Wakker worden na de safari
By Hannah Aukes, participant of the KL Social Innovation Safari.
And then you wake up. Your ears are ringing, your hair feels sticky. You just came home from a safari, but the jungle is still shimmering at the edge of your bed. You knew this was going to happen. That you would feel just like you did when you were a kid and your friends who adjoined your birthday party had just left – their guest beds still breathed their fresh absence – and you remained with a feeling of, nostalgia. But it’s different now. Nostalgia is as melancholy after a strong feeling of involvement. That’s right: it was an intense week! But this story happily is not about gloom. This story is about building instead of throwing the sheets in the washing-machine (after that birthday party).
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Geschreven door Hannah Aukes, deelnemer aan de KL Sociale Innovatie Safari.
En dan word je wakker. Je oren suizen, je haar voelt plakkerig. Je bent terug van een safari maar de jungle zindert nog na op de rand van je bed. Je wist dat dit ging gebeuren. Dat je je zou voelen zoals vroeger wanneer je na de euforie van je kinderfeestje je vriendjes en vriendinnetjes had uitgezwaaid – de beslapen logeerbedden ademden nog hun verse afwezigheid – en jij achterbleef met een gevoel van, heimwee. Maar nu is het anders. Heimwee zou ook nawee kunnen heten: melancholie na een sterk gevoel van betrokkenheid. Dat klopt, het was een intense week! Maar dit verhaal gaat gelukkig niet over nostalgie en weemoed. Dit verhaal gaat over opbouwen in plaats van de lakens in de was gooien (na dat verjaardagspartijtje).
What has happened? More than thirty people have been in a pressure-cooker inspiration-experience together, they’ve worked upon what is called “social innovation”. After this week of intensively working together, ‘cracking the nut’ of different issues and really coming up with action plans I’m going to be bold to formulate the approximation of a definition.
Social innovation = bringing people and their talents together, to unravel an issue and to answer it with action from a different angle of perspective, succeed by joy as a motor. And that answer is most of times closer than you think it is.
Because that is what we have done: we came up with different answers to (real instead of perceived) questions with which organisations are struggling. In our cases it varied from socially motivated, educational, cultural to urban issues. The involved partners as Bureau Jeugdzorg (Youthcare), the EYE Film Institute, the Mix Academy, the Amsterdam neighbourhood IJburg en the IMC Weekendschool deserve to be praised for being open and by that vulnerable to a different method. And indeed, why not?
An example. Bureau Jeugdzorg needs a couple of millions (money) to solve their problem considering a lot of children who are in a need for help, but they don’t have enough workers to act on that. The actual problem is: people are not proud enough of their jobs. That’s why Jeugdzorg can’t keep and attract associates. Answer: make people more proud of their work. One of the given solutions: put a colourful photo coverage in the grey building of kids who felt better after Bureau Jeugdzorg came across. Who wouldn’t want to help a child in need? So let people from other branches – solicitors, educators, and other people who want to bring in their capacity on a voluntary basis – contribute a day or more than that.
Likewise people from totally different backgrounds, cultures and ages (it’s about & in the mix!) have given their time, knowledge and energy during this Social Innovation Safari to bring issues on a higher level, without getting any ‘money’ for that. Because that is what people want! People want to put in their unique selves, by doing that they give ‘meaning’ to something (to themselves). (That’s why the tell-a-friend-principle is also working so well, with that people giving meaning (to themselves).
So one of the things that again was confirmed this week is the following: with every ones unique capital and enthusiasm we don’t need a lot more other resources. And then a (economic) crisis is soon soooo yesterdays.
This is the age of a new currency: involvement. So start spending your unique ‘YOU’ today.
The Kennisland Social Safari is over, but the jeep is heading further.
Thank you all!
Hannah Aukes
Wat is er gebeurd? Meer dan dertig mensen hebben een week met elkaar in een snelkookpan inspiratie-ervaring gezeten, zij hebben gewerkt aan wat “sociale innovatie” heet. Na deze week van intensief samenwerken, de noot kraken van verschillende vraagstukken en daadwerkelijk met actieplannen op de proppen komen ga ik me wagen aan de benadering van een definitie:
Sociale innovatie = mensen bij elkaar brengen en talenten bundelen, om een vraagstuk te ontrafelen en te beantwoorden met actie vanuit een andere invalshoek, voor elkaar gekregen door vreugde als motor. En dat antwoord ligt vaak dichterbij dan je denkt.
Want dat is wat we hebben gedaan: we zijn met andere antwoorden gekomen op (werkelijke in plaats van veronderstelde) vragen waar organisaties mee worstelen. In ons geval ging het om vraagstukken variërend van maatschappelijk, educatief, cultureel tot stedenbouwkundig. De betrokken partners als Bureau Jeugdzorg, het EYE Film Institute, de Mix Academy, de Amsterdamse wijk IJburg en de IMC Weekendschool verdienen lof dat zij zich open en daarmee kwetsbaar toonden voor een andere formule. Want waarom ook niet?
Een voorbeeld. Bureau Jeugdzorg heeft een aantal miljoen nodig om het wachtlijstprobleem op te lossen. Het onderliggende probleem is echter anders: mensen van Bureau Jeugdzorg zijn niet trots genoeg op hun werk. Daarom kan Bureau Jeugdzorg medewerkers niet behouden en aantrekken. Een van de gegeven oplossingen: in het grijze gebouw een kleurrijke fotoreportage ophangen van kinderen met wie het beter gaat, sinds Bureau Jeugdzorg om de hoek kwam kijken. Een kind in nood, wie wil zich daar niet voor inzetten? Dus: laat mensen uit andere vakgebieden – advocaten, pedagogen, wie dan ook maar zijn kenniskapitaal vrijwillig wil delen – een dag of meer hun bijdrage leveren.
Zo ook hebben deelnemers vanuit totaal verschillende achtergronden, culturen en leeftijden (it’s about & in the mix!) hun tijd, kennis en energie tijdens deze Sociale Innovatie Safari gegeven om zaken naar een hoger niveau te tillen, zonder dat ze daar ‘geld’ voor kregen. Dat willen mensen dus! Mensen willen zichzelf inzetten, daarmee geven zij ‘betekenis’ aan iets (aan zichzelf). Daarom werkt het tell-a-friend-principe ook zo goed, daarmee geven mensen ook betekenis (aan zichzelf).
Dus als iets deze week weer bevestigd werd is het dit: met ieders unieke kapitaal en bevlogenheid als nieuwe valuta heb je weinig andere middelen nodig. En dan is een (economische) crisis al gauw zooooo van gisteren.
Dit is de eeuw van een nieuwe wisselkoers: betrokkenheid. Begin vandaag nog met jouw unieke, betrokken ‘JIJ’ uit te geven.
De Kennisland Sociale Innovatie Safari is voorbij, maar de jeep rolt door.
Thank you all!
Hannah Aukes
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Waking up after the safari
And then you wake up. Your ears are ringing, your hair feels sticky. You just came home from a safari, but the jungle is still shimmering at the edge of your bed. You knew this was going to happen. That you would feel just like you did when you were a kid and your friends who adjoined your birthday party had just left – their guest beds still breathed their fresh absence – and you remained with a feeling of, nostalgia. But it’s different now. Nostalgia is as melancholy after a strong feeling of involvement. That’s right: it was an intense week! But this story happily is not about gloom. This story is about building instead of throwing the sheets in the washing-machine (after that birthday party).
What has happened? More than thirty people have been in a pressure-cooker inspiration-experience together, they’ve worked upon what is called “social innovation”. After this week of intensively working together, ‘cracking the nut’ of different issues and really coming up with action plans I’m going to be bold to formulate the approximation of a definition.
Social innovation = bringing people and their talents together, to unravel an issue and to answer it with action from a different angle of perspective, succeed by joy as a motor. And that answer is most of times closer than you think it is.
Because that is what we have done: we came up with different answers to (real instead of perceived) questions with which organisations are struggling. In our cases it varied from socially motivated, educational, cultural to urban issues. The involved partners as Bureau Jeugdzorg (Youthcare), the EYE Film Institute, the Mix Academy, the Amsterdam neighbourhood IJburg en the IMC Weekendschool deserve to be praised for being open and by that vulnerable to a different method. And indeed, why not?
An example. Bureau Jeugdzorg needs a couple of millions (money) to solve their problem considering a lot of children who are in a need for help, but they don’t have enough workers to act on that. The actual problem is: people are not proud enough of their jobs. That’s why Jeugdzorg can’t keep and attract associates. Answer: make people more proud of their work. One of the given solutions: put a colourful photo coverage in the grey building of kids who felt better after Bureau Jeugdzorg came across. Who wouldn’t want to help a child in need? So let people from other branches – solicitors, educators, and other people who want to bring in their capacity on a voluntary basis – contribute a day or more than that.
Likewise people from totally different backgrounds, cultures and ages (it’s about & in the mix!) have given their time, knowledge and energy during this Social Innovation Safari to bring issues on a higher level, without getting any ‘money’ for that. Because that is what people want! People want to put in their unique selves, by doing that they give ‘meaning’ to something (to themselves). (That’s why the tell-a-friend-principle is also working so well, with that people giving meaning (to themselves).
So one of the things that again was confirmed this week is the following: with every ones unique capital and enthusiasm we don’t need a lot more other resources. And then a (economic) crisis is soon soooo yesterdays.
This is the age of a new currency: involvement. So start spending your unique ‘YOU’ today.
The Kennisland Social Safari is over, but the jeep is heading further.
Thank you all!
Hannah Aukes
