I came into this Fellowship knowing that it's unlike any experience out there. I expected to learn an incredible amount from the 8 weeks in the field, and I did! But I did not expect that, nearly four months later, I would be continually gaining a new understanding of what I've learned, and discovering more about myself. At the Action Research with a Mission event, all the Fellows had the opportunity to share with friends, family, prospective applicants, and the larger SCU community the work we've done, and what GSBF means to us. I felt a bit out of place at first, displaying a poster that read, "THE TEAM," with a team of just one. That feeling quickly subsided when I joined all the other Fellows onstage, and shared in an exciting moment that celebrated everything we'd accomplished. I'm not going to pretend that it's been a walk in the park managing the biggest, most important project of my life thus far, with ambiguous guidelines and no partner to share the work with. But all my mentors at the Miller Center have gone out of their way to guide and encourage me along the way; and spending time with the other Fellows has given me the best support system of people who know exactly how difficult the work is, and who went through similar experiences. It was so wonderful to cheer them on at the event, and I'm inspired by each and every one of them in different ways. I feel like I've gained a new family. The Action Research with a Mission event was the first moment that I actually allowed myself to take a step back and celebrate completing all of my work. I typically have to move on straight away to the next project without taking any time to process the weight of the one I just completed, but it became clear that this mindset wouldn't work for GSBF. I keep coming back to the influence of the experiences this Fellowship brought me. I don't want all the lessons I've learned, all the knowledge I've gained, and all the personal growth I've experienced to slip away. But the experiences from this path I have chosen have already made their way into distinct changes in my life, and I don't think they could slip away even if I wasn't trying to embrace them. My core beliefs haven't necessarily changed; but my confidence in my ability to advance these values in my work and in the way that I live my life has grown deeply. Ever since I applied to Santa Clara I've had the drive and passion to use my education to help others. I was drawn to the Jesuit values of educating the whole person, and using your education not just for your own gain, but for advancing a more just world. I tried to picture what my college career would look like if my studies were geared towards the end goal of helping others, broadening my worldview and my perspective in the process. Never did I imagine that even before graduation, I would be able to embark on a transformative opportunity to apply my skills in the real world, adding value to a socially impactful organization. It's astounding to me. Studying social entrepreneurship in action has taught me a great deal about the nature of justice in this world. Justice always feels like the most difficult path...or so we're so often told. I remember having the impression that I could either work for a nonprofit and struggle to pay the bills, or for a corporation that pays well but sucks the life out of you. Obviously both of these descriptions are exaggerations, but still--I wasn't super excited about looking for work after graduation! Like most Americans, I had no idea there was an option in between -- social entrepreneurship, which, ideally, combines the best of both worlds: financial sustainability and social justice. Impact-first. Scalable. Systemic social change that breaks an unjust equilibrium completely. I learned that in order to pursue this depth of change, your efforts require constant adaptation and innovation. You have to think about continuously meeting people where they are in order to keep from stagnating your level of impact. I've seen the potential that social entrepreneurship has to achieve structural change on a global level. It's an incredible concept that is also extremely difficult to achieve and to foster in the United States. But what I learned from the "Innovation Workers" over in Baltimore is that it's worth it. It's worth it to wake up every day and keep going, no matter what challenges you face, no matter how frustrating that type of work can be. It's worth it to take the time and resources required to do it right. To start by listening, and asking the beneficiaries in the community what they want and need. To recognize the humanity in other people and to find opportunity where no one else is even bothering to look. Because when you see the impact of helping social entrepreneurs help other people, you know it's all worth it. (Hopefully my parents agree that this Fellowship makes the SCU tuition worth it!) It was an especially impactful opportunity for me, because as a double major in dance and political science with a minor in women's and gender studies (it's a mouthful, I know) I often feel pressure to justify my unique combination of majors to anyone who will listen. I already know the value of my courses of study; it's just typically been a challenge to convince anyone else who's not a performing artist, or who didn't study liberal arts, or who doesn't know me very well, that what I'm studying is important, and fosters applicable skills that have already served me well. One of the most powerful takeaways from those eight weeks was proving to myself that I can add significant value to a real-world organization. Not just as a hardworking team member, but as a person; and not in spite of my choice in majors, but because of it. My willingness to throw myself into my work, and put in the extra hours to get it done right, comes from dedicating so much of my time to artistic endeavors outside of the classroom. I'm used to devoting hours and hours to projects that I care about, and I'm used to other people depending on my dedication to make it happen, under pressure of performing in front of a live audience. Collaboration and teamwork is a crucial skill in the performing arts, one that has served me well in navigating all of the moving parts of my deliverables, and their corresponding mentors and coworkers. The diversity courses I've taken have prepared me to think analytically, take a broader worldview into account, and ask the hard questions that are necessary to improve the program I've been working so hard to modify. I'm not used to openly reflecting about my experiences as much as I have been doing for this Fellowship. It was close to a foreign concept to me, to be intentionally synthesizing the language to describe how my experiences have transformed my college experience and helped me grow as a person, and then to share what I found with others. When I think back on how I've grown in the past nine months, I can't leave out how much confidence I've gained. I traveled across the country as a junior consultant for a world-renowned social enterprise accelerator. I came out of it alive--and had an incredible time doing it! I see myself as a capable, independent, valued, hardworking person. This time last year, I felt alone and small. I didn't feel in control of my own life, and I was in a dark place emotionally and mentally. Simply writing out some of my strengths in the previous paragraph took a great deal of effort, because I'm used to downplaying my achievements. It's wild to think about how far I've come. I usually resign myself to never being able to explain the extent of how I've grown or what I've gained from transformative experiences like this one. I know I will continue to see how this Fellowship has affected me in the coming year, and I may never fully articulate how. But this blog has been a baby step towards that goal. One of my mentors emphasizes the importance of trusting yourself. Of remembering that when you graduate, you'll still be the same person -- with all of the same qualities and talents and good habits that got you here in the first place. And those qualities will serve you well on any path you pursue. I also learned that I'm way too young to be trying to plan out my entire life right now! Another mentor shared that when you choose a path to go down, it will close some doors. But it will also open so many other doors in the process; and if you're happy with the opportunities it opens up later on, then you will have made the right decision. There's no going back from here; but there's some comfort in that. There's some comfort in knowing that there might not be a "right" decision, because many different paths can open up doors that feel right to you, that you learn from and grow from...and these experiences will change you. I chose the Fellowship over pursuing other opportunities this summer, and I can't go back; I wouldn't want to, because I've grown and changed so much already. I can't wait to explore exactly what doors it has opened up for me. I may be saying good-bye to the official Fellowship, but it will continue to affect me in ways known and unknown. No matter what doors open next, I feel better prepared than I ever have to meet what's waiting on the other side with an open heart. I've learned that finding a sense of purpose in my work is extremely important to me, as is finding work that tangibly helps other people in an innovative manner. After spending eight weeks alone in an unfamiliar city with the excitement of my work as the main thing that kept me going during the weekdays, I also learned that an inspiring vocation is not the only important thing! So are relationships, family, and feeling connected to others, to something bigger than yourself. Artistic expression allows me to feel connected to something bigger than myself. Even though the Fellowship had nothing to do with art, it somehow reinforced the important roles that performing and visual art have in my life. I spent most of my free time this summer seeking out artistic endeavors, festivals, and exhibits. It feels fitting to end with a quotation from one of the most compelling and inspiring art exhibits I saw, from a featured artist at the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, D.C. Her artistic mission statement speaks to me, and her sense of purpose with every sentence mirrors my purposeful drive at this stage of my life. Lastly, thank you to everyone who has supported me over the past nine months, in ways both large and small. To my mentors, professors, Innovation Workers, family, friends, and fellow Fellows, I could not have done this without you. Why Do I Make Art?
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What did you think when I told you I’d be spending the summer doing action research in Baltimore? Most people immediately asked which part of the city I stayed in, and made some kind of comment about how dangerous they’ve heard it is there. Most people outside of the area don’t think about Baltimore very much at all, and if they do, it’s only in reference to something they’ve heard on the news, or The Wire.
Hearing Baltimore as just a sound byte in the news, or just a point to be made in a presidential debate, or a trending topic on my Facebook feed was...very strange while I was living there. Even though I’d only been there for around a month and a half at the time those nasty tweets made the headlines, it was still odd to hear all the buzz about the city I was living in. When I first read the tweets, I immediately felt outraged at what felt like a wicked, sweeping, and unfounded dismissal of all the people I met there--from social entrepreneurs to grandmothers attending community association meetings--who live and work in the communities they call home. Then I felt defensive because Baltimore is much like any other U.S. city in many ways. Its problems are complex, the system works for the rich and powerful but not for just about everyone else, and there’s a whole lot of potential to be found in places and people that you might least expect it.
Everyone I interacted with was nothing but welcoming and kind, from the woman at the Artscape festival who asked if she could give me a hug when she saw my Black Lives Matter t-shirt, to the police officer at Eddie’s grocery store who recognized me the second time I shopped there and asked how I was liking the city. About two weeks in, I had an unexpectedly pleasant encounter with a young homeless woman who was posted up at a busy street corner, entreating the steady flow of pedestrians that passed her by. I offered to get her something to eat or drink; she accepted with many thanks, asked how my day was going, asked my astrological sign, and ended up telling me a story about her daughter before we parted ways. It’s difficult to know how to process these experiences exactly, but I hope they give a glimpse of the everyday moments that humanized and grounded my experience of living in a big city full of individual people who, every day, are holding their own world of experiences with them like I am mine.
Just looking at the symptoms (poverty, economic disparity, crime...) doesn’t give any understanding of the root problems; it leaves out the most important part of the picture. Baltimore’s challenges are inextricably tied to its history of segregation--some of the earliest and strictest laws in the country--and deliberate disinvestment of non-white neighborhoods. Neighborhoods that are less than half black receive four times the investment that neighborhoods that are 85% or more black receive.
This was evident for me at the Fayette Street Outreach meeting, when residents of a historically black community gather to see how they can improve their neighborhood. It was difficult for them to name existing neighborhood “assets,” because the ones they lack play such a big role in their daily lives. Jay and Nicholas emphasized the importance of starting with what they do have, because from there comes the potential to find opportunity. They swapped many stories, and described the daily journey of three different “personas” that are common in the area: a teenager who can’t get a job or support his newborn child because he’s addicted to drugs; a middle-aged single woman who has a stressful commute and a toxic household to return to; and an elderly person whose severe loneliness and anger towards “insolent,” jobless youth define their daily struggles. The point of the exercise was to empathize with each of the personas, and eventually come up with potential solutions for their daily struggles. I described that day in an earlier blog post already, but it’s really stuck with me. I did a lot of listening that day. I was the only white person in the room, and that may have been a first for me -- I can’t remember, and that’s part of my privilege to have never been in the minority. When I was walking around the highly gentrified Inner Harbor and Fells Point, with their high-end shopping outlets, restaurants, famous aquarium, and other tourist attractions, I couldn’t help thinking that it feels like it was placed here out of nowhere...and it essentially was, by and for the rich under the guise of creating jobs (For who? Not the people who need it most.), and attracting more people to live and stay in Baltimore (300,000 residents have left Baltimore since 1960). Gentrification has continued to creep into historic corners of the city, displacing residents by pricing them out of their homes instead of improving the whole neighborhood so that those already in it can succeed economically. Government-subsidized “solutions” over the years have not done anything to help these “orphan” neighborhoods that are the Last Mile in Baltimore for everything from fresh food to broadband Internet service. One of the nonprofits I thought was working on housing equity in the most disinvested neighborhoods in the city is actually working to support communities that already have relatively stable housing. It got me thinking, who is working to support these orphan neighborhoods? (An answer: Parity Homes, one of the social enterprises that just began IW’s first 6-month mentorship program.) I was shocked to hear from one of the entrepreneurs, “You know, we can’t argue that what Trump said about Baltimore was right, he called us out.” After quickly clarifying that the manner in which it was said was still completely wrong, she said that everyone should be taking it as a challenge to do better. Because she’s seen a whole lot of complaining going on, and efforts that suck money from the government without anything ever making it to the streets. I’m sharing all of this not to add to the barrage of writing about Baltimore’s problems, but to give context as to why Innovation Works is doing things differently, and working to break the vicious cycle that has left so many people jaded. As we were driving around the city to meet with the entrepreneurs who went through the Boost program, Jay would often give me a run-down of the type of transformation, gentrification, or neglect that each neighborhood has gone through (and exactly how people feel about it). The complex context of the city’s history, both far in the past and recent, is essential to the way in which IW has to approach solutions. And one of the biggest takeaways I got from my experience was realizing just how little-known social entrepreneurship is as a solution, but at the same time, how much potential it has when applied with individual care. It’s understandable, for example, why Farmer Chippy was so skeptical of the idea of pitching his Urban Farm to investors when he’s seen that source of money as letting down his people for decades. Several nonprofits were skeptical of an earned income model or suspicious of asking for investor money, even though the goal is to expand your social impact with that funding. In practice, social entrepreneurship can take many different forms, and using it to, say, reduce the cost of operations is more desirable than implementing a scaling strategy that doesn’t feel true to your mission. The entrepreneur, in the end, knows the most about their business, the beneficiaries they’re serving, and the context in which they’re operating, and any and all support must essentially stem from that understanding. IW is seeking out the people who can do the most good in the right way, people who are working on some of the most important issues in the city like food security, digital equity, public health, youth engagement, and housing and infrastructure. Social entrepreneurship in Baltimore has to be approached from the mindset of “what can I do to economically empower the communities that nobody else cares about?” And the form that that takes depends on each organization and each approach. It takes the personal touch of someone who’s been living in the city for years and years to know what strategy already has a saturated market, where help is needed the most, and what funding is available for whom. That’s why we visited all 28 of the organizations afterwards, at their place of operations, to personally check in with how they’re doing, give strategic advice, and see how IW can provide support. I learned an incredible amount from each meeting, and each drive to get there. On the way to Gallagher Services for persons with intellectual and developmental disabilities, Jay explained as we were crossing the official border of the city that there are plenty of commuters who use public infrastructure (such as roads, the light rail, Metro, and MARC) to benefit from all that Baltimore has to offer economically and culturally, while leaving the city and its residents to struggle financially. But as usual, he put a positive spin on it--if they’re coming here to spend their money anyway, why not find ways to ensure that it’s going to local businesses and social enterprises that keep that money in the city and benefit local economies?
As our follow-up meetings continued, I realized that even within the same overarching organization, it was a very different experience visiting the Esperanza Center, a Catholic Charities program providing assistance to immigrants, than it was driving to the Catholic Charities headquarters of all 80 programs and sitting at a long conference table which included the VPs and Executive Director. Catholic Charities programs receive a lot of funding from foundations each year; so how can IW help that funding go even further by encouraging the use of social entrepreneurship strategies? In order to create lasting change in Baltimore, challenging and questioning the status quo of operations is essential, while honoring the mission and specific context of each organization. It’s a work in progress, but the amount of knowledge that each person at IW holds about communities and connections within Baltimore is both astonishing and extremely hopeful, and the work that all 28 organizations is already doing is inspiring.
Alone? Not exactly...
My time in the field was the most amount of personal freedom I’ve had in my entire life up until this point. My food, lodging, and daily living expenses were covered by Miller Center donors, I was traveling alone, living alone, and outside of work, my evenings and weekends were free to spend them as I wished. I got to spend a good amount of time making new memories...with myself! I’m pretty sure nearly all of the best memories I have are with other people; it’s difficult to think of a vivid memory where I was by myself, and not sharing it with my friends or family.
But I came to appreciate spending time with myself, even though I didn’t fully embrace it at first. I enjoyed just taking time to walk, observe, experience, and notice everything around me. There was a lot of quiet time to myself in silence, which was often difficult in a different way than I’ve experienced before. I noticed when I was rushing, worrying, not jumping on every curiosity I have just because I’m not with someone else who might enjoy it with me. Something was always propelling me forward, and I think it was that I’m so used to filling every busy moment of my day. I started to feel the discomfort of aloneness, of not quite being able to settle in. Finding motivation and light was difficult when I was by myself for long stretches of time, but I found solace in music and art; a particularly proud moment was when I actually completed a drawing that I started, for the first time in a long time. I’ve never lived entirely alone before, and one of my goals is to grow 100% comfortable with just my own company.
From my first solo travel experience, and first action research fellowship, I learned that you truly get out what you put in, not just at work, but for yourself. The amount of personal growth I experienced during my time in Baltimore was unexpected but very much welcome. There may have been times where I was sad not to have a research partner, but I was incredibly grateful and energized by so many other aspects of my placement.
Innovation Works is an incredible organization to be working for, and their partnership with Miller Center is opening up groundbreaking potential for social entrepreneurship in U.S. cities. I got the chance to experience what the fast-paced environment of a start-up is like, and learning about strategies for social impact specifically in the context of Baltimore was the most meaningful and exciting part for me. I was able to synthesize the skills I’ve gained from my education in a real-world environment, and the experience was so fulfilling that it got me excited about the post-graduation life (which is rare considering how often I stress about that)! As the "Miller Center Spy," I got to live and breathe Innovation Works and Baltimore city for 8 weeks; and I can’t possibly express how much I learned every single day on the job just from talking to Jay, Sally, Nicholas, Frank, Libby, and all of the inspiring entrepreneurs I met along the way.
Check out Jay's interview with WMAR News!
Settling into the daily routine of working in the city has been a new and exciting experience for me. All of the little things are falling into place – I’ve worked out the best route to take (across the rainbow bridge, go north first not west), I’m getting to know everyone at the office, and I finally got my key fob to get in the building properly. But most importantly, my work itself excites me, and the work environment is awesome. I walk into the OpenWorks building every day with purpose in my step because I know that I will be doing work that I’m passionate about, contributing to the success of Innovation Works, and learning a whole lot from everyone around me. It’s energizing to be working at a relatively young social enterprise accelerator, surrounded by a very small team. To say that the IW team is working hard is an understatement; everyone is exceeding their job descriptions in some way, and they’re doing it all because they believe in the power of Innovation Works to transform the way people think about Baltimore. It’s inspiring to see the passion my coworkers have for seeking out the untapped potential of the city they’ve lived in for years, or even generations; and those generations are tired of seeing a whole lot of funding go nowhere in solving the racial wealth divide. Although Innovation Works has been over two years in the making, it’s technically only been operational for about six months, and IW is a team of just 8 people. But you can bet that they’ve accomplished great feats in those 6 months, and they haven’t slowed down since I’ve arrived; if anything, we’ve sped up with the implementation of Miller Center’s programs on top of everything else. In just the past six months, those 8 people have engaged with over 156 community members and prospective social entrepreneurs through outreach events, information sessions, and one-on-one meetings, and 81 social entrepreneurs are already actively engaged in their pipeline. These SEs are receiving support from nearly 30 local mentors....the list of statistics and milestones goes on. It’s really quite impressive, especially considering the general skepticism that Baltimore even has any social entrepreneurs to begin with. Not just any old 9-to-5.It feels strange to say that I like how my schedule works here more than when I’m in college. At first, I had to keep reminding myself that I’m not inundated with the usual homework each night; I can actually take a break when I get home for the day. It feels like a luxury, and definitely has me excited for the post-grad life, at a time when thinking about the post-grad life usually terrifies me. One of the most unique parts of the Fellowship is that the placement gives us a taste of real-world work. My final deliverables are constantly being re-shaped by the work I’m doing in the field. And it’s not like a college essay; there’s no long and detailed prompt telling me exactly what to produce and what the parameters are. I have to work closely with the people at my host organization to make sure that the work I’m doing is exactly what they need, and that it will be valuable to them moving forward. Shaping the form and direction of my own project is simultaneously liberating and terrifying, but I’m constantly reminded of my support system at Innovation Works, Miller Center, and back home. And every bit of progress validates the skills I've gained from my seemingly odd assortment of majors. If I can double major in dance and political science, minor in women's and gender studies, and discover a burning passion for accelerating social entrepreneurship, then who knows what's next. ("Burning passion for social entrepreneurship" sounds incredibly strange when I say it out loud, but who cares--it's true! I love my work!) On a typical workday in the Innovation Works office, my hours may generally be around 9-5 (usually less than that, occasionally more if there’s an event), but it’s far from the usual office environment. There’s plenty of work to be done and meetings to be had at our home base, particularly in the aftermath of the Boost program, but I’m starting to see just how closely IW is tied directly to community engagement. I’ve gone on several unexpected and spontaneous adventures accompanying Jay, Sally, and Nick, including but not limited to: a meeting at the University of Baltimore discussing a new community mapping tool that’s in the works, a SOCAP 365 event at the Impact Hub, and a pizza-fueled design thinking workshop. Although these events and side-projects might not be directly related to my work surrounding the curriculum of the Miller Center and IW partnership, just getting to talk to so many different people in the city has been valuable. While I’m here, my goal is to learn, observe, absorb, and experience as much as I can that can only be had while I’m in Baltimore. I’m even finding myself not so far removed from the arts & social justice scene that I love to be a part of. OpenWorks, the building where IW rents its office space, is an incredible maker space for Baltimore’s creative professionals. Every day in the office, we’re surrounded by entrepreneurs, designers, crafters, inventors, painters, leather workers, sewists, and even drone builders in the cubicles surrounding ours. Just downstairs you can find all the metalworking, woodworking, and sewing equipment that’s been made accessible to OpenWorks members. Some of my personal favorite products that come out of the businesses here include custom-made backpacks for dogs, and real, life-sized versions of swords from the Legend of Zelda! Even the cubicles (“studios”) were crafted right here in the shop, made from repurposed wood panels. It’s certainly a unique and energizing space to work in, even on quieter days. One of the most inspiring parts of OpenWorks is the collaborative atmosphere and knowledge exchange that takes place here. The shared spaces are key to learning from one another, and makers with adjacent cubicles and similar products sometimes adopt each other’s innovative techniques. OpenWorks offers classes and workshops to the general public in its classroom spaces as well, and I’m determined to take a stab at one of the foundational courses before I leave (Will it be Photoshop? Embroidery? Maybe 3-D printing??). The Impact Hub is another key spot for creative and entrepreneurial minds to gather in the same space, collaborate, and grow alongside one another. Aside from Boost and the SOCAP event, I've gone there several times just to work in their space for the day, surrounded by beautiful artwork, hardworking entrepreneurs, and even a few familiar faces from other events. Jay dared me to meet a new person every time I spend time there, and let's just say I have a lot of room for growth in the networking department...I'm working on it, I promise! There are Impact Hubs around the world, but this one specifically features the redlining exhibit which catches your eye right when you walk in. The exhibit spans several walls, visualizing not just the history of gentrification and the racial wealth divide in Baltimore, but the way that history continues to manifest in the present day. Everyone in Baltimore has heard of the "white L" and "black butterfly" shaped gentrification, and although the shape itself was new to me, I'd heard about the sharply divided lines. Baltimore is clearly divided racially and economically to this day; and it's gotten progressively worse. The racial wealth divide is by no means unique to Baltimore. It's been the root of many other problems in the city, and it's persisted after generations of both internal and external efforts towards change, for a host of complex reasons. But there's plenty of bad news (or no news) about Baltimore already, to the point where most people are jaded, and many have simply come to expect no better from their hometown. Innovation Works and everyone they work with are telling a different story. IW is shining a light on all of the aspiring and already-inspiring social entrepreneurs, connecting them to each other so that they can collaborate for greater impact, and walking with them to support their work. Transforming the city sounds impossible, but what happens when you start with just one small plot of an urban farm, one daycare center, or one after school program? What can happen when 28 of them gather in the same room? What happens when they leverage the tools of social entrepreneurship to start expanding the depth of their impact, partnering to meet each other's needs, and inspiring the incubation of even more social entrepreneurs? There's so much work to be done, but there's no doubt that it's happening here, and it's something truly special. (And there's no doubt that Jay and Sally don't seem to need sleep like other people!) Baltimore's community assets.What makes IW's work unique is that they're creating a complete pipeline of support for Baltimore's change-makers, starting even before an idea is formed. IW engages with people at five key levels of innovation: Ignite, Ideate, Create, Grow, and Scale. This is huge. No one is turned away who is looking for some kind of support, and each stage is meant to prepare you for the next one when you're ready. Whether you’re just a person with a crazy idea for helping your community, or an experienced social enterprise looking to scale your impact, IW will meet you right where you are and help you get where you need to go. Miller Center’s resources come in mainly at the grow and scale stages, but it’s been valuable to see how IW engages with people even prior to the ideation stage, when they’re just identifying a problem (aka an opportunity) in their neighborhood. One of IW's four "Ignite Hubs," Fayette Street Outreach, is a key spot for fostering--you guessed it--the Ignite stage of innovation. Before people start sharing ideas, it's important to take a step back and look at what's already available to use as an asset in the community, from churches to black-owned businesses to parks and community centers. We wouldn't want to end up with two competing businesses on the same block, when the real problem at hand doesn't even require starting a business. As a part of the exercise, each group described the daily life of someone of a particular age group from their own community. It quickly felt personal, and the real-life stories that came out of the discussion were both moving and crucial to the way they were able to articulate the problems and opportunities in their neighborhood. In the end, we circled back to how the community assets could play a role in providing solutions. Naming positive community assets that people are proud of requires a significant mindset shift from typical community association meetings, but that mindset shift is the first key step in working towards grassroots solutions. The FSO members who attended the design thinking workshop were able to take that first step. I'm excited to see where it leads in the future. Photos are courtesy of Nicholas Mitchel. Check out the video recap he made of the event as well! My first week in Baltimore has been a complete whirlwind, and it’s difficult to put into words everything I’ve seen, learned, and experienced so far. I’ll start by introducing one of the most important lessons I learned this week: why reinvent the wheel? Sometimes innovation isn’t about creating something entirely new. It’s about taking existing solutions and supporting them to achieve their greatest potential. There are so many grassroots organizations that are already working to improve Baltimore, from affordable housing initiatives and workforce development programs, to nonprofits and local black-owned businesses. But so many of them are struggling just to run their day-to-day operations. Many don’t have the time, energy, or funding to spare to seek out how they can connect with an organization just down the street that could fulfill one of their needs. What makes Innovation Works (IW) so unique is that it actively seeks out existing change-makers, walks with them in support, and makes critical connections among them. When Frank Knott founded IW, he wasn’t interested in creating any more competition; if we have a need that can be outsourced by the local talent that is already around us, then we’d love to collaborate rather than reinventing the wheel, so to speak. The IW employees are highly poised to facilitate this, because most of them have lived in Baltimore for years or even generations, and their constant networking and collaborating reveals who should be talking to who, who’s right next door that could be a collaborator, and what neighborhood assets already exist. And the beauty of IW’s first official collaboration with Miller Center, the GSBI Boost program, is that with all these local organizations in the same room at the same time, some incredible collaborations came out of the workshop. At past Miller Center Boost workshops around the world, there’s typically an air of excitement at being surrounded by so many other like-minded change-makers; but with everyone living and working in the same city, connections were just an amazing by-product of this locational advantage. The Boost presenters, Pamela Roussos and Steve White, confirmed that this was the first time that this level of connection came out of a three-day Boost workshop, and it was absolutely inspirational to witness. I did a lot of witnessing over the course of those three days, perhaps more quietly than I intended to before I arrived. But if there’s one thing we learned before we arrived, it’s that without fail, everything changes once you get to the field. Day One. Listening & Observing.I came into this fellowship planning on interviewing participants during Boost, but as soon as Day 1 went into full swing, I realized that wouldn’t be possible or helpful. Everyone was focused on trying to absorb the material, work with their mentors, and network with other organizations, and so I settled into the background. With the help of my GSBF mentor/“partner” for the week Spencer Arnold, who was attending Boost with other Miller Center employees, I was able to embrace my newfound role. I realized the value of having a third person observer in the room to ask the questions no one else is asking, pay attention to the factors that no one else is looking out for, and observe what might not be self-reported later. I started to look at the event holistically, not just the part of the curriculum that’s written out on the PowerPoint slides, because so much more goes into whether or not the event is successful, and all of it needs to be further tailored to the context of Baltimore. Even curriculum that’s as tried and true as Boost has room for improvement, particularly when entering a domestic context with complex systemic problems that operate differently here than in the Global South. Poverty in Baltimore is quite different than poverty in Fort Portal, Uganda, for example, and it’s important to account for that in the language we use, the intentionality given to the diversity of learners in the room, and the content of the curriculum. Day Two. Drawing out Knowledge.“Curriculum” is often thought of as a plan for how the teachers will impart knowledge upon the students; but both Miller Center and Innovation Works reject this conceptualization of curriculum, and rightly so. Firstly, when you’re talking about social entrepreneurs working to transform their city from the ground up, and make longtime Baltimore residents’ lives better, you’re talking about the people who know their own communities better than anyone else. You have to remember that it’s the local entrepreneurs who have all the crucial knowledge, not the presenters or mentors. So rather than imparting knowledge, the Miller Center presenters clarified time and again that they are hoping to draw out the knowledge that the social entrepreneurs already possess about their organizations, their beneficiaries, and their communities. I talked to Fr. Phil of Detroit at length about the way that we must perceive knowledge in order to afford respect and dignity to all people. He was visiting as a guest who’s run his own Boost program before, and he shared with me his belief that knowledge is not transferred or instilled, but rather, everyone possesses their own embodied knowledge. There are different kinds of knowledge, but everyone on this earth has knowledge. The approach that Miller Center has developed is simply about drawing out that knowledge in a differently conceptualized form than they might do on their own, through the lens of social entrepreneurship, so that they can think about their business as both socially impactful and viably sustainable. They take three days off to go back to their basics, and improve and lift up their own businesses. For example, they already know the mission of their business, but they might never have had to pare it down to a compelling 10-word statement that will better catch the attention of investors. The intentionality around imparting vs. drawing out knowledge is a difficult line to toe, particularly with this audience; they’ve had far too much experience with do-gooders that have tried to come into Baltimore from the outside year after year with new solutions, and little has changed except for continued gentrification and suffering for the majority of Baltimore. I’ll talk about this more in a later post. The disturbing past and present of Baltimore’s racial wealth divide is something that I will never know the full extent of because I have not experienced it myself, but I feel that it’s my responsibility to continue to educate myself precisely because it’s so invisible to those who don’t live it every day. It’s my job to listen to those who do. With that being said, the first two days of the workshop were largely successful in drawing out knowledge and broadening participants’ mindsets to innovative approaches. Day one was about taking on the mindset of a social entrepreneur in narrative form, and day two was all about the numbers. Day two was particularly grueling going through the financial model, but all 28 organizations stuck with it, working hard with their mentors, while I was busy observing and listening. Day Three. Connecting & Celebrating.The final day of Boost was about bringing it all together. The energy was palpable in the room for so many reasons—the excitement of gathering in a different space (the Impact Hub), the inspiration of everyone sharing their 2-minute pitch presentations, and the joy of everyone coming together and learning from one another, free from the assigned seating of the first two days. The social entrepreneurs’ passion truly shone through, and the peer-to-peer feedback brought out engaged participation and wise advice from even previously quieter participants. I may be a bit biased, but in my opinion the women really shined that day. Their hands may not have been raised as often, or called on as frequently on the first two days, but their voices on the final day showed that they know their stuff. Although the pitch contest wasn’t the main end goal of the whole Boost, it was inspiring to see three black women win the most votes for their compelling pitch presentations. I felt awed to be in the room with so many talented leaders, and it made me even more excited for the future. Moving forward, how can we keep this momentum going? How can IW create a valuable support system, resource, and network for everyone? What’s next? Special thanks to Sally and Libby for taking most of these photos! Check out this video recap of the event, created by Innovation Works' own Nicholas Mitchell! |
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