Earlier this year, The GO Program, design-driven entrepreneurship program that GEDS parents, collaborated with US Peace Corps for the Dare to Innovate Conference in Guinea. The collaboration was recently mentioned in Stanford Social Innovation Blog, which is Stanford University`s award-winning magazine and website that covers cross-sector solutions to global problems. The article, written by Emma Schaberg O`Brien, who serves as the marketing, public relations, and communications coordinator for Dare to Innovate, covers the design`s role in boosting innovation and social change in Guinea, as well as The GO Program`s contribution in this regard.
Regarding the critical role of mentorship and utilization of a design-driven perspective in the conference, Schaberg O`Brien says:
“Partnering with Gulay Ozkan, who specializes in design-driven entrepreneurship, and experts in experiential learning, the conference introduced participants to a breadth of new tools and schools of thought. This approach leveraged human-centered facilitation techniques such as Open Space and Future Search—methodologies that have been used around the world to address social issues—which allowed them to see potential instead of problems and opportunities rather than obstacles, and then transform their ideas into actionable possibilities.”
You can read the article here:
“Bridging Skills and Opportunities”
Dare to Innovate is a social entrepreneurship conference that took place in Guinea between August 11th and 18th with the goal of introducing Guinean youth to social entrepreneurship by giving them the necessary support to solve social problems in creative ways and consequently launch their own social enterprise. The partners of the Conference were US Peace Corps, AGUIDEP, and the GO Program.
