A Place For Positive Change-
First in your home, then in your community… the ripple effect builds a sustainable society.
A social innovation is like a catalyst – introduced into an environment it will initiate a cascade of chain reactions. You can imagine it like a boulder which, when dropped in a river, redirects the flow for everything downstream. Or like a little piece of code put in some unconscious life process that improves results or wakes people up enough to see new possibilities. It’s deceptively simple yet can have a significant effect. Social Innovations work with culture and systems, not politics, but they can make waves and change that politically seems impossible.
Try these in your life:
The 9-steps of Your Money or Your Life
Conversation Cafes
The 10-Day Local Food Challenge
From these simple protocols many fun, interesting activities have evolved.
In 2010 I undertook a 30-day, 10-mile diet to test the viability of my local food system. I’d seen the need for greater community self-reliance in the disruptive years ahead and knew that our island community was far too dependent on the mainland for… well, everything. As part of this I helped start Transition Whidbey (see video below) which spawned and supported new projects and institutions on Whidbey Island, from an Organic Farm School to a fruit tree gleaning project to my subsequent book, Blessing the Hands that Feed Us.
Vicki’s work and calling is social innovation. A Strategic Meddler, she observes how human systems function, imagines how a small intervention could do a world of good and experiments on a small scale until it’s ready to spread. Financial independence allowed her to practice this art and trade with love, immediacy and accuracy. She has proven that people unhooked from the toxic messages of consumerism and dedicated to making happy, productive financially independent lives is both personally fulfilling and a model for society: financial security – however it comes – yields amazing returns in health, happiness, longevity, connections, meaning, purpose and civic engagement. It’s an innovation that keeps on giving!