Social Innovation Forum
It was a delight to “see” so many members of our Social Innovation Forum (SIF) community on Zoom last week at our Warm Winter Welcome event. Please see the full recording of the event down below.
The opening remarks by Executive Director Susan Musinsky were centered around SIF’s core values, which have grounded and guided our work through a challenging year.
- Continuous Learning
- Deep Relationships
- Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
- Engaged Community
- Nimbleness
Sarah Dingee, our Program Manager, shared a welcome video featuring our 2020 Social Innovators, who offered advice and words of encouragement to the incoming cohort. Elevated Thought, one of the 2020 Innovator organizations, produced the video.
Tanya Inwald, our Director of Programs, announced the six 2021 Social Innovators: Breaktime; Everyday Boston; Immigrant Family Services Institute (IFSI-USA); Industry Training Reentry Replication Model, a program of Project Place; Neighbor to Neighbor MA Education Fund; and The Loop Lab. These nonprofits are embarking on a two-year journey of capacity building that is designed to help them take their organizations to the next level. Dr. Geralde Gabeau, of IFSI, spoke on behalf of the 2021 Innovators, sharing her excitement.
Our engaged community was in full effect at the event and the chat was buzzing with warm messages from many friends and supporters, congratulating the 2021 Social Innovators and wishing them a successful first year in the Social Innovator Accelerator!
Nageeb Sumar of the SIF Board of Directors closed out the event. Nageeb reflected on the participation of SIF’s nonprofit leaders and their commitment to serve the community in a difficult time. He also shared with the audience his incentive for joining the SIF Board - to engage in continuous learning with others interested in accelerating social impact in Greater Boston.
Despite some technical snafus that required the SIF team and our guest speakers to lean into the core value of nimbleness, the event was a success. It was meaningful to have our community gather virtually to warmly welcome our new Innovators into the SIF family.
We would also like to extend a special thanks to WBUR, Delta Dental of Massachusetts, and Eastern Bank Charitable Foundation for their support of the event as well as to Julian Jarjour, a 14-year-old participant in Zumix (a 2006 Innovator), whose original composition “Syncopated” played during the intro and outro of the virtual event.