pubTalk

The following entry was created in collaboration with PNLC's RA and resident charter school expert, Colin Cureton.

The brightest minds in Minnesota's social entrepreneurship field convened last Thursday at the 2010 Engaged Philanthropy Conference. The event was organized by Social Venture Partners Minnesota and featured groundbreaking presentations from this year's Social Entrepreneur's Cup Winner, Springboard for the Arts, as well as the 3 other finalists, Bright New Ideas (the runner-up), the Acara Institute, and Mind Body Solutions. Here were some of the most inspiring aspects of the conference:

• "It's about health care, not health insurance." Reframing the way that we think about and provide health care to the uninsured, the Executive Director of Springboard for the Arts, Laura Zabel, presented their award-winning approach to providing arts communities around the upper Midwest with quality health care. As part of their mission to "cultivate a vibrant arts community by connecting artists with the skills, contacts, information and services they need to make a living and a life," Springboard uses a local model of health care provision that outsmarts the system. Plus, Laura's presentation was the best use of PowerPoint we have ever seen. Check out their website for more on their innovative approach: http://www.springboardforthearts.org.

• Redefining the way we talk about and fight poverty: Perhaps we have been living too long under a rock called "grad school," but the conference addressed two relatively new concepts to us - fuel poverty and environmental poverty (more on environmental poverty below). Last year's Social Entrepreneur Cup Winner, RREAL (Rural Renewable Energy Alliance) discussed fuel poverty and its alleviation through their mission of making solar energy available to people of all income levels. Last year, 591,951 households who applied for fuel assistance and qualified were turned away in Minnesota because of a lack of funding (RREAL Website). RREAL's unique business plan of offering energy assistance to families in need while also owning and manufacturing the solar technology they distribute is a testament to the socially-minded, entrepreneurial spirit valued by SVP.

• Greening the Ghetto: The dynamic keynote by Majora Clark addressed environmental poverty and strategies that she used in the South Bronx to "Green the Ghetto." Asserting that "you shouldn't have to move out of your neighborhood to live in a better one," Clark shared about her work with Sustainable South Bronx (SSBx), an organization that she founded, as well as global implications and local solutions for environmental poverty. Carter, a true social entrepreneur, has worked on countless initiatives to bring a green economy to the Bronx and beyond. Her stimulating presentation challenged more traditional perspectives on all fronts when she stated, "The 20th century was about making inequality profitable. The 21st Century will be about how to make equality profitable." We highly recommend checking out this podcast and others on the NPR website that features Majora Clark - she is dynamite!

Aside from being a great venue to be re-inspired about the limitless potential of the entrepreneurial spirit, we look forward to next year's Engaged Philanthropy Conference to see Springboard for the Arts' progress, as well as what are sure to be great presentations from another group of finalists.