I am having fun with my innovation projects and found this interesting EU report.  I see myself as an social innovator. I was that before the term existed but it feels good to be a part of a group somehow. My parents, who were the first members of the recycling movement EMMAUS in Finland, would today also have found that they were social innovators.

Below some pictures from the early years.

The first time by the Västervik school

My mother in Lima’s slum

My parents

Abbé Pierre at Emmaus Westervik

I was 12 years old when we moved to the Emmaus community in Westervik

My mother started a folk movement – knitting of Mother Teresa blankets

From the EU report:

Social innovation consists of new ideas and solutions aiming to resolve
social needs and problems. The term ‘social innovation’ covers a diverse
range of initiatives and activities: local currencies, new models of
healthcare, cycling initiatives, co-housing schemes and online platforms
to enable peer-to-peer learning are just some examples. There are many
definitions of the term (Caulier-Grice et al., 2012), but what is central
to the concept is the involvement and empowerment of citizens.
As part of the TEPSIE (The Theoretical, Empirical and Policy
Foundations for Building Social Innovation in Europe) project1
researchers conducted a literature review to provide a working
definition of social innovation.

Definition of ‘social innovation’
TEPSIE project proposed definition:
Social innovations are new solutions (products,
services, models, markets, processes etc.) that
simultaneously meet a social need (more effectively
than existing solutions) and lead to new or improved
capabilities and relationships and better use of assets
and resources. In other words, social innovations are
both good for society and enhance society’s capacity
to act.  (Caulier-Grice et al., 2012)