Uncharted Territory - Essential Skills Ontario

OVERVIEWThe concept of social innovation has recently emerged as an influential approachto address intractable social problems. Increasingly discussed in academia andpolicy circles, the concept draws on multifaceted practices and ideas from manydisciplines. Yet despite widespread discussion and promotion, there is stilllimited understanding of precisely what the concept means in practice.This paper serves as a primer on social innovation. It explores the differentforms, drivers and actors involved. It distinguishes among forms such as socialentrepreneurship, social intrapreneurship, social enterprise, and various types ofsocial finance such as social impact bonds, with examples. Finally, this paperchallenges the Literacy and Essential Skills (LES) field to ready itself to engage insocial innovation by posing some key questions about if and how socialinnovation could be used to improve LES service delivery and programming. Thepaper refers briefly to, but does not focus on, critiques that have been developedabout specific forms of social finance.4• Uncharted Territory: Can Social Innovation Revitalize Literacy and Essential Skills Programs?