Week #6

This week our guest speaker was Heidi Fransen who spoke about Operation Underground Railroad. She is from Rexburg and has been promoting O.U.R. the past year. Operation Underground Railroad was founded by Tim Ballard, a former CIA agent who specialized in human trafficking. He started O.U.R. about a year ago in order to save children that are slaves to human traffickers that sell these children for sex.
Heidi Fransen gave information that was almost hard to believe because of the remarkable statistics and facts. There are about 2,000,000 children being held against their will sold as sex slaves. There are about 200,000 children in America that are being trafficked. The number one consumer is Americans. Child sex slavery is one of the biggest problems right next to drug trafficking and arms trafficking.
Something that killed me to hear was that the children will be rapped around 30 times a day and their life expectancy is about 7 years because they turn to drugs and alcohol to numb the pain. Tim Ballard and his team have connected with the Elizabeth Smart Foundation which helps the children to recovery after they are saved. The children are physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually damaged and need years of rehabilitation. O.U.R. train the different governments that they work with so they can independently perform these operations.
The human traffickers get these children through different medians. Some parents will sell their children in order to get more money because they are so poor. Human traffickers will also offer great opportunities and deals the children and the parents will accept because they want a better life for their children, but then it turns into something they didn't expect. Another huge portal of finding these children are through social media. Tim Ballard said, "The internet is the portal to the darkest places in the world." We may not realize it, but there are more and more people that are getting involved with these children sex slaves because it all stems from pornography. It may start with soft porn which leads to harder porn which leads to child pornography which ends up trying to find pleasure with real children. It is sick, but very real and we cannot ignore it.
Right now O.U.R. is trying to spread awareness because not a lot of people know about it. Heidi has been a huge asset for the organization through promoting it and getting them to show their documentary, Abolitionist here in Rexburg.
We can get involved by visiting their website, www.ourrescue.org and finding ways to help promote and get involved in the stop against pornography and human trafficking.

In class we also went over a few things of how to start a business and what to expect. One of the questions posed is, "What do you think of the statement by Mike Tyson 'Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth' in reference to starting up a business? How is this statement true regarding brand new enterprises? I believe that it is important to be flexible in the plans we make because starting a business creates opportunities to make changes, develop ideas, and make the product or service more relevant to the consumer.

Peter Singer states that each of us spend money that we don't really need. What does he suggest we do with that money? What is the most effective way to give charitably?
We could find different charities that are valuable, trustworthy, and actually making a difference in the world. We will have to do our research because there are different kinds of charities and some are more specific to certain issues. We can all give to different movements that are taking place today.

Week #5

I really enjoyed this week's topics. We learned about outputs, outcomes, and impacts. I've thought a lot about this. In one of the readings it talks about the importance to measure the outcomes in order to notice and observe the impacts. One reason why this is important to me, to make sure that you really are making a difference and not just wasting time, money, efforts, etc., in order to please your own desires, is because where I'm from I've seen that happen. I'm from the Navajo Reservation and there are Caucasians from Utah that want to "help" and so they'll dump off random things like candy, foot, old clothes, etc., and all that stuff goes to waste, it is literally thrown away as soon as we get it. My dad has made enemies with some people because he'll tell them to go through him in they want to make a difference. They think they can come in to some place and try to make a difference without contacting the local leaders? That isn't the way it should be, they didn't understand the concepts of outputs, outcomes, and impacts.
One of the questions that we are not asking when striving to make a global impact is "what works for them?" Ask those you are trying to serve and the locals what they're needs are. In order to come up with a great solution it is necessary to do research before, but sometimes a lot of the questions come after trying it, that is why focus groups are so essential. Sometimes the most simplest solutions are the most important solutions because they are the ones that work most effectively and efficiently. When thinking of a solution, it can be hard to know what the consequences are, but that is one thing you have to practice, is trying to understand what the long-term affects will be if we come up with this solution.
The question, "Do you think it is worth the money and the resources to accurately measure impact for a nonprofit organization?" is interesting because I think it can depend. First of all, I'm not sure how much money it costs to do an extensive form of research on impact, but I'm sure it's something to consider when trying to decide whether to do it or not. And second, I think it's sometimes difficult to accurately measure the impact in some cases. I do believe that research and resources should be put into any project, but for me the question is how and how much of it will you perform? I strongly believe that in order to know if you are accomplishing something good in the lives of others and to see if you can do better or anything differently, it is necessary to do research and invest in resources to figure out what is actually happening in the project.

Week #4

    On Tuesday we had a guest speaker, Brother Julander who spoke to us about Design Thinking and Innovation. First of all, what is Design Thinking? On the website, http://www.byui.edu/clusters/design-thinking/what-is-design-thinking the definition is written as follows, "In a nutshell, Design Thinking is a human-centered approach to solving problems. It uses an organized method of defining the problem through observing and empathizing with the people who are impacted by it, generating multiple solutions, prototyping one of the solutions, and then testing it." The five things that go into design thinking, which are mentioned in the definition that go into design thinking are empathy, define, ideate, prototype, and test. In my opinion, empathy is the beginning to a solid idea to solve problems. The reason I think this is because in order to get to the root of any problem you'll have to be "in" the problem and not just see it "from" it's perspective. 

    I believe that all the steps to the human-centered design is necessary because it puts you in the right mind-set before going into a project. With empathy you're able to understand to a greater degree of what the problem or solution may be, then you're able to define it in a way you're able to have the meat and core of the project. Once that takes place it's time to brainstorm and search for every possible problem and answer. The prototypes are necessary because you're able to see what works and what doesn't for the design. And obviously testing the solution is essential in order to see what needs to happen to change and tweak. 

    Creative Confidence is essential to social innovation because I believe we can all come up with ideas that will lead to good solutions, but sometimes we're too afraid to even speak our mind. Creative confidence is important in my life because I've seen how it's affected my creative abilities at times. There have been times when I would have mind road blocks because I felt like my ideas would be put down every time. With social innovation we need creative juices to be flowing because the issues and concerns of today's world are not easy to solve. We can't do the same things we've been doing all these years and in some cases we need to start from ground zero. Things are constantly changing and if we don't have creative confidence we will never be able to solve the big and small problems of today's world. 

Week #3

This week there were a few things that stood out to me. In class we talked about the different topics by which a social entrepreneur can help and make a change. They are health, education, poverty, environment, human trafficking, and child welfare. We were put into groups to focus on one and learn from the others about what they discussed about their topics. I was impressed to see how much I don't know and also how much opportunity and resources there are out there to use to help and support in those specific efforts. We also had a guest speaker, David Pigott who spoke to us about is social venture he's been working on. In Africa about 90% still use wood fire stoves to cook. While that is happening the forests are depleting and it is estimated that within the next 30 years there will be no more wood to use. Pigott has observed this problem and may have found a solution. There is a plant called water hyacinth which grows extremely quickly. Pigott presented to us the solution of replacing wood for the fires with this plant, water hyacinth. It was fascinating to listen to what he has researched and what he plans on doing to solve this growing issue in Africa. It was very inspiring. The last thing that impacted me was the idea of being able to become and stay passionate. The four things discussed include: slow down, be grateful, do things to help the less fortunate, and take note and take action. I realize that this path of social entrepreneurship can be overwhelming and discouraging at times, but if these four things are put into practice I image the road will be durable and life will be fulfilling. 

In the Hans and Ola Roling's TED talk, they said, "If you have a fact-based world view of today, you might have a chance to understand what is coming next in the future." I agree with this statement. I believe that a study of collected  past and present informational facts will give solid understanding of what is to come in the future. Through facts we are able to pull out patterns of cultural activity, food and cooking habits, economical and health patterns, and other patterns in yesterday and today's societal issues. Facts are solid tools of being able to understand a situation, learn from it and create a solution which will take place in the future.

Time Ballard said he feels guided by the Spirit in his work. I believe following the Spirit is essential to social entrepreneurship because you are dealing with real issues that effect people's lives in either health, poverty, environmental, different kinds of abuse, child welfare, and other world-wide issues. Because you and I have finite minds and we can only see so far, we are required to receive divine help which will enable us to know what to do with Heavenly Father's children. Most of these issues have been around for thousands of years because they are difficult to solve. The Spirit will guid our thoughts, words, and actions as we strive to do good among our fellow brothers and sisters. Heavenly Father doesn't just care about our spiritual well-being, he is concerned of what we do for a career because he wants us to be happy, successful, and able to serve his sons and daughters. 

Week #2

One of the three ideas that stood out to me is the process that entrepreneur’s go through; opportunity recognition, business planning, resource marketing, managing growth, and change. The reason why this stood out to me is because this was an answer to a question I had, “where to begin and what is the process of thought in order to accomplish change?” I try to search or recognize opportunities of social problems. I don’t know how good I am at doing that, but I want to be able to recognize a problem and figure out a solution through planning, resource marketing and managing growth. The other thing that stood out to me is what Rob Tonks said about the Ballard Center’s core: sustainable, scalable, and replicable. It’s simple, effective, and it is easy to follow in any case or situation you’re put in. The last thing I’ll mention is what Tonks also said about the 2 key objectives: issue area and personal contribution. Asking those questions in those two categories will enable you to understand the big question you asked in the beginning; where do I fit in? But this is specifically for social entrepreneurship. 

As a college student, I relate to those BYU students who desire to make a change in the world because I too want to use my own skill set to figure out how I can produce change in people’s lives. As I was listening I wanted to figure out what I can do now and not wait for some great opportunity to make a change in peoples lives. I am currently in the process of working with someone trying to promote a fundraiser for a disabled individual to raise money for his hospital bills, food costs, vehicle expenses, etc. This will be our big project for the semester that will try to get a large number of people involved. I want to develop certain skills through this project in oder to be an asset for bigger projects in the future. 

I am grateful I read Lara Galinsky’s article, “Not everyone should be a social entrepreneur.” By reading that article it opened up my eyes to realize that I can provide social entrepreneurial help, or in other words, be a change maker. For example, The Good Line, is a creative agency that creates video content for social entrepreneurship movement’s and organizations. I would like to do that and hopefully one day I’ll be able to work with The Good Line. In one way or another, I want to be involved in social entrepreneurship and have the same qualities they do; ambition, mission driven, strategic, resourceful, and results oriented.