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Center for
Social Innovation

Center for Social Innovation

Healthcare

The New York Times -

Alain Enthoven, professor emeritus of management in the Stanford Graduate School of Business, and David Riemer, director of Community Advocates Public Policy Institute in Milwaukee, outline their innovative plan for public health care.

BNET -

Stanford professor Jeffrey Pfeffer illuminates the link between the failings of the American workplace and the inefficiency of our health care system. The key to reforming health care, he says, is reforming the workplace.

An interview with Mark Cafferty (EPNL '07)

Mark Cafferty (EPNL '07)

Published: July 28, 2009

Affiliation:
Executive Education Participant, Social Innovation Conversations Podcast Listener, Stanford Social Innovation Review Reader
What are your causes?

At San Diego Workforce Partnership, we care about empowering individuals and the community through career and economic development. We’re all about enhancing quality of life and creating a vibrant economy where people can thrive. We focus on helping those who historically have not had the resources gain access to employment, career advancement, and education. We work with all San Diegans in need of support, from workers who have recently lost jobs because of the downturn in the economy to military spouses who are stationed in San Diego, as well as military personnel coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan.

How do you contribute?

We receive money from the United States Department of Labor and various charitable organizations and channel it through a number of vehicles. One comprises one-stop career centers where anyone can walk in and receive free employment and training support—including those who have been unemployed for a long time, have little work experience, or have significant barriers to employment. Another resource we support is a network of 10 to 15 youth programs and service providers, including local school systems. We fund and support many of their efforts focused on career training for young people.

What are important lessons you learned?

When your budget is beholden to one funding stream, as ours was to the federal government, you’ve got to think about diversifying your funding base. That way, if the funding from your major source fluctuates due to economic and other factors, you can still achieve stability.  We are currently working hard to diversify our funding and develop a stronger foundation for our work. 

We also realized that we would serve the community better by putting our money into already existing programs, and supporting and enhancing their work, rather than trying to create our own. This helps us to avoid competing with other organizations and allows us to be an efficient and helpful partner.

What are your favorite social innovation resources?

Top Social Innovation Resource: Classmates and colleagues from the 2007 EPNL program
Good to Great and Good to Great and the Social Sectors (Jim Collins)
Harvard Business Review
Stanford Social Innovation Review

Where can we learn more about what you're doing?

www.sandiegoatwork.com

San Diego Workforce Partnership American Recovery and Reinvestment Act Information: http://www.sandiegoatwork.com/generate/html/About_Us/ARRA_information.html

An interview with Ruth Bolan (EPNL '06)

Ruth Bolan (EPNL '06)

Published: July 24, 2009

Affiliation:
Social Innovation Conversations Podcast Listener, Stanford Social Innovation Review Reader
What are your causes?

I run a small nonprofit in Honolulu, Pacific Islanders in Communications, funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. We’re based on the principle that in a democracy, even the smallest minorities should have a voice in public media. So we fund documentaries that raise the profile on social justice issues and the culture of the indigenous peoples of the Pacific Islands.

How do you contribute?

We give grants to new and emerging filmmakers to help seed their projects. For example, we funded a film on racial inequality and health care among the Marshall Islanders who settled in Arkansas. These were people in a We give grants to new and emerging filmmakers to help seed their projects. For example, we funded a film on racial inequality and health care among the Marshall Islanders who settled in Arkansas. These were people in a region where the U.S. government had done nuclear testing, and who developed drug-resistant tuberculosis as a result. Among the many other documentaries we’ve supported is a film that brought ancient Hawaiian hula to people’s living rooms via PBS.

What are important lessons you learned?

We receive $1 million from PBS annually, and that funding has remained flat for 15 years. So while attending the Stanford Executive Program for Nonprofit Leaders, I began thinking of how we could run ourselves more like a business. A key component of that was thinking about our competitive advantage: the film production experience of the staff and the time we had to devote to our work. This inspired me to help us shift our focus from giving out many small grants to funding a few worthy projects per year where the creative talent was high. As a result, my tiny nonprofit is now producing a multi-part series for PBS in collaboration with National Geographic to meet with some of the world’s last indigenous elders before they die.

Where can we learn more about what you're doing?

www.piccom.org
www.lehuafilms.com/pages/onevoice.html

San Francisco Chronicle -

Stefanos Zenios, Stanford Graduate School of Business Professor of Operations, Information, and Technology, creates a distribution plan to optimize kidney transplant results.

Using Social Media to Save Lives, Part 3 of 3

Speaker(s): 
Robert Chatwani, Manager, eBay's WorldofGood.com
Published: June 23, 2009
Topics: Healthcare

Using Social Media to Save Lives, Part 1 of 3

Speaker(s): 
Robert Chatwani, Manager, eBay's WorldofGood.com
Published: June 23, 2009
Topics: Healthcare, Social Entrepreneurship

Using Social Media to Save Lives, Part 2 of 3

Speaker(s): 
Robert Chatwani, Manager, eBay's WorldofGood.com
Dayal Gaitonde, engineer, The Octane Group, LLC
Published: June 23, 2009
Topics: Healthcare

From Demoralization to Living Community

Speaker(s): 
Kent Thiry, Chairman and CEO, DaVita
Published: November 11, 2005
Topics: Healthcare, Social Entrepreneurship
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