Introducing America Forward and a White House Office of Social Innovation

by Kelly Ward

Published December 09, 2008 @ 01:05PM PT

My name is Kelly Ward and I’m the Director of America Forward, a coalition of more than 70 results-driven, entrepreneurial nonprofit organizations.  These organizations have innovative solutions to address some of the toughest domestic challenges facing our nation in areas like education, public health, poverty, and workforce development. For the past year we’ve been working with two goals in mind: to introduce social entrepreneurship into the national dialogue about solving domestic problems more effectively; and to advance a policy agenda that will help social entrepreneurs and government work together to invest in social innovation and grow proven solutions to new communities across the country.

It’s probably not hard to imagine that I’m super excited about the Ideas Campaign here on Change.org!  What a fabulous way to engage people across the country in identifying innovative solutions to the social challenges we face.  As Obama said many times on the campaign trail, government cannot solve all of our nation’s problems alone—citizens have an important role to play in identifying new solutions and participating in their communities.  The ability to unite Americans around fresh approaches to our social challenges and share these ideas with our nation’s leaders is a powerful opportunity, indeed. When I read through the ideas already posted on this site, I’m amazed by the innovative ideas already being proposed in all categories.  Exciting stuff!

America Forward is a proud sponsor of the social entrepreneurship category. Social entrepreneurs combine innovative ideas, accountability, entrepreneurial tenacity, and a commitment to results to achieve a high level of impact on the problems facing communities.  It’s great to see Change.org taking a leadership role on highlighting social entrepreneurship as an innovative way to solve problems!  They’re helping to fuel an important dialogue about how we can foster even more innovation in the social sector.

One policy idea frequently mentioned on this front is a White House Office on Social Innovation—which we’ve posted here on Change.org. This Office would highlight the innovative solutions making a difference across the country, identify barriers to innovation and entrepreneurship in the social sector, and provide recommendations to overcome these barriers, among many other activities.  The fact of the matter is that great solutions exist at the local level, but many communities with similar needs aren’t able to access these services. We need a mechanism for taking proven innovations to other places that need them, and the White House Office on Social Innovation is one idea for how to make this happen.

The ideas posted on Change.org demonstrate some of these local innovations and the inventive spirit of the American people.  For the next three weeks, I’ll be guest blogging on Change.org to highlight some of the exciting social innovations working in local communities.  Check back on Thursday to read more!