Volunteer Articles

Social Entrepreneurs become the next Agents of Change...

By Abby Lynne

When asked "How can I be more like you?" Mother Teresa answered "Just find your own Calcutta".

Social Entrepreneurship is a hot topic around young entrepreneur circles. All you have to do is look around New Zealand at the large number of volunteer programs and not for profit organizations available to see that our generation y’ers are a caring and diligent bunch. Not to mention the number of new social entrepreneur start-ups that are recently being backed and funded by the big boys like New Zealand Trade and Enterprise and events like the Auckland University Spark competition.

Social entrepreneurship is defined as “someone who recognises a social problem and uses entrepreneurial principles to organise, create, and manage a venture to make social change”. If you’re going to create, design and build then why not do it for the greater development of local and international communities around the world. A classic example of this is the legendary Colin Salisbury.

Colin Salisbury is the President and Founder of the Global Volunteer Network (GVN) and has been recognized as one of the world's leading social entrepreneurs. The Global Volunteer Network is one of Colin’s many visionary projects offering volunteer service opportunities in community projects throughout the world. His inspiring work was recently highlighted in an interview with America’s ‘Newsweek’ where Bill Gates (Microsoft’s co-founder and leading philanthropist) suggested that the GVN Network should be ‘the first port of call for young people who want to make a difference in the world’.

Born and raised a kiwi Colin has raised over $100,000 for underprivileged communities around the globe with treks to Mt Kilimanjaro, Mt Everest and Machu Picchu.

Now, with a visionary attitude and the desire to teach, Colin is offering social entrepreneurs the opportunity to be the next agents of change through his purposefully designed ‘Be the Change’ program. The program is lead and hosted by Colin in a unique week long workshop in three magical locations around the globe including Taupo New Zealand, Runaway Bay Jamaica and in Tuscany Italy. The program aims to train the next generation of young leaders and individuals on how to become the next generation of change agents in communities around the world. “Our 'Be the Change' alumni network is made up of an incredible group of individuals around the globe that are creating ripples of social change in their communities, and countries” says Colin.

The program consists of group facilitation, mixed with some good old healthy outdoor activities, and is considered for those who would like to:

• Start a non-profit/charity organization
• Get a job with a non-profit/charity
• Start a social enterprise or project
• Learn how to get a job with the United Nations
• Or if you just want to learn more about the field of Social Entrepreneurship and /or International Development

When asked if they had many kiwis attend the ‘Be the Change’ program they replied “unfortunately we have not yet had any NZ participants in our ‘Be the Change’ program (although we have in our other volunteer projects), but we do have 3 New Zealand participants scheduled for our November program this year”.

If you would like to get involved with the ‘Be the Change’ program or if you have any social entrepreneurial ideas you would like to share then you can contact Colin and his team at www.volunteeer.org.nz.

Written By: Abby Lynne