Blog - Social Innovation Generation

Food for thought from Geoff Mulgan’s whirlwind tour

May 14, 2012 by Nabeel Ahmed Leave a Comment

This blog first appeared on the MaRS site on May 10, 2012

Last week, Geoff Mulgan, the Chief Executive of Nesta in the United Kingdom, visited Toronto for a whirlwind tour that included an awe-inspiring 22 commitments in four days and five public talks. The diversity of his speaking topics is worth noting: aging, social entrepreneurship, public strategy, community-led innovation, and austerity.

The tour was organized and presented by Social Innovation Generation as part of its Inspiring Action for Social Impact speakers series.
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Filed Under: Main

Tackling mental health equity head on

February 2, 2012 by Nabeel Ahmed 1 Comment

This article first appeared on the MaRS blog

As a clinical psychologist trying to support sex trade-involved homeless youth, Dr. Sean Kidd found that encouraging them to participate in artistic initiatives brought far more success than the ‘best practices’ he was trained in.

While traditional evidence-based methods were still used, getting the kids to develop and act in skits together led to a far greater level of engagement than the organization he worked for had ever achieved in 25 years, as they developed the relationships and trust that helped them discuss their problems with others.
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Filed Under: Main Tagged With: CAMH, competition, mental health, SiG@MaRS, social enterprise, social innovation, University of Toronto

What if we all thought like Charles Leadbeater?

November 3, 2011 by Nabeel Ahmed Leave a Comment

Charles Leadbeater, a leading authority on innovation and creativity, visited MaRS in mid-September as part of his tour with Social Innovation Generation’s Inspiring Action for Social Impact Series, and delivered a public presentation on innovation in the public service as part of the MaRS Global Leadership Series.