Throughout my education and previous work experience I had limited exposure to the concept of social innovation or social entrepreneurship. The Centre for Social Innovation defines social innovation as “the creation, development, adoption, and integration of new concepts and practices that put people and the planet first”. The Next Mile Project (NMP) is a shining example of such. Prior to my arrival at the NMP , my co-fellow had explained to me that we would be sharing office space with other non-profits in what was called The Next Mile Project; this was all a bit confusing to me. On the first day of work, the outgoing fellow, Ben, graciously took us through our new workspace. I only grasped that the floor was split between a law firm and several non-profits, but after a series of emails, meetings, and interactions in the following weeks I began to understand the concept of the Next Mile Project.
The Next Mile Project, “is an experiment in social innovation funded by Dhar Law LLP, a business law and litigation firm with a core commitment to socially conscious business practices” (www.nextmileproject.org). Based in Boston’s North End, the NMP serves as an incubator space for start-up non-profits, and houses over twenty non-profits including, Last Mile Health, Gardens for Health, Face Africa, Pivot, Tanzania Children’s Fund, NCD Synergies and Well Body Alliance. The non-profit organizations in this space address a number of social and public health issues such as access to clean water, education and empowerment of women and children, food and nutrition and basic health services, respectively.
NMP was birthed out of a need to contribute innovatively to social issues and also foster partnerships and collaborations within organizations tackling similar issues. Non-profits housed in the NMP are offered subsidized office space, meeting rooms, office facilities such as printing, photocopying, Wi-Fi access, telephone systems and a kitchen with a great coffee maker! These subsidies save the non-profits a significant amount of money and as a result they can focus on investing in their programs resulting in a larger impact. However, as I am learning and observing within the NMP, social innovation not only focuses on value added through dollar savings but also through creating platforms for collaborations and continuous learning within non-profits.
The NMP fosters this mainly through, learning lunches conducted every Tuesday. Each Tuesday a presenter within or outside the community will present on topics ranging from annual fundraising to supervision of staff, technologies for non-profits and practical day to day running of an organization, among other topics. The presentation is usually followed by a question and answer session which opens the floor to discussions and idea sharing. The NMP model also includes a media lab, allowing young leaders to participate and contribute to alleviating social issues, by providing internship opportunities to work with the various organizations on specific and collaborative projects such as web design, which also allows students to grow their portfolios.
As my fellowship year continues, I am more inspired to brainstorm and develop ideas on how to design such models and implement them in resource limited settings. Social innovation may be a sustainable solution to global health challenges such as high costs of health care, limited healthcare workers in areas where the disease burden is higher and supply chain management for the delivery of medical equipment and drugs in remote areas.