CARE’s Impact Magazine Special Edition

The spring edition of CARE’s Impact Magazine is out and all about Scale x Design!

Take a look at this special issue, which features an in-depth look at the Scale x Design Accelerator & Challenge, Cohort 1 spotlights, Chrysalis – the parent of both our Different Cup of Tea and Broadening gender teams, as well as other stories of Innovation at CARE.

Click the cover to read the new issue:

Announcing Scale x Design Accelerator’s Cohort 2!

It’s been a crazy month here at SxD! Cohort 2 is fully in the swing of things. We have just finished up our first Core Lab – Mindsets & Methods for Innovation (previously Human Centered Design) and are on to our second Core Lab – Designing for Scale.

We will be picking up on the frequency of our posts here on the blog to keep everyone up to date on all of the new teams, events, plus updates on all of your Cohort 1 favorites!

Without further ado, Scale x Design presents Cohort 2:

Fee-based SMS of Weather Forecast and Agricultural Advisory – Vietnam

Making Treasure from Trash – Ghana

Financial Product for Digital Purchase of Agri-input by Poor Farmers – Bangladesh

Farmer Field & Business School – Mali

Community-led Safe Water Supply System for Urban Resilience – Bangladesh

Vijana Juu/Up with Youth – Democratic Republic of the Congo

Circles of Change – Egypt

Security Unit Global Training Initiative – USA/Global

Teaching Resource Laboratories – India

The Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship Lab – West Bank/Gaza

The Cooperative Fund – Georgia

VSLA for Community Resilience – Democratic Republic of the Congo

Additionally, we are ecstatic to welcome Habitat for Humanity International, World Wildlife Fund, and Population Services International (PSI) to SxD! They have dedicated teams to participate side-by-side with our internal CARE teams. Look for a separate post on these partnerships in the coming weeks.

 

Meet Our Partners: Amani Institute

We’re pleased to introduce Amani Institute, whose mission it is to “develop professionals who create social impact!” We are partnering with Amani to implement the upcoming Intrapreneurship Training session at the Scale X Design Accelerator Boot camp in Atlanta next month. This training will give our teams the skills to act like an entrepreneur and to fully integrate the innovative approaches they’re learning in the Accelerator into every aspect of their work at CARE.

Here’s how Amani Institute describes intrapreneurship: “We believe that there is a critical role for people who prefer to work inside an organization to make an impact – what is now being called an “intrapreneur.” Not everyone needs to launch a new company. Just as important as entrepreneurs are the leaders and managers who help the organization grow and fulfill its potential to solve social problems and improve the world.”

Amani Institue has worked with a wide range of NGOs, social enterprises, private companies and foundations to increase their capacity for social innovation. “Social innovation is a mindset and a process that can be taught, learned and reinforced with practice… [Organizations should] ensure they are building their staff’s innovation capability by offering access to training.”1 This encapsulates the Amani Institute’s work and we are thrilled to have them on board for what is stacking up to be an amazing week of intensive learning! Learn more about Amani Institute’s work here.

1 https://www.bond.org.uk/resources/an-introduction-to-social-innovation-for-ngos

 

Where Social Business and Community Health Programs Intersect

The success of community health programs, particularly those based on volunteers, are often threatened by high rates of volunteer drop out and inconsistent performance. For organizations like CARE, who champion dignified work and raise-awareness around unpaid work being a barrier to women’s empowerment, asking some of the poorest communities to simply volunteer their time is difficult to do.

Financial incentives have been found to be one of the most important factors associated with improving retention and performance in urban slums, but lack of financial rewards remains a substantial challenge to implementation and success of community health worker (CHW) programs. Social enterprise is one method many in the development community are now looking at to solve this lack of financial motivation.

Watch this video from CARE UK CEO Laurie Lee’s visit to the CARE social enterprise Live Well in Zambia; read more of his story and learn how Live Well is empowering community health workers (CHWs) through entrepreneurship.

 

 

 

 

Meet our Partners: Erin Mazursky of Rhize

We’re partnering with Rhize for our elective lab on movement building. Rhize coaches movements, trains organizations and connects everone to a global ecosystem of movement support. There are proven strategies and approaches for nonviolent civil resistance that fall under three core principles: (1) a strategic movement-building lens that allows leaders to think beyond any one victory, (2) an ethic of community-building and (3) an ability to effectively and strategically activate constituents using both grassroots and digital platforms. Yet impassioned activists rarely have access to these strategies, too often reinventing the wheel and repeating past mistakes. Rhize works with movements to build on their strengths and integrate these elements with the goal of creating sustained, strategic and impactful action that changes the status quo. Explore their website to learn more!

Learn more about Rhize by watching this short video from their Co-founder and President Erin Mazursky: