{"id":476,"date":"2015-02-18T09:31:03","date_gmt":"2015-02-18T09:31:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/sa\/?p=476"},"modified":"2015-12-16T13:26:43","modified_gmt":"2015-12-16T13:26:43","slug":"the-international-social-innovation-challenge-empowering-women-through-safer-communities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/sa\/2015\/02\/18\/the-international-social-innovation-challenge-empowering-women-through-safer-communities\/","title":{"rendered":"The International Social Innovation Challenge: \u2018Empowering Women through Safer Communities\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Guest blog by Josie Francis, University Social Enterprise Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n

This summer, ten students from the University of Southampton will travel to India to take part in the International Social Innovation Challenge in Delhi.\u00a0 Accompanied by peers from OP Jindal Global University, India, and Lahore University of Management Sciences, Pakistan, Southampton students will participate in an immersive ten day programme of social innovation workshops, an orientation and visits to the Indian social enterprise sector, cultural excursions and an opportunity to work together to create innovative projects around the theme of \u2018empowering women through safer communities\u2019 in the context of North India.<\/p>\n

The subject of women\u2019s safety is one with universal resonance.\u00a0 It has increasingly gained the attention of the international community, and both the root causes of, and solutions to, female subjugation have been the focus of intense discussion within global political forums.\u00a0 Yet, a number of recent high profile news reports demonstrate that we are still far from finding adequate models for ensuring women\u2019s safety and wellbeing, and highlight the need for innovative and creative thinking about the issue.\u00a0 The international social innovation challenge seeks to address this need by bringing the three universities together in collaboration to put their expertise, resources and creative capacities into generating sustainable projects which empower women and build safer communities.<\/p>\n

Yet as institutions, we must also be careful that we do not isolate ourselves from the very communities that we seek to transform.\u00a0 Innovations are only effective if they adequately reflect the realities of the spatial and contextual parameters in which they operate; moreover, we cannot seek to generate sustainable projects without first recognising that social issues exist at a localised level and can only be addressed if we understand the specific cultural, economic and political drivers that perpetuate them.\u00a0 Most importantly though, we must recognise that meaningful change and resilience are the products of innovations which directly empower and resource the community by working with it, not without it.<\/p>\n

For the students who participate in what we hope will be the first of many international social innovation programmes, the biggest challenge will be to cast aside their certainties and pre-conceptions around the issues of women\u2019s empowerment and safety and instead to immerse themselves in what they see, learn and experience during their 10 days in Delhi.\u00a0 If they are able to do this \u2013 to create meaningful and community-centred innovations – then they have the potential to generate meaningful and sustainable change which could transform women\u2019s lives in North India.<\/p>\n

If you are a current undergraduate student and you would like to apply for a place on the International Social Innovation Challenge, please email Josie Francis<\/a>, Social Enterprise Programme Manager\u00a0stating your name, year and subject of study and a 250 word explanation of why you would like to be considered – by noon on 25th<\/sup> February.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Guest blog by Josie Francis, University Social Enterprise Manager This summer, ten students from the University of Southampton will travel to India to take part in the International Social Innovation Challenge in Delhi.\u00a0 Accompanied by peers from OP Jindal Global University, India, and Lahore University of Management Sciences, Pakistan, Southampton students will participate in an […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":93328,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[52771,431146],"tags":[496255,491490,21010,496232,5013],"class_list":["post-476","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-community","category-student-experience","tag-community-2","tag-guest-blog","tag-innovation","tag-make-a-difference","tag-social-enterprise"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/sa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/476","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/sa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/sa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/sa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/93328"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/sa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=476"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/sa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/476\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":477,"href":"https:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/sa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/476\/revisions\/477"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/sa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=476"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/sa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=476"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.soton.ac.uk\/sa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=476"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}