Social entrepreneurship and the desire to address community health issues begin early in New Haven.
Twenty-one teenage students from the city’s Career High School gathered for the culmination of weeks of instruction on social entrepreneurship by InnovateHealth Yale (IHY): a competition to win the $500 Heller Prize for Community Innovation. The juniors and seniors in Kimala Bisasor-Williams’ Marketing 2 class competed on March 30 for the most promising student-led social impact venture. In partnership with IHY, they drew upon principles of entrepreneurship and innovation to develop solutions to pressing health challenges in the community.
The problems they addressed were important and complex: homelessness, health and nutrition, neighborhood crime and cultural competency.
Each of the five teams—United Youth, Kids of Tomorrow, Fortitude at Risk Restaurant, La Familia and Street Scholars—had 10 minutes to outline their idea, its cost, the potential for financial support and direct competitors.
Thursday’s competition at Yale’s Center for Engineering Innovation and Design was the culmination of an eight-week social impact module funded with a grant from the Aetna Foundation and taught by Yale students who created the curriculum along with IHY staff. Organizers plan to offer the course again next year and eventually expand regionally and nationally.
“I’ve really enjoyed seeing the creative ways the students solved the problems they identified. It’s been amazing,” said Onyeka Obiocha, an IHY social entrepreneurship fellow.
Instructors worked to teach students the “hard skills” needed to launch a social enterprise, including business development, design thinking methodologies and customer discovery. A pitch coach worked with them on their presentation skills. “Our goal is to empower students to make change in the community,” Obiocha said.
We had high hopes for the students, and thanks to their passion, newly acquired skills, and commitment to social justice, they exceeded our expectations.
Martin Klein
The students described how they came up with their idea and their implementation strategy, including raising money through means such as Kickstarter. The five-judge panel was impressed with the presentations and complimented all the teams.
After deliberating, the Heller Prize was presented to team La Familia, whose project focused on giving troubled youth an alternative to street life. Noting that in 2011 New Haven was ranked among the most dangerous cities in America, they said they wanted to create a “welcoming atmosphere where students felt safe.” The team will use the $500 prize to further develop its idea. The prize was named after the students’ late teacher, Jonathan Heller, who died before the class began.
“We had high hopes for the students, and thanks to their passion, newly acquired skills, and commitment to social justice, they exceeded our expectations,” said Martin Klein, founder and director of InnovateHealth Yale. He noted that IHY would assist the winning team, or any other team that is interested, as it continues to pursue its project.
The Aetna Foundation is committed to driving health equity through innovation, said Alyse Sabina, the foundation’s national program director.
“We are proud to partner with InnovateHealth Yale to support training local youth in the principles of social entrepreneurship. It’s exciting to see how these talented youth are developing life-long skills in design thinking and innovation, and applying them to make their community healthier,” Sabina said. “On behalf of the Aetna Foundation, I would like to congratulate all the participating students on their hard work, great ideas, fantastic presentations, and commitment to improving their communities.”