Grassroots Social Entrepreneur
- jmemka
- Feb 10, 2017
- 5 min read
The purpose of this post is to focus on social entrepreneurship, and more specifically activity 5.3 from "Entrepreneurial Mindset" O’Brien, C. (2016). Education for Sustainable Happiness and Well-Being, Chapter Five. I have selected the DIY Homesteader Festival of Manitoba and its organizers.
While there are many well known, highly regarded, well publicized people and organizations that qualify as social entrepreneurs, I wanted to find something local that might benefit from having some additional traffic sent their way through this post.
If you are unaware or unsure of how social entrepreneurs are defined;
"A social entrepreneur is someone who recognizes a social problem and uses entrepreneurial principles to organize, create, and manage a venture to make social change (a social venture). Whereas a business entrepreneur typically measures performance in profit and return, a social entrepreneur focuses on creating social capital. Thus, the main aim of social entrepreneurship is to further social and environmental goals. However, whilst social entrepreneurs are most commonly associated with the voluntary and not-for-profit sectors, this need not necessarily be incompatible with making a profit." (http://www.csef.ca/what_is_a_social_entrepreneur.php)
Activity 5.3
Read the snapshots of each of these social entrepreneurs and then select AT LEAST one to investigate further. Frankly, they are all so amazing it is worth learning more about each of them! Alternately, you may want to conduct your own search and discover a different social entrepreneur that is having a positive impact on education.
1) What appeals to you about the social entrepreneur you have investigated?
2) How does their work incorporate creativity, innovation, and/or sustainability?
3) How could you apply what you have learned about the social entrepreneur to your teaching practice?
1) What appeals....
Most importantly, I am using my course work in sustainability to develop a deeper understanding of what sustainability means in our world today and how I can be involved in making change possible. Despite the fact that we have access to more information than ever thanks to the internet, I still place tremendous value on the ability to interact with people directly through conversation, story telling, and building community. The opportunity the festival provides meets this criteria for me.
The first festival was held in 2013, then in 2015, and will take place in the summer of 2017. While the festival is used to provide an opportunity to network and learn sustainable practices, its focus on building community is what keeps the participants involved long term. Through the festival, relationships are formed and supports are easily accessed through the community when questions need answers or experience is needed to solve problems.
The founders, Trevor and Adrienne Percy, Kris Antonius and Mike Berg are homesteaders at heart, but they also acknowledge modern life while maintaining "lost skills" used to sustain past generations before the introduction super grocery stores that had normally out of season items readily available. The "lost skills" such as processing you own beef, poultry, fish, growing/preserving fruits and vegetables generally helped build strong communities through teaching and sharing the skills with children, family members, friends, and neighbours. The groups passion for sustainable practices is clearly obvious and infectious at the same time.
2) How does...
The work of the group is not limited to the festival. Kris operates a blog and shop (Tiny Peasant ) that is focused on continuing to build community through ongoing holistic and nature based learning.
Adrienne is the founder of Traditional Wisdom, Modern Kitchen, a online teacher training resource for traditional food skills. She, along with her husband Trevor also tend 320 acres at Nourish Roots farm where they regularly host sustainable practice classes as well as re-skilling workshops.
As you can see by the diverse selection of topics, the festival offers opportunities to gain knowledge in many areas that utilize creativity, innovation and sustainability. Innovation might be a stretch with some of the topics as some of the practices are very "old" but I could argue that spinning yarn is as new and innovative to me as a virtual reality gaming considering I have never spun yarn before.
3) How could I...
The opportunities to tie in the concepts and practices of the DIY Homesteader Festival in my teaching are endless. I might not be able to make a direct connection with dairy goats and raising rabbits in the woodshop, but I can easily build the intent of the practices into our regular routine.
Every year we build at least one shed, not your typical shed either. It is usually called titled "Manshed 2017" (or whatever the year is) and it is completed by a group of students (all males, hence Mashed). While it may look like a shed from the outside, it is fully finished on the inside with hardwood flooring, finished drywall, baseboards and trim, lighting, heat, and a wall mounted tv with accessories. We have yet to make them entirely solar because of cost restrictions, but we have made them "hybrid" if you will.
We have also started making various styles of bee boxes as well as bee condos for the often forgotten solitary bee.
In the past we have also had opportunities to work on playgrounds for elementary schools and natural playscapes is a "natural" fit.
Essentially, it doesn't really matter what you teach as long as the underlying message is the same. Only use what you need, nothing more and try to keep it simple. We try to teach our students to create a cut list for their project work to maximize the material used while minimizing waste. Selecting the correct material and using the correct machining processes to limit the environmental impact is always talked about, from using local lumber to using the most environmentally friendly products to finish their work. Last year in an attempt to limit the amount of airborne dust and particulate, we removed all electric sanders and almost all sandpaper. It was replaced with the more traditional card scraper, and a smoothing plane. This had a dramatic impact on air quality, would have significantly reduced our electrical consumption (kids like to sand even when they don't need to), reduced our dependency on sandpaper and the environmental impact production has, and actually built a greater sense of accomplishment in our students. The act of working the material manually with hand tools seemed to create a confidence and appreciation that was not as evident before.
I will be attending this years DIY Homesteader Festival in order to continue build my foundation in sustainable practices. The more I know, the more I can share. Hopefully I will se you there.
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