Students, faculty and staff across Queen’s are developing novel ideas to solve various social challenges, which is not surprising given the university’s commitment to drive innovation through teaching and research.

Now is the time to bring social innovators together as part of a collaborative network, according to the Centre for Social Impact in Queen’s School of Business.

“There is momentum and an appetite for social innovation on campus,” says Tina Dacin, Director, Centre for Social Impact. “We want to create a social innovation zone where innovators and entrepreneurs from across the university and Kingston can combine their talents to tackle the major social issues facing our local, national and international communities.”

The drive to create a social innovation zone at Queen’s has received support from the RECODE program, an initiative of the J.W. McConnell Family Foundation. RECODE strives to support social innovation and entrepreneurship “ecologies” around post-secondary institutions.

Developing a social innovation zone at Queen’s is among the centre’s key priorities. The zone will unfold over several phases beginning with a campus scan to determine what activities are already happening in this area. The centre will use the scan to determine how people perceive social innovation and what can and should take place as part of the Queen’s social innovation zone.

“We are mapping the social innovation landscape at Queen’s, which encompasses students clubs, program spaces, research initiatives and academic curriculum,” says Richard Allen, Project Co-Ordinator (Social Innovation), Centre for Social Impact. “We want to hear from anyone who would like to share their social innovation activities or aspirations.”

The scan will support the development of new partnerships on campus and within the Kingston and area community. Over the next several years, the centre will also work to create key social innovation vehicles – a campus-wide learning platform and a physical lab space as well as an interdisciplinary social innovation research cluster to sustain and expand social innovation at Queen’s.

The development of the zone is among many of the social innovation activities supported by the Centre for Social Impact. Each year, the centre hosts a Social Innovation Boot Camp for more than 100 students and offers a Certificate in Responsible Leadership currently available to students enrolled in various Queen’s School of Business programs. The students enrolled in the certificate program perform more than 4,500 hours of directed community outreach annually. A speakers’ forum, social entrepreneur-in residence, the Social Impact Summit and learning workshops bring leading social innovators to campus every year.

Email Mr. Allen if you want to contribute to the social innovation scan, and visit the Centre for Social Impact website to learn more.

The Queen’s School of Business Centre for Social Impact was established in 2004 with a mission to educate students and foster outreach, research and advocacy on issues impacting our local and global communities. Every year the centre presents and supports a wide range of programming for students, staff, faculty and members of the Queen’s community to learn more about the processes and practices that drive social impact – including the business practice of responsible leadership and, more recently, social innovation, which refers to an innovative product, process or program that profoundly and positively changes a social system and is widely recognized a key driver of solutions to such complex issues. For more information please contact the centre at csi@queensu.ca.