SSE Community Consultation - Toronto

September 23rd was a successful and inspirational day, book-ended by two events that captured the drive and passion of social entrepreneurs. 

In the morning, we held the first community consultation at MaRS in Toronto with a fantastic group of people with first-hand experience working as social entrepreneurs. Some had decades of experience and others were just starting out. We talked about the school, the kind of curriculum it should deliver and ways to make it THE place to drive social entrepreneurship. 

Everyone agreed that a hands-on component was vital to attract prospective students and avoid putting time constraints on existing initiatives. Discussion revolved around the curriculum - what was taught and how. A core curriculum would help to establish the school’s presence and credibility, but it should be flexible enough to let students opt out of certain ‘subjects’ if they’ve already covered that area of expertise. WHO was teaching was equally important. The word “school” implies a faculty: who is teaching, who are the experts students might gain access to? 

A suggestion was to straddle several sectors, integrating leaders from business, law or retired politicians, as well as socially committed teachers from the field of social entrepreneurship. The school could also seek out young up-and-comers who might we willing to donate their time to teaching select courses. A diverse Board of Governors might provide an instant network of contacts and help generate scholarships or funding. In the spirit of healthy competition, on “Social Venture Capital Day” students could submit business plans or pitches and might be rewarded with start-up funding. Another idea was to integrate a marketplace or a bazaar at the school where SEs could sell their products to raise money and build awareness.

The participants stressed that graduates should be taught ways to track and measure their success. Social impact is incremental; establishing guidelines to measure the impact of the graduates will be vital in generating support for school and for the sector in general. 

With thanks to these organizations and the people behind them:

Zatoun- Fair Trade extra virgin olive and products from Palestine
Pointerware - Creating computer software for the elderly
Turnaround Couriers  - Socially responsible bicycle courier service in Toronto
Web Networks - Websites for Socially Committed Organizations
Canadian Merit Scholarship Foundation
Tiffinday Inc. – coming soon