A social entrepreneur, as defined by Wikipedia, “recognizes a social problem and uses entrepreneurial principles to organize, create and manage a venture to achieve social change.” During a recession, when people are suffering the most, social entrepreneurs in the African-American community, especially women, have risen to the challenge of attacking some of the most persistent social ills. What is also clear during these perilous times is that more and more of those taking the MBA track are seeking to take a socially conscious entrepreneurial path by investing their time and energy toward social entrepreneurship.
Organizations such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Skoll Foundation, Echoing Green and others have recognized the efforts of individuals to make a real difference in their communities and the world, by supporting rising stars in the social entrepreneurship movement. While the glass ceiling is still prevalent within the world of entrepreneurship, female social entrepreneurs have had an easier time of it where ideas and passion have allowed women to achieve near parity in their endeavors.
The key to lifting oneself out of poverty is education. The key to community improvement is education. Ann Higdon, Founder and President of Improved Solutions for Urban Systems (ISUS) began her quest to educate youngsters, due to their troubled history or academic shortcomings, in 1992 when she founded ISUS.
Ms. Higdon’s dedication to her cause paid off when, in 1999, she opened her first dropout recovery career and technical school. She now has three schools which, just two years ago, accomplished quite a feat by placing in the top fifteen highest performing schools in Dayton, Ohio.
In 2011, Ms. Higdon was one of the recipients of the Manhattan Institute’s Richard Cornuelle Award for Social Entrepreneurship.
The recidivism rate in the United States is among the highest in the world. It’s a perpetual cycle of criminals going to prison, released into a community that has little or no jobs for convicted felons, and within three years, a return to prison. Brenda Palms Barbar of Chicago aims to break the cycle.
Ms. Barbar set out to tackle this enormous problem and ran into the same problem that so many convicted felons encountered: employers who refused to hire people with criminal records. Rather than turning her back on those in need, she started her own organization and hired convicted felons herself. Through her aptly named Sweet Beginnings, she became employer to those she sought to help by hiring felons to produce her skin-care products. Barbar’s efforts have begun to pay dividends as the recidivism rate for those she hires is less than 4 percent compared with the national average of 65 percent.
Angie Beatty, one half of the entrepreneurial team who created St. Louis-based The J.U.I.C.E. Project saw a problem in her community and through an Echoieng Green Fellowship, has attacked her community’s issues with diabetes, stroke and heart disease.
Ms. Beatty, with her partner Shawn Christopher McKie, aims to promote health and food literacy by providing free workshops to encourage a healthier path and better lifestyle choices. What makes this idea unique is that it takes the corner store concept from a place to get unhealthy junk food and alcohol, to a place filled with healthy options. First Lady Michelle Obama in a May 22, 2010 speech touted The J.U.I.C.E. Project in a speech on the Social Innovation Fund.
While at Princeton, Angela Coleman saw firsthand, through mentorship, that young women of color in poverty, lacked even the most basic critical thinking skills. Changing that soon became her focus. She took it upon herself to engage many young women in the community, to expose them to different stimuli, from theater to books, forming the Sisterhood Agenda.
Using her experience working with young women, Ms. Coleman developed a series of camps, classes and follow-up programs to help educate tomorrow’s leaders. Her efforts have been recognized by Ashoka Innovators for the Public which selected Ms. Coleman as one of their Fellows.
The Golden Baobab Prize is something that few Americans know about. Started by Deborah Ahenkorah, this organization aims to educate Africa’s youth one book at a time, instilling pride and cultural awareness at the same time. The Golden Baobab Prize is not only about promoting literacy, it’s about giving African others an opportunity to publish their works.
The organization calls for unpublished works annually, and matches those authors with publishers from all over the world. The monetary awards serve as further incentive for writers to pursue their dream.
Ameca Reali and Adrienne Wheeler saw the problems with the Louisiana criminal justice system, with the highest incarceration rate in the country. Rather than standing on the sidelines, they got involved and formed the Justice and Accountability Center of Louisiana.
These two go-getters brought together a group of unlikely allies including attorneys, those formerly incarcerated and advocates, to examine the current issues plaguing the Louisiana prison system. With their organization, they provide valuable services to the newly incarcerated by facilitating access to files and legal support, while working with various constituencies to improve the Louisiana criminal justice system.
