The fourth meeting of the Common Good First consortium took place recently in South Africa. For further details and to view the video, please click on the link below:
Author Archives: km1
Creating a replicable digital storytelling toolkit
Julie Adair, Director of Digital Collaboration at Glasgow Caledonian has been successful in a bid for funding to AshokaU. The project is ‘Creating a replicable digital storytelling toolkit’ and is a collaboration with Dan Jackson, Northeastern University and Tracy Mitchell-Ashley, Georgian College.
Project Summary
Storytelling and listening are superb means of promoting empathy and resilience, and shared understanding between individuals and communities. Our collaborative immersion will bring together leaders from three Changemaker Campuses (Georgian College in Canada, Northeastern University in the United States and Glasgow Caledonian University in Scotland) to explore and transfer knowledge through digital storytelling as a social innovation. This project will address areas such as diversity, equity and inclusion, faculty/research engagement, community engagement/partnerships and extra-curricular student programming. As storytelling is a means of engaging community, breaking down barriers, encouraging empathy and demonstrating resilience, the intention of this project is to help institutions incorporate digital storytelling practices into their campus culture and curricula. The goal of this collaboration will be to deliver a replicable and adaptable toolkit for Change Leaders to put into practice on their own campuses, to facilitate digital storytelling
For further details about the project, please contact Julie.Adair@gcu.ac.uk
Social Innovation as a Tool for Inclusion
Professor Simone Baglioni spoke about social innovation in public policies at a European event last week in Bordeaux, France. The workshop entitled “Social Innovation As a Tool for Inclusion” was organized by Eurodir, a transnational network of academics and social workers interested in innovations in social and public services in the health and care sectors. Professor Baglioni delivered a key-note discussing the diffusion of social innovation as a policy idea at the EU level and its implications for national and local policy making.
This week, Simone is speaking again in France, at an international conference in Brest entitled ‘Participation in social and health policies: which autonomy for social actors?’ where he’s addressing the issue of civil society role in policy making in a cross-country perspective.
Professor Cam Donaldson speaks about the impact of Brexit on the NHS
Research Workshop on “Social Enterprise in Social and Health Services”
As part of the EU funded COST project – Developing the next generation of SE Scholars – a workshop (mini conference) is being organised for Frankfurt next year. Call for papers is here: http://www.empowerse.eu/events/2nd-wg-2-meeting/ Deadline for abstract submission is 10 November.
GCU secures £90,000 to host national social enterprise archive
Glasgow Caledonian University is to host a national archive capturing Scotland’s social enterprise story after securing £90,000 of government funding.
Scotland’s Social Enterprise Collection will be open to all members of the public and will capture the story of the thriving sector.
Figures show there are now more than 5000 social enterprises operating in Scotland, with 64% being led by women.
The Scottish Government has a 10-year Social Enterprise Strategy aimed at supporting and businesses that reinvest their profits to address social change in areas such as homelessness, unemployment, inequality, and climate change.
The Collection will expand on the existing archive of work by the late John Pearce, viewed as one of the most influential figures in community enterprise in the UK.
Aileen Campbell MSP, Cabinet Secretary for Communities and Local Government, said: “With so much happening across Scotland and given the vibrancy of this sector it is vital that this story is probably captured, understood and shared for the benefit of all.
“That’s why I am delighted to announce the Scottish Government will provide £90,000 to the Yunus Centre for Social Business and Health at Glasgow Caledonian University, named in honour of the Nobel Peace laureate Muhammad Yunus, to help establish Scotland’s Social Enterprise Collection.”
Professor Cam Donaldson, Pro Vice-Chancellor Research and Enterprise and Co-Director of the Yunus Centre, said: “Glasgow Caledonian University’s Special Collections and the Yunus Centre are both delighted and honoured to accept this award.
“The plans we have developed with Scottish Government are exciting not only in terms of ensuring Scotland’s social enterprise story is preserved but also because the Social Enterprise Collection (Scotland) and the pioneering work of John Pearce can be further developed and opened up for use by historians and other academics, practitioners and policy-makers and, indeed, communities and individual members of the public.
“This will be a living resource, open to all.”
Carole McCallum, GCU’s archivist, said: “I’m thrilled and delighted with the news. We will be working in partnership with the Yunus Centre, and we will now be able to recruit a part-time archivist to catalogue the collection. The archivist will also go out and actively seek new material to build the collection within the archive. The real legacy of this project will be the creation of a comprehensive collection based here at GCU which will endure for the future.”
The announcement coincided with the start of the 2018 Social Enterprise World Forum in Edinburgh, which runs from September 12 to 14.
Professor Baglioni delivered keynote speech on solidarity in Europe at a European policy event
Professor Simone Baglioni, Yunus Centre, delivered a keynote speech at a gathering of European policy makers in Gdansk, Poland. Professor Baglioni was invited to speak about solidarity in Europe at a time when several social, economic and political challenges risk undermining the progress European peoples and countries have made since the creation of the European Union. Professor Baglioni, using evidence from the European funded project TransSOL (Transnational Solidarity at Times of Crisis), of which GCU was a partner, said that although fragile solidarity in Europe was in good shape and that citizens still believe in Europe. Professor Baglioni argued that European peoples are still ready to help each other in case of need, such as supporting their countries pooling resources to help others paying debts, or engaging by helping people such as the disabled, asylum seekers and refugees, and the unemployed. And that therefore there is a good potential to tap upon for revamping social trust and citizens’ trust in Europe.
Professor Baglioni spoke at the Baltic Sea States Subregional Cooperation network annual conference, including policy representatives from Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Poland, Russia, and Sweden. Professor Baglioni said that macro-regional cooperation such as the Baltic Sea States one is a key-policy tool to leverage solidarity among countries and contribute creating cross-country synergies for a sustainable growth and a fairer society.
Later in this month professor Baglioni is invited to speak also at a plenary of the French Sociological Association Health and Social Care branch at the University of Brest, and at the gathering of the European association for health care managers in Bordeaux, both in France.
Baroness Thornton delivers the 2018 John Pearce Memorial Lecture
Baroness Glenys Thornton outlined how social enterprise can have a positive impact on people’s lives at the annual John Pearce Memorial Lecture at Glasgow Caledonian University.
More than 200 guests attended the 2018 lecture held in honour of one of the most influential figures in community enterprise in the UK.
Labour’s Shadow Health Minister in the House of Lords delivered this year’s keynote address, which was part of the programme for an academic symposium, organised by the Yunus Centre for Social Business and Health, ahead of the Social Enterprise World Forum 2018.
Baroness Thornton, who has spent 40 years working with co-operative, social and community organisations, said: “John was one of the people who laid the foundations for the social enterprise movement in Scotland and across the UK.
“He persuaded people to set up innovations and businesses to support their communities, create jobs, give people control over their lives, and save communities that were under threat, he was remarkable.
“The Yunus Centre, here at GCU, does great work. It’s important work because it allows a connection to be made with what happens on the ground and what happens across the world.”
Professor Cam Donaldson, Pro Vice-Chancellor Research and Enterprise and Co-Director of the Yunus Centre, said: “John Pearce spent his working life developing creative, community-led solutions to challenges facing urban and rural communities.
“Upon his retirement and just prior to his death in 2011, John donated his papers to the special collections at GCU.
“A special benefit arising from such a generous donation is that I, along with my colleagues and members of the public who never met him, will have the chance to learn from John.”
The work to preserve the Pearce archive at Glasgow Caledonian University has been funded by donations from the social enterprise and business communities, a grant from the University and awards from the Medical Research Council and Economic & Social Research Council.
Professor Pamela Gillies, Principal and Vice-Chancellor of GCU, said: “Supporting, facilitating and researching Social Enterprise sits at the very heart of our social mission as the University for the Common Good.
“It is why we are delighted, on our campus, to honour the memory of a remarkable and inspirational person, John Pearce.”
Guests from the USA, Canada, Australia, Thailand and across Europe have been on campus this week for a two-day symposium to discuss how academia can advance social enterprise teaching, research and community engagement across the globe.
The event is part of the build-up to the 2018 Social Enterprise World Forum in Edinburgh, which runs from September 12 to 14.
Most Europeans still believe in Europe – new study suggests
Professor Simon Baglioni has had an article published in The Conversation based on the TransSOL project. To view the article, please click on the link below:
https://theconversation.com/most-europeans-still-believe-in-europe-new-study-suggests-101628
Why the Serco affair must force us to rethink our attitudes to migrants
Professor Simone Baglioni has written and opinion piece for the Herald Scotland on ‘Why the Serco affair must force us to rethink our attitudes to migrants’. To read the article, please click on the link below: