctors Without Borders as a highly successful organization.
As I write this, I have not yet applied my scale to them, but I expect that they will receive a low overall score. My intention is to illustrate that a low score on my scale (revealing difficulties with startup) does not predict failure of the project.
OK. I shall begin.
Below, I will list my scale items with my best-guess score for Doctors Without Borders as if it was just in the idea stage, before the startup. (Each scale item has a score range of 1-10.)
9 Seriousness of the problems addressed (high score means serious problems)
4 Amount of human labor required (medium-low score means medium-large amount
of labor
2 Level of skill required (low score means high skill required)
2 Cost of the program (low score means high cost)
9 Availability of volunteers (high score means high availability of volunteers)
1 Ability to generate sales (low score means few opportunities for sales)
10 Ability to obtain grants and donations (high score means high ability to obtain
grants and donations)
10 Emotional support of clients (high score means strong emotional support)
10 Emotional support of the local community (high score means strong emotional
support)
2 Bureaucratic challenges (low score means significant challenges)
59 Overall score
The above is interesting – Very high scores on some items and very low scores on others. I consider 59 to be a fairly low overall score indicating an average per item score of 5.9, slightly above the mid-point of 5.
If I were considering a project with this low score, I would be very thoughtful about proceeding. (But we know this project exists and is very successful.)
My 10 point scale is intended to point out level of difficulty of startup, not eventual success.
For my next post, I will try to think of another existing project that will illustrate something regarding my scale.
Thank you for reading my small blog.
Best wishes. – Keith
How to evaluate the quality of a program idea – Part 10
Finally! I have reached the end of my scale items to which our project ideas can be subjected if we want to identify weaknesses as well as strengths.
We tend to see the positive points in our innovative ideas, and we may be less aware of hidden weaknesses. My 10 point scale can help us be more objective when we analyze our project idea.
Here are the scale items covered so far.
1. Seriousness of the problem being addressed
2. Amount of human labor required
3. Level of skill required
4. Cost of the program
5. Availability of volunteers
6. Ability to generate sales
7. Ability to obtain grants and donations
8. Emotional support from clients
9. Emotional support from the local geographic community
Each scale item receives a score of from 1-10. The final item is:
Item 10: Bureaucratic challenges (How many bureaucratic hurdles are involved in delivery of services?) This is an item from Wilford Welch in his book, Tactics of Hope (2008).
From the day we have our project idea, how clear is the road ahead of us in terms of bureaucratic complexity? Do we have a complex organizational structure or a simple one? Must we hire and train many people? How much paper work and approvals from city, county, state, and/or federal agencies are necessary to start our program? How long will this type of bureaucratic approval take?
This issue is especially important if we seek to start a project in another country. Once we leave the context of our country, we enter another world of regulations. Some nations will welcome us, but others may not.
Although many very successful programs have successfully addressed many bureaucratic hurdles, those program ideas with few bureaucratic challenges will receive the highest scores on this item.
Wow! I have finally completed listing my scale items. I look forward to soon applying them to a program idea.
Thank you for reading my small blog.
Best wishes. – Keith