Andrew Wolk

Driving at Social Impact in Texas

Posted on 16. Dec, 2009 in Social Innovation

Last week I traveled to Dallas for the OneStar Foundation: Texas Center for Social Impact’s Governor’s Nonprofit Leadership Conference. The theme of the conference was “The Driving Force for Social Impact 2009: Where the Rubber Meets the Road.” The title was well chosen; the OneStar Foundation is definitely taking a leadership role in advancing social innovation.

I wanted to share a few highlights from the conference:

The conference opened with Liz Darling, President & CEO of OneStar, announcing the seven Social Innovators selected for their new Texas Social Innovation Initiative, which was launched in partnership with Root Cause and Dallas Social Venture Partners. The Innovators are:

• Vision Regeneration, Inc.
• Big Brothers Big Sisters of North Texas – Amachi Program
• Rainbow Days, Inc. - Family Connection Program
• Dallas Concilio of Hispanic Service Organizations – Parent Involvement Program
• Shared Housing Center, Inc.
• Central Dallas Ministries – Nurture, Knowledge and Nutrition Program
• H.I.S. BridgeBuilders – Employment training program

I delivered a keynote address, which challenged the audience of over 500 nonprofit leaders in Texas to rise to the occasion and adopt a new kind of leadership. In the speech I spoke about the lack of progress on some significant social problems in Texas and posited that, in order to make the kind of progress that Texas needs, a new kind of leadership, driven by impact over ego, is required – and that it could be the difference between an organization surviving or thriving. You can read the speech here.

I was also fortunate to facilitate a panel after my keynote that featured a truly dynamic mix of people, including Stacy Caldwell from Dallas Social Venture Partners, Robert Marbut from Haven for Hope, Nadiyah Morris Coleman from Louisiana’s Office of Social Entrepreneurship, and Reshma Saith, who manages corporate responsibility at BG America’s Global LMG.

We also held a live-streamed, interactive conversation about the Texas partnership and the role of government in supporting social innovation. Viewers participated in the conversation by watching the live feed and asking questions through the portal and through Twitter with the #txsi hashtag. It was exciting to participate in such an innovative format, along with Liz Darling and Stacy Caldwell. If you missed the live stream, you can always watch it here.

Later in the day, OneStar was joined by the Governor’s wife, Anita Perry, to present the Governor’s Volunteer Awards. This year the awards included, for the first time ever in Texas, a Public Innovator award given to Mary Elizabeth Wick, of 2-1-1 Texas Information and Referral Network at the Texas Health and Human Services commission.

Lastly, I wanted to mention the professionalism of the conference and the OneStar team. Liz Darling has assembled an impressive team including Courtney Suhr, Chris Bugbee, Jada Simpson, and Ariel Romell. Along with Louisiana, Texas and specifically OneStar can serve as models to learn from in how to advance social innovation and bring the three sectors together.

Photo via flickr by irrezolut

Tags: dallas, dallas social venture partners, louisiana, onestar foundation, texas, texas social innovation initiative