We are offering an annual train-the-trainers institute for organizations and community leaders who wish to learn how to offer community-based programs, such as Local Agenda or Social Innovation Forums, to increase a city's capacity for social and environmental change.

Springboard's Social Innovation Training Institute is an annual event designed for those who wish to offer Springboard's programs in their community. It will provide a comprehensive set of resources to individuals and organizations who wish to increase their community's opportunities to generate its own social innovations—solving its own challenges from the grassroots. We will share the four components of our programs, teaching you how to offer them to your own communities. More than a program training, we are seeking to ensure ecosystems are strengthened for real change led by a new breed of community change agent.

*DATE CHANGE*

In September 2010 Springboard Innovation hosts its first annual Social Innovation Institute, a train-the-trainer learning experience for creating new opportunities for community engagement and leadership in your city.

- We have identified a new site and partners for our training, which has changed the date and venue. To be held in September in Portland, Oregon, our Institute will foster an entirely new opportunity for communities.

What will the Institute include?
The Social Innovation Institute begins on a Sunday evening where you meet a panel of social entrepreneurs who have participated in Local Agenda. These change agents are examples of the kinds of people you will befostering in your communities.

Over four days you learn how to expand community capacity through a unique combination of programs and events. It includes a comprehensive educational program that teaches citizens how to become social entrepreneurs (Local Agenda), a kit for how to launch a social innovation forum, an assessment and resource tool for uncovering indicators of your city's readiness (Innovative Cities), and finally, learn how to take advantage of the ChangeXchange for enabling your graduates to launch real change through community-based social investing.

Our approach is comprehensive, because half-measures or a piecemeal approach yields frustration and weak results. Once community members are ready to launch change, the launching and support systems are crucial to making a difference. We start from the ground up, from building stakeholder support and assessing your city's readiness conditions (and how to strengthen them) all the way through to listing new ventures on ChangeXchange.

More about the Local Agenda program.
Local Agenda is a partnership between those in the learning cohort and the facilitators. The curriculum is approximately 16 weeks of workshops, but the informal relationships last much longer. The engagement is intense, powerful, and life-changing. Local Agenda draws out the best everyone has to give, transforming communities and individuals in the process.

In each workshop, learners examine a story case study, learn and apply specific strategies, and build innovation into each step of your plan. But, this is no armchair study. Participants learn and gather data between workshops, bridging the gap between wishing and knowing, belief and expertise. Community engagement is built into the experience, and is an essential piece of the preparation. Consultants from the community are brought in to provide support along the way. Guest speakers share their expertise.

The first series of workshops are followed by additional workshops for follow-up support and troubleshooting help. We'll explain more about how your community's existing workshop and program offerings can dovetail with Local Agenda and the programs you will bring home.

“This is a great program to learn how to generate business ideas to fill social/environmental needs. Every workshop is intense and exhilarating, and you'll walk out with a basis for a business plan, contacts, and a nurturing network to help keep you going. You'll have a toolbox you can keep for life.”
-- Local Agenda NW Participant