Minnesota Rising is pleased to curate feature the content of our insightful and engaging breakout session speakers and presenters. In our Content Curation series, we highlight the ideas and materials of our 2013 Un/Conference presenters!
Photos by: Jon Reynolds Photography | jtreynolds.com
Young professionals in Minnesota are getting behind the
values of social entrepreneurship: investment in long-term social,
environmental, and fiscal value while working in a career with meaning. On November 14th the Social Enterprise
Alliance co-sponsored the Minnesota Rising Un/Conference with emerging leaders
filling up the DLR Group space in downtown Minneapolis to discuss Cultivating
Capacity for Collective Leadership.
Photos by: Jon Reynolds Photography | jtreynolds.com
One of the breakout sessions entitled “Leading through New Models of Social Change: A Look at Social Entrepreneurship and Cooperatives” explored the challenges of our current economy which encourages cost externalization to the detriment of our environment, incentivizes the exploitation of vulnerable workers, and imparts legal requirements for publicly owned corporations to maximize profits to shareholders.
The session focused on social entrepreneurship as an
enterprise level (rather than individual or systems-level) tool to inspire our
current market system. Leaders that create social enterprises can create
compelling success stories to ultimately inspire market systems (reallocation
of capital, engagement with new vendors, commitment to sustainable practices
etc.). Cooperatives were highlighted as a specific, well-developed business
model that employs social enterprise principles.
Minnesota emerging leaders explored the values
and principles of the cooperative business model and generated a robust
list of local cooperative examples. Cooperatives are designed for democratic
leadership, an excellent model for the Unconference's 2013 theme of collective
leadership.
It turns out the attendees were quite knowledgeable about
social enterprise and cooperatives! Jenny and Emily would like to ramp up the
conversation to the next level: participants interested in getting engaged with
local programming with the Social Enterprise Alliance can contact Jenny Kramm
(Co-Committee chair of the Social Enterprise Alliance and Grants Associate at
the Lutheran Community Foundation) at Jennifer.kramm@gmail.com,
and folks wanting to advance the cooperative movement should reach out to Emily
M. Lippold Cheney (Cooperative Organizer) at e.m.lippold.cheney@gmail.com.
Photos by: Jon Reynolds Photography | jtreynolds.com
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