Ranyaka Community Transformation in association with Stellenbosch Network and the Institute for Technology and Society are set to host the very first Stellenbosch Social Innovation Winter School from 3 to 7 July.
Issues such as poverty, climate change and food security to rapid urbanisation, resource scarcity and growing inequality are affecting communities across the world, and Stellenbosch is not exempt from these issues. All industries are facing the prospect of developing innovative solutions to address these challenges – and now, more than ever, the world needs individuals with the skill sets and right attitude to work in these challenging, yet rewarding environments.
The first Stellenbosch Winter School provides an exciting opportunity for students and community members who have ideas that could potentially alleviate or solve societal problems – or who would like to learn more about how social ventures have a critical role to play in tackling global and local challenges.
“We are very excited to host this first-of-its-kind opportunity for community members to form part of the process of designing profitable ventures that not only create economic value for themselves and their community, but also solves a pressing social issue. Now more than ever, it is also imperative that our younger generation knows that there are viable career and business options in the social impact sector. Any profession can contribute towards addressing the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, and we aim to contribute to their learning in this process,” says Marli Goussard, social impact advisor for Ranyaka.
Over the course of five days, participants will gain a deeper understanding of spatial awareness, social challenges and opportunities and their root causes, identify opportunities for innovation, learn more about spatial planning, design thinking and human-centred design, as well as business models for social innovation; and finally, gain an overview of the scaling of social innovations as well as impact measurement.
Johan Olivier, Ranyaka CEO, emphasised the importance of the initiative. “The Winter School is the expression and sharing of seven years of partnerships and learnings with communities, civic organisations and pioneering investors across the country. It showcases the incredible and very practical innovations that are designed and implemented by a range of stakeholders in a response to everyday challenges and opportunities in our towns, townships and cities.”
The Winter School will take place at the CoCreate Hub in the heart of Stellenbosch and the course fee is R550 per person, which includes course materials.
For more information, please call 084 212 2000. To sign up, please visit bit.ly/siwinterschool
