[1] Wild Tiger Tees
This week, Suzy Bureau of GiveBackHack, took over the People Helping People Podcast, to interview our social enterprise, Wild Tiger Tees. Suzy is such a leader in the community for social change, and what unfolded was a great discussion on launching a social enterprise. Tune in to hear the full story. Also, this weekend was the Business Generating Good Summit, run by Alleviating Poverty Through Entrepreneurship (pictured above), with t-shirts printed by Wild Tiger Tees, so it’s a good example of social change in action.
[2] Student Homelessness at an All-Time High
In honor of our Wild Tiger Tees interview this week, let’s highlight the situation of youth experiencing homelessness. “Over 1.5 million children and youth were homeless during the 2017-18 school year, an all-time high and an 11% increase over the previous year.” It’s not a small issue, and it’s not decreasing. As a bonus, here is a profile on youth homelessness in Riverside County. It offers a good picture of what this looks like.
[3] Canadian Guide to Social Procurement
Shaun Loney, founder of Build, Inc. and Aki Energy realizes the importance of creating job opportunities for people with barriers to job entry. And so they’re developing a process to help government procure from services that are making a social impact.
“Canada’s three levels of government purchase about $15 billion worth of business services each year, and if only 2 per cent of that was delivered by social enterprises at market rates that’s enough employment for 15,000 Canadians.”
–Shaun Loney
[4] Pakistan’s Barefoot Entrepreneurs
Along similar lines, a program called Green Skills and Crafts for Livelihoods is training people from impoverished villages in Pakistan to create and sell, “Mother Earth Products” – products with a zero-carbon footprint- that are not only good for the environment but help lift people out of poverty.
[5] Jahkil Jackson, Social Entrepreneur, Age 12
And just in case you think you don’t have the skills needed to start something and make an impact, Jahkil Jackson started when he was 8 years old distributing food to the homeless in Chicago. He’s created Project I Am to raise awareness of homelessness and create change. To date, he’s reached over 35,000 men, women and children across the world.