What are the specifics of social innovation within ethnic minority communities ?

Social innovation makes important contributions in addressing various social and environmental challenges within our society. Social innovation came in different shapes and formats. In UK, social innovations are driven by different believes and passion and they came from diverse members of our society. 

Despite that the main processes of development that social innovations go through are similar, social innovations developed by members of ethnic minorities to address particular and specifics needs of their communities, go through additional and specifics processes that are particular to them.

These additional processes and experiences are driven by believes that are specifics to those communities.

Social innovation within ethnic minority communities are delivered or implemented within various formats of community organisations, charities and social enterprises. Their main methodology of addressing needs identified within their communities is delivering of various innovative direct services at their community level.   

Those particular specifics in social innovation within ethnic minority communities can be identified at various level of social innovations development and social innovations virtues such as in social needs identification, social innovations management, actions, monitoring, outcomes measurement, beneficiaries’ involvement, business developments, relations with philanthropies, relations with statutory services and policy makers, awareness of their roles within the wider third sector, awareness of their social impact potentialities and internal and external barriers.

Throughout LCSI’s work with various sort of social innovation initiatives we are currently trying to identify and capture specifics of social innovations that are particulars to ethnic minority communities based social innovation..

‘’ Due to the fact that social innovations are also considered to be the most important drive of social change , it would be important and useful to understand the specifics of social innovations within the ethnic minority community where most of social challenges and need of social changes are important ‘’ says Rene C Mugenzi , LCSI’s interim CEO

On the other side defining social innovations as the result of intentional and goal-oriented actions to establish new social practices in certain areas have lead LCSI to identify the need of  identification of particularities of intention and goals behind social innovation within ethnic minority communities.

Despite the widespread endorsement of social innovation and social entrepreneurship little rigorous research on specifics of social innovation within ethnic minority is known.

Research on ethnic minority social enterprise in the UK has only recently begun to emerge  despite the increasing prominence of social enterprise on the policy agenda for over a decade.

The nature and extent of migrants and ethnic minority involvement in social enterprises activity has been identified but this did not did touch on the specifics of the nature of their social innovations.

Processes of social innovation have been also identified. It is clear that processes identified are general ones. Research did not look at the specifics one for particular communities and circumstances.

Generic ways to design, develop and grow social innovations have been identified by various reseachers. But these reseachers did not go further to identify specifics ways which are particular for ethnic minorities.

Thus there is need to nurture the existing knowledge and understanding of nature and processes of social innovations developed by ethnic minorities to address their communities’ social challenges.