As conversations about social finance and social innovation in areas of adult learning are proliferating across provinces and countries, a new paper offers some analysis and insights on possible applications to the fields of LES.

Uncharted Territory: Can Social Innovation Revitalize Literacy and Essential Skills Programs? was written as a background paper for our Fall 2012 Institute. In this primer on various forms of social finance and social innovation, authors John MacLaughlin and Ron Samson give an overview and examples of various forms, including social entrepreneurship, and of investment instruments such as social impact bonds (SIBs).

Several examples, Canadian, American and British, are taken from presentations at the Institute.  The authors challenge LES providers to take the first steps to create an environment for social innovation in the fields of literacy and essential skills.

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Tables of Contents

• Five Drivers of Social Innovation
• The Processes of Social Innovation
• Where does Social Innovation happen?
  • The Third Sector
  • The Public Sector
  • The Private Sector
  • The Three Sectors Working Together for Collective Impact
• New Models for a New World
  • Social Entrepreneurship
  • New Corporate Models
  • Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)
  • B-Corporations
  • Social Intrapreneurship
  • Social Enterprise
  • Social Finance - Investments Based on Outcomes
  • Outcome-based Grants
  • Social Impact Bonds
• Can Social Innovation help LES Programs achieve Greater Social Impacts?
• Creating the conditions for social innovation in LES
• To Consider: A Challenge to the Field