Social Entrepreneurship: Capacity Building Among Workers in Public Human Service Agencies

ABSTRACT

This paper describes a pioneering project developed in a school of social work in Israel to train and actively assist professionals in public human service agencies to initiate, design, and implement innovative social programs. The focus of the project was on the field worker, rather than on the management or organization, as is customary in the literature on entrepreneurialism. The paper provides an overview of the planning, structure, and contents of the project; a discussion of the difficulties that arose in the planning, construction, and implementation stages of the new programs; an outline of the project's evaluation component; and a brief description of the programs that were developed. It ends with a summary and recommendations for improvement.

KEYWORDS:

• Human service agencies
• innovation
• social entrepreneurship

The authors are grateful to Ashalim for supporting this project. Ashalim is a non-governmental organization devoted to improving the lives of children at risk and their families in the context of the communities where they live.