Today at a White House event, President Obama will publicly launch the White House Office of Social Innovation and appeal to  Congress to fully appropriate the Social Innovation Fund that was authorized as part of the Serve America Act.  Watch it live here!
 
At the event, four organizations will be profiled and will have speaking roles.  We know that one of them is Bonnie CLAC - for whom Root Cause wrote the business plan and whose plan we featured in our How-to Guide "Business Planning for Enduring Social Impact". We are hearing that two of the three others are Genesys Works and Harlem Children's Zone.
 
It is exciting that government is taking such a public role in encouraging and supporting what works.  Our CEO, Andrew Wolk, is there in person today, so visit his blog for more updates.
 
See below for the official press release:
 
THE WHITE HOUSE

 
As the buzz continues around federal-level efforts to advance social innovation (via the White House Office of Social Innovation and the Social Innovation Fund currently being developed by the Corporation for National and Community Service), the concept is also gaining traction in several states.
 

As we blogged about last week, Public Innovators was proud to present Louisiana Lt. Governor Mitch Landrieu with the 2009 Public Innovator Award during his joint policy keynote address with Andrew Wolk at the Social Enterprise Summit in New Orleans.  We've just posted the audio file of the event - check it out!

We are excited to report that Susannah Washburn, Senior Advisor at the Corporation for National and Community Service, will be joining our discussion at next week's Accelerating Social Entrepreneurship conference in Washington, D.C.! This is sure to be an exciting opportunity to engage directly with the Corporation as they determine how exactly these funds will work. 
 
In our "Advancing Social Entrepreneurship" report with the Aspen Institute, we recommended a template for how a social innovation fund could work.  In this session, we will be exploring these same questions, but now with the knowledge that there is real potential in making this happen.  If you have any thoughts on how this might work, we hope you will attend the session and share them.  Or, if you can't make it in person, share your ideas here and we will represent them to the group.
 
Registration closes tonight for attending the conference in person, but you can still sign up through May 4th for the webcast AND archived video.  We hope to hear your voice represented!
 

Root Cause CEO Andrew Wolk presented Louisiana Lt. Governor Mitch Landrieu with the 2009 Public Innovator Award on Thursday for leadership in advancing social innovation.  The award was presented as part of the opening keynote address for the Social Enterprise Summit, held in New Orleans and launching a new policy track in partnership with Root Cause.
 
The Public Innovator Award recognizes government leaders who embrace six roles for advancing innovative, entrepreneurial solutions to today's most difficult problems.  "We're honoring Lt. Governor Landrieu for his vision in founding the Office of Social Entrepreneurship in 2006, the first office of its kind in the nation, to support the creation and growth of the solutions to the many social problems affecting the state of Louisiana," said Wolk. "He is on the leading edge of a national movement to identify what works and ditch what doesn't, and we hope his leadership spawns similar efforts at all levels of government across the nation."
 
 

 
This evening marks the beginning of the 10th Annual Social Enterprise Summit and Root Cause/Public Innovators is proud to be the co-sponsor of the Summit's first-ever policy track. With a reception this evening for government leaders supporting social innovation, four panel sessions on the connection between government and social innovation/entrepreneurship, and a keynote armchair discussion between Louisiana Lt. Governor Mitch Landrieu and Root Cause CEO Andrew Wolk.  
 
In the days ahead, we imagine there will be plenty of dynamic discussions and provocative questions, and we look forward to sharing them with you here!  If you're attending the Summit, we'd love to hear your reactions as well.
 
Special Reception: National Policy for Building the Field

This week Greg Werkheiser, executive director of the Phoenix Project, our partner in Virginia, authored a column for the South County Chronicle. His topic was methods for non-governmental organizations to achieve solutions to public challenges in ways that avoid or minimize reliance on public tax dollars.  While government involvement remains crucial on so many issues, we should be looking to the organizations and solutions that are maximizing the use of every dollar invested.
 
He highlights ITNAmerica as an example, outlining the core innovations of their model and their unique leveraging of all resources - both financial and nonfinancial - at their disposal.  Root Cause wrote the business plan for ITN's expansion (now in 12 cities nationwide) so we're very familiar with their model and big supporters. (Read our brief case profile here.)
 

Earlier this week, the House passed the Senate's amended version of the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act.  The bill now awaits signature by President Obama, who is expected to do so upon return from his trip to the G-20 Summit in London. Lauded as a bipartisan victory (it passed the House on a 275 to 149 vote and the Senate 79 to 19), this legislation will invest in national service and volunteer opportunities and strengthen our nation's disaster relief efforts.
 
But perhaps most exciting of all, the Act establishes a Social Innovation Fund to find and grow the best solutions to pressing social problems.  Specifics on this Fund are summarized here (and copied below):
 
Creates a nationwide community-based infrastructure to leverage investments in service

 
Kelly Ward, director of America Forward, sent an email update yesterday about the Serve America Act and the GIVE Act (Generations Invigorating Volunteerism and Education). 
 
She says:
 
On Tuesday, "the Senate HELP Committee held a hearing on the Serve America Act. America Forward coalition members Michael Brown (City Year) and Lester Strong (Experience Corps) testified in front of the committee, along with America Forward policy advisor Shirley Sagawa."
 
"Then [yesterday/Wednesday], the House Education and Labor Committee passed the GIVE Act (HR 1388), which improves opportunities for Americans to serve and has many of the same provisions as the Serve America Act. The bill passed out of Committee by a vote of 34-3, demonstrating strong bipartisan support. It will likely move to the House floor sometime next week."
 

Monday's Federal Times includes an op-ed written by Root Cause CEO Andrew Wolk and Louisiana Lieutenant Governor Mitch Landrieu, encouraging the Obama Administration to promote and support social innovation and entrepreneurship.  They provide suggestions on how a new White House Office of Social Innovation might think about its work, drawing on the examples of Louisiana's statewide Office of Social Entrepreneurship and other models with which Root Cause and Public Innovators are working.
 
Some excerpts:
 
"The question we ask today is not whether our government is too big or too small," President Barack Obama said at his inauguration, "but whether it works."
 
We believe that government's ability to foster social innovation and entrepreneurship will be crucial to maximizing the use of our resources and determining, finally, what works and what doesn't.