Photo: Sound ConneXions, Seattle

At the first Sound ConneXions Chicago Forum, on Saturday June 26th, participants with passionate ideas to fill some of the holes that gape everywhere in this economy brainstormed together. Many of the old systems didn’t work too well for lots of folks in the first place. Now, some of them don’t work at all. That sets the stage for social innovation.

Sound ConneXions recognizes social problems as opportunities to use entrepreneurial principles and community assets to release the potential for collaborations that cross traditional boundaries.  Our vision is the creation of scalable, sustainable social enterprises to empower communities while providing  social, ecological and economic benefits in the following areas:

~ Arts and Culture
~ Health and Wellness
~ Education and Development
~ Ecology and Environment

We were honored to have Dan Bassill of the Tutor/Mentor Connection, our spotlight presenter, explain the organization’s impressive work.

The mission of the Tutor/Mentor Connection (T/MC) is to provide an organized framework that empowers and encourages adult volunteers to contribute their time, effort, ideas and advocacy toward creating life-changing solutions for children in educationally and economically disadvantaged areas.

Tutor/Mentor Connection’s leverage of other organizations and Sound ConneXions’ mission of supporting social innovators dovetails perfectly, i.e., connects the dots.

Using the powerful Open Space format for brainstorming, other ideas explored included:

• Greg Vaughan and Autumn Franger explored funding possibilities for the co-officing business that they plan for Rogers Park.
• Wendy Balman gained insight about inviting a consulting organization that innovates complex social systems worldwide to locate in Chicago. This is such an exciting city, with so much creative energy, of course they need a location here!
• Cheryl Jekiel is passionate about exploring new ways to celebrate the end of life

The Sound ConneXions model powerfully supports social innovation that 1) fills a need that the market has failed to meet; 2) is environmentally sustainable; 3) scalable; and 4) meets the triple bottom line principle of profit, planet and people. The triple bottom line means that a business has to make a profit while not harming the planet and benefits people with good working conditions and living wages.

Tags: community, economic recovery, social innovation