Hi everyone!
How has your year been? It has been quite awhile since I sent you a newsletter, and well, to be honest, I really missed sharing snippets of how we’re doing with People Helping People & Wild Tiger Tees!
So, I’ll be restarting these weekly newsletters to inspire you with blueprints for how you can build your own social enterprise that creates social impact with a focus on sustainability.
During the pandemic, we paused our social work program, Wild Tiger Tees. Running a program focused on screen-printing shirts is quite a lot of effort, and we haven’t found a way to relaunch it. A big shout out to Stauf’s Coffee Roasters and UALC who have both helped to keep our work program active.
Sustainable Innovation Lab
To achieve our mission with Wild Tiger Tees, we needed more than just mugs. So over the summer, we launched the Sustainable Innovation Lab, an experiment to bring a group of unique individuals together to develop eco-friend products.
The 6 weeks of the lab were both eventful and exciting, to say the least. We studied existing products, brainstormed product ideas, and finally, we prototyped up-cycled journals from homemade paper. (Yes, we made our own paper!)
My biggest takeaway from the lab was the realization of how much a small group can accomplish with a single goal in mind. Having an idea is great but it is easy to get stuck when you are on your own. Working in a group has greatly helped me – I get to understand more complex views from people with different backgrounds, and these different points of view lit up my own imagination.
On Social Change and What’s Next
Bigger world problems can be solved by bringing together people from different backgrounds. In the coming weeks, I will share takeaways from our lab, and blueprints for developing new products & social enterprise business ideas.
If this sounds exciting and you’re in Central Ohio, please join me at GiveBackHack, this October 7th to 9th. This event is a weekend launchpad for up-and-coming social enterprises. I started my humble beginning through this awesome initiative and have been loving my social entrepreneur journey since.
GiveBackHack welcomes all who have the desire to create a social impact. This weekend opened my eyes to new possibilities, and change my view of the world, and I’d love to share this experience with you and help connect you with a community that continues to keep me inspired.