5.    Educate all 3 sectors in social entrepreneurship’s new approach to social problem solving.
Social entrepreneurship provides not only new ways of addressing persistent social problems, but also news ways of thinking about them. Government leaders can play a crucial role in educating the public, private, and nonprofit sectors in how to begin tackling social problem solving from this new, business-oriented perspective that prioritizes cost-effective and results-driven solutions.

Model:  The Phoenix Project   
Leaders of Virginia’s public, private, and nonprofit sectors have joined forces to form the Phoenix Project, a statewide effort to accelerate social entrepreneurship in Virginia as a way of battling poverty and other pressing social challenges. The effort has involved Governor Tim Kaine, former Governor Mark Warner, Lieutenant Governor Bill Bolling, and other elected officials in educating leaders in all three sectors in the new way of thinking that social entrepreneurship brings to social problem solving. The presence of high-level government officials as spokespeople has drawn to the effort private and nonprofit sector CEOs, as well as leaders from 40 Virginia universities, to pursue the Phoenix Project’s four-part strategy: (1) convene statewide discussions to educate and network leaders interested in social entrepreneurship; (2) engage public leaders as guest lecturers in an annual six-week social entrepreneurship academic and experiential program for thirty top undergraduate and graduate students drawn from throughout the Commonwealth; (3) create partnerships between consortia of universities and economically distressed communities to provide the context for launching and refining social enterprise solutions; and (4) forge a statewide agenda for accelerating social entrepreneurship with specific roles for leaders of each sector. According to the Phoenix Project’s Founder Greg Werkheiser, “With the visible involvement of our government leaders, we are creating the conditions necessary to make Virginia a destination for social entrepreneurship and for effective solutions to the problem of poverty.”

Learn more about the Phoenix Project and its approach to spurring social entrepreneurship in Virginia.