bigBANG!: Sparking Social Innovation in North Texas
Yesterday, the bigBANG! event in Dallas’ Union Station convened a community of over 300 social entrepreneurs, nonprofit leaders, investors, philanthropists, and others to spark social innovation in Texas and catalyze impact. The event included 20 microsponsors, 17 corporate sponsors, 14 socially conscious businesses, and 7 innovators. Dallas Social Venture Partners (DSVP) organized the first of its kind in Texas with the hopes of maximizing the knowledge and expertise of the participants to advance the best solutions to North Texas’ social problems. The ultimate message -- “do good better”.
The event featured a “pitch stage” from which the seven innovators selected by the Texas Social Innovation Initiative (TSI) presented their business model and vision, as well as their resource needs to a full room of “impact investors”.
The bigBANG! also included speed networking where like-minded social innovators, philanthropists, funders, and corporate citizens could meet face to face. Also present was a socially conscious market which featured products of nonprofit and forprofit ventures that have socially impactful products and services plus a room featuring the latest in social media tools and technology experts to help organizations spread their impact. Lunch was provided by the Youth Village Foundation who grew all the fresh vegetables for the event.
Using Root Cause’s Social Innovation Forum annual Showcase Event as a model, the bigBANG! is the culmination of the Texas Social Innovation Initiative (TSI), a joint venture among DSVP, the OneStar Foundation, and Root Cause. OneStar sponsors the TSI program and Root Cause provides capacity-building services for the innovators.
The Innovators who presented are:
• The Amachi Program of Big Brothers, Big Sisters of North Texas, which uses a proven and vetted model of one-to-one mentoring to break the cycle of intergenerational incarceration in Texas. Amachi Texas intervenes in the lives of children of Texas prisoners to ensure that they become productive, safe, healthy members of society.
• The Concilio’s Parent Advocating for Student Excellence, which addresses the dropout crisis in Dallas by increasing parent engagement in the Hispanic community, which is often lacking due to cultural barriers. Parent involvement is a significant factor contributing to higher grades, test scores and graduation rates. Through PASE, parents of pre K-12 students learn how to navigate the school system, to improve their children’s performance in the classroom, and what steps to take so their children can achieve high school and post-secondary education.
• H.I.S. BridgeBuilders, which provides education and career-building training for low-income adults in South and West Dallas. HISBB Training uses innovative business practices and biblical principles, as well as collaborative partnerships, to invest in the lives of its students. Assisting students to gain meaningful and long-term employment, HISBB Training helps break the cycle of poverty and crime, thereby creating a stronger and healthier Dallas.
• The Nurture Knowledge and Nutrition department of Central Dallas Ministries, which takes a holistic approach to addressing hunger and obesity together. Through collaborations with internal and external resources, NKN supports Neighbors, the people they serve, in three ways: NKN nurtures them by showing them how to obtain healthy food and providing opportunities for healthy choices; it gives them knowledge they need to make healthier food and lifestyle choices; and it provides access to nutritious food through a wide range of food distribution programs.
• Rainbow Days’ Family Connection Program, which inspires homeless children to live a life filled with hope and promise. Family Connection uses a specialized curriculum to teach homeless children coping and social skills. The curriculum has been proven effective by an independent randomized control study and has been replicated in multiple cities across the country.
• The Shared Housing Center, which provides housing and comprehensive support to women and children in Dallas who have found themselves homeless due to unemployment, domestic violence, or another crisis. The organization helps women and their families focus on root causes for becoming homeless enabling them to break destructive patterns. It also concentrates on providing a cost-effective approach by leveraging strong community partnerships for its mental health and childcare initiatives.
• Vision Regeneration, Inc., which is shifting the cultural norms of at-risk youth in order to eliminate violent and destructive behaviors, helping youth turn instead to lives that are productive, rewarding and spiritually enriched. Vision Regeneration offers school-based intervention programs to selected schools in the Dallas Independent School District, after school and summer prevention programs in two of Dallas' highest juvenile crime zip codes, and juvenile offender programs to youth in Dallas County.
Check out the media coverage on the event: