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RLabs: Journey of Hope Part 3

Course video 17 of 45

By nature the world of social innovation is made of crossing boundaries, bringing together different actors, resources, spaces, but it can be overwhelming. Part of our challenge on the journey to becoming changemakers is to learn how to become comfortable with discomfort and how in the social innovation space where you take yourself into spaces and you surround yourself with people that you normally do not engage with. Understanding how we define differences using cultural, sociological, psychological and spiritual lenses and what the nature of the differences is helps to develop tools for getting out of your comfort zone. It takes a little bit of courage because it makes you uncomfortable, but that’s how you build the competencies, the personal resilience to engage with difference when we do go and drive for innovations or we look to make differences in communities that are unlike us or operate in a different way.

This free 6 week course is for anyone who wants to make a difference. Whether you are already familiar with the field of social innovation or social entrepreneurship, working for an organization that wants to increase its social impact, or just starting out, this course will take you on a journey of exploring the complex problems that surround us and how to start thinking about solutions. We will debunk common assumptions around what resources are needed to begin acting as a social innovator. We will learn from the numerous examples of social innovations happening all over the world. You will be challenged to get out of your comfort zone and start engaging with the diverse spaces around you. By the end of the course, you will have formed your own approach to social innovation, and you will have begun to develop the concepts, mindset, skills, and relationships that will enable you to start and evolve as a changemaker. You will be able to purchase a Verified Certificate if you wish to show evidence of your achievements, but this is optional, and you may apply for Financial Aid if you are unable to pay the certificate fee. The Bertha Centre for Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship co-created this course with RLabs, a social movement ‘born-and-bred’ in Bridgetown, Cape Town that is now active in 22 countries. The movement empowers youth through innovative and disruptive technology by teaching them vital skills and providing much needed support and a sense of community. Advocating and supporting initiatives such as RLabs forms part of the Bertha Centre’s mandate. The Centre is a specialised unit at University of Cape Town’s Graduate School of Business, and is the first academic centre in Africa dedicated to advancing social innovation and entrepreneurship. You can view the course trailer at www.youtube.com/watch?v=TcWYG64WO20 Tweet about this course using the hashtag #socinnMOOC

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Compétences que vous apprendrez

Sustainability, Innovation, Social Entrepreneurship, Entrepreneurship

Enseigné par

François Bonnici
Director
Warren Nilsson
Associate Professor
Marlon Parker
Founder

Transcription

[MUSIC]

Now, with this journey of having to start trying to think about how we're going to

solve the problem, here we had a group of ex-gang members, drug dealers,

drug addicts who hasn't got the experience of how they're going to provide one,

support and counseling services.

And two, they needed to learn a little bit more about technology.

So for many of the team, they actually had to think about engaging with people that

they've never engaged with before.

Remember, for most of them,

all their lives there's been a stigma around their life.

I mean, they come from the Cape Flats.

They come from a community that's impoverished.

They come from difficult circumstances.

And here they had to engage with people that normally don't see them eye-to-eye.

So going, firstly, we have to understand,

what are the new technologies that people are using?

So they started going to conferences.

They started going to technology events.

And I remember those were always one of the fascinating ones,

especially when you kind of rock up with these guys and girls.

Many of these guys had all these tattoos, and people are asking, so

what do you guys do at these technology events.

And then the general would just respond, well,

we're ex-gang members or drug dealers.

That wasn't a very kind of good introduction to where they were going.

But they were so uncomfortable in the beginning.

But immediately, the minute they started realising the importance of them engaging

with people in the technology industry because they understood that

they needed to learn that in order for them to be better prepared for

what they were going to provide as a solution later on.

At the same time, when they started doing things such as talking about

that they wanted to do mobile counseling, we then had professional counselors and

the counseling bodies that said, but you are not real counselors.

And the more they were trying to explain to them that they've got their own

personal life experience,

that their belief can add value to the people that they're trying to serve.

People were saying, no, but you are not counselors.

So through that they then had to go and learn how to become counselors.

They had to go to sessions with professional counselors.

They had to go and learn a little bit more about the industry,

the Department of Social Development.

They had to engage with people in the healthcare industry.

And all of these things took them beyond what they are used to.

So going through their journey was not just important for

them in order to get to what they going to do to solve the problem, but

it was also very good for them on a personal level, as well.

So imagine also for those young men and women having to

now go back to ask forgiveness for the same people that they used to disempower.

These are all the things that took them out of their comfort zone.

At the same time the more they want to go back into the same communities and

areas where they feel foreign now.

Remember the same place where they used to be involved with gangs and drugs,

now I have to go and engage again with the same people was very difficult for them.

But here, they realised the importance of having to do that.

[MUSIC]

Coming from a breakdown where you're not used to being between people,

that's, how can I say that?

That has a higher grade as you, that has better education as you.

Starting at RLabs,

I always felt that I don't belong, that I'm not worthy.

I always felt like the odd one out, back then.

But that has really challenged me.

And nowadays even when I needed to meet people at times, to speak to them I

always told Marlon and they're like, I'm not able to speak to those people.

And I think that was my biggest challenge that I overcame.

And now when I meet people I'm just me, like Marlon always said,

you're the most important person and people want to speak to you.

So you don't need to feel afraid or threatened by them so.

I've overcome, that was one of my biggest challenges, and today I've overcome it.

I never saw myself as a leader.

I just thought, well, I'm just an ordinary person just living life and continuing.

But it striked that leader within me,

that person that just doesn't want to strive only for themselves but

strive to make sure that the next person is also helped out,

also knows what can they do for our country.

Because it was always about self, but then it has challenged me to not only think

about myself but also to think about the next person next to me.

So I've been challenged a lot in that sense.

[MUSIC]

So through all of this they started seeing that as they began engaging with

people around counseling and engaging with the people in the technology space,

they found it a bit more easier in understanding these kinds of areas more

and more.

Because they had to break those barriers that was generally out of

their comfort zones.

At the same time, we saw that as these young people started engaging deeper with

the people on these other areas they're not comfortable in, they immediately

started looking at ways and means of how they can start solving the problem.

And not only did that happen, of course,

later on we started finding that the media created some attention.

Where the media wanted to know a bit more about, so

what are these young people going to do using mobile technology and

combining it with something as around drug addiction on the Cape Flats?

They did have to also now get a little bit familiar with,

how do we deal with the media?

All of a sudden, the things that we didn’t want people to know about us,

now the world knows our backgrounds.

Now the world knows a little bit more about the things that we’ve been through.

So these are the kind of things that they had to learn during this time.

But in the end,

it actually got them to a place where they not only understood the problem better,

but they also started gauging and understanding who are the people that we

know we can work with as we start creating a solution for our problems.

[MUSIC]

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