Innovating Impact: Five Examples of Social Entrepreneurship

The Stand Together Foundation community comprises some of the nation’s most effective social entrepreneurs. Instead of looking for one-size-fits-all solutions to address challenges in their communities, they look to the community members who are closest to each issue to generate new ideas. Instead of simply managing the symptoms of problems like poverty, addiction, and mass incarceration, they ask big questions and take healthy risks to get at the root causes.

In other words, these social entrepreneurs aren’t content with the status quo. They’re committed to empowering individuals around them and transforming lives one at a time.

Advocates for Community Transformation

What if neighbors were empowered to keep each other safe? That’s the innovative question that drives Advocates for Community Transformation (Act) to protect communities across Dallas. They connect residents of underserved neighborhoods with each other, city stakeholders, and pro bono attorneys to fight crime and violence on their streets.

The Act team noticed that crime often has an isolating effect on neighborhoods—forcing residents into a posture of fear and making them feel like no one is looking out for them. That’s why their solution is rooted in collaboration and community, bringing people together to gain a more comprehensive understanding of each area’s unique challenges and to find creative ways to resolve them.

Downtown Boxing Gym

Downtown Boxing Gym is an academic and athletic program that empowers Detroit students with tools to uncover their personal strengths and tap into their potential. DBG provides tutoring, mentorship, enrichment programs, career readiness programs, meals, and so much more—whatever kids need to thrive.

DBG was created when their founder—social entrepreneur, coach, and youth mentor Khali Sweeney—realized the Detroit public school system was failing its students. Now, instead of prescribing a particular path to success, the team at DBG offers free and personalized programming informed by each kid’s unique interests and needs. This strategy has led to a 100 percent high school graduation rate since 2007.

Found Village

Found Village leverages a community of adult volunteers and mentors to help youth in foster care regain the ability to trust others. Their founding team observed that trauma, abuse, and neglect erode foundational trust and hold teens back from achieving their full potential.

Traditional mentorship models emphasize one-on-one relationships that can end prematurely and actually undermine trust. Instead, Found Village’s innovative approach begins with a single mentoring relationship and then extends that trust to a wider network, providing family-like support that acts like a “village” around each individual.

PEARLS for Teen Girls

PEARLS for Teen Girls provides support groups, college and career guidance, and one-on-one coaching to empower young women to strive for a better future. All of their programming is centered around the PEARLS values: Personal Responsibility, Empathy, Awareness, Respect, Leadership, and Support.

The PEARLS team seeks to fill the gap of unconditional support that girls need to find their path through adolescence, interpersonal conflict, educational hurdles, and socioeconomic challenges. Rather than focusing on a particular set of outcomes, PEARLS provides broad, intergenerational support to help participants define and achieve their own definition of success.

Serve & Connect

Serve & Connect facilitates sustainable police-community partnerships to improve community safety, resilience, and well-being. Their entrepreneurial strategy was sparked by a belief that lasting change only happens through collaboration.

Instead of focusing on divisive discourse, Serve & Connect creates space for trust and mutual respect before working towards solutions for community safety. In the process, they aim to set a new standard for police and community relationships.