Social Innovation

Final Project and Presentation (30%)

Students will choose a social problem, aligned with sustainability SDGs, that they are passionate to solve at Rollins College and/or Orlando and/or Florida. They will spend the entire semester developing a SOCIAL INNOVATION PROPOSAL to present to the class and compete at the Ideas for Good competition. This assignment is designed to prepare students for conducting SI-related research, to train students with methods for analyzing social problems, and to train them in communication skills required to become an effective social innovator.

Written Component Requirements:

• Papers must be Times New Roman, 12 font, 1-inch margins, 5-7 pages (excluding cover/title page and references), double-spaced and typed. 
• APA citation format must be used (refer to you syllabus).
• Papers are due in class, at the beginning of class, on the due date. 
• Late papers or papers submitted via email will not be accepted.
• Papers will not be accepted from students who do not attend class on the due date.
• Students will attend a research workshop scheduled with librarian Dr. Susan Montgomery during regular class hours.
• Requirement 1: Each student must schedule individual meetings with Dr. Susan Montgomery before the Midterm Exam. You must take a rough outline of your final project with a list of references to the meeting. Dr. Montgomery will give each student a signed report explaining what has been accomplished in the meeting. Student must attach this report to their final project when submitting it to the professor.
• Requirement 2: Each student must also schedule individual meetings with the Writing Center after they have completed their written components. Student must attach the Writing Center report to their final project when submitting it to the professor.
• Additionally, students are highly encouraged to meet with the professor to discuss their progress on their final projects.

SUBTITLES: you must include these subtitles in your proposal (when you turn in each subsection draft, include the revised version of the previous subsection)

1. Problem Impact:
   1. What is the social problem you are passionate to solve?
   2. Convince me that it is indeed a problem and a social problem (use data/statistics to demonstrate your claims)
   3. For whom is it a problem?
   4. What’s the scale of this problem? How many people does it affect?
2. Root Causes:
   1. What are the causes and root causes of the problem?
   2. Why is it a problem: what/who are impediments/challenges to common solutions (why has a solution not been found yet?) = due to which root causes?
3. Existing Solutions:
   1. Review of existing solutions/innovations (aka. What did NOT work)
   2. Do a systematic review of what has been tried
   3. Why did they not work? (according to whom, they didn’t work?)
   4. Review of existing solutions/innovations that actually DO work!
   5. What are these solutions?
   6. How do we know they are working?
   7. Why have they not been implemented to your FOCUS group/area?
   8. Do you think these solutions would actually work in your FOCUS group/area?
4. Your Innovation (WHAT IS YOUR INNOVATION CALLED?):
   1. Now, present your suggested solution to solve this problem within the boundaries you are focusing on: NEW or ADAPTATION (it can be a new solution or an adaptation of an existing solution – 2.0 of a previous innovation)
   2. Explain your solution in detail using the HCD Chart/Root Cause Analysis Diagram/or versions of these
   3. NAME your innovation (product or service) and that is the TITLE of your proposal along with a LOGO and a MOTTO (subtitle): Innovation Name + Motto + Logo should be up front and central on your cover page
   4. Project Focus: Present the boundaries of your project. You will focus on:
   5. Which geographic area?
   6. Which local/national/international government organizations, if any?
   7. Which local/national/international NGOs, if any?
   8. Why these boundaries?
   9. Target Population: who is the target population of the innovation?
   10. Convince me that your solution will work
   11. How is it different than what has been tried?
   12. How does it fix the weaknesses of existing solutions?
   13. How does it adopt strengths of existing solutions?
   14. How is it INNOVATIVE: apply the SI CRITERIA we learned in the class (more effective, efficient, sustainable or fair)
5. Social Impact & ASSESSMENT:
   1. Convince me why I should fund your innovation over other proposals: what is the social impact your project will have?
   2. How will you asses (measure) the impact of your innovation?
   3. This section is like your ‘conclusion’ where you bring it home in a few sentences
6. Funding & Budget
   1. Make a detailed itemized budget explaining why you are asking for this amount of money
7. Works Cited 

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