Innovations in Community Impact

Posted by on March 12, 2012

Happy winter! We are pleased to bring you our Winter 2012 edition of the Philadelphia Social Innovations Journal (PSIJ), titled “Innovations in Community Impact.”

As you will read about in this edition of the PSIJ, there are many ways that innovation can address needs and positively impact a community. Some of the exciting local endeavors you will read about include:

Daniel J. Hilferty and Independence Blue Cross’s newly created IBC Foundation that serves as a model for Corporate Social Responsibility and Responsible social investing;
Kenny Gamble, a successful real estate developer in South Philadelphia who took the unusual step of getting into the business of education, seeking to address at a holistic level the social ills that plagued local neighborhoods by focusing on schools as a way to redevelop a sense of pride and ownership within communities;
Anne Marie Ambrose and the Department of Human Services’ program, Improving Outcomes for Children, which aims to improve service delivery and outcomes for children in care by engaging community partners, streamlining case management and vigilantly tracking outcomes indicators to measure the initiative’s success;
District Attorney Seth Williams’ commitment to The Choice is Yours (TCY), an alternative-to-incarceration program to increase public safety and reduce recidivism rates by diverting first-time, non-violent felony drug offenders away from prison and into the labor market through positive job training and support;
Ann Karlen and Fair Food’s strategy to strengthen the Philadelphia regional food system by increasing the demand for a humane, sustainable, local agriculture system; and
Dr. Lee Nunery and the School District’s efforts to create alternative education settings that ensure all students can succeed in schools and their partnership with colleges to create direct college access and completion pipelines.

You can also read our Nominate an Innovator articles, written by our wonderful volunteer team, about PolicyMap, demonstrating how programs can make “data-driven” decisions using a dynamic web-based tool, Naveguemos con Salud, a program providing breast health education and treatment assistance for Latinas, and Sunday Suppers, a novel intervention focused on educating low-income residents of the Norris Square neighborhood about the importance of taking time for nutritious family meals. Our columnists in this edition will explore: the notion that problem-solving requires a different level of thought than our current thinking, which actually creates programs; the growing relevance of nonprofit collaboration; and the need for nonprofits to think strategically about partnerships as a way to grow revenue.

http://www.philasocialinnovations.org/site/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=401&Itemid=100