Youth Flourishing through Social Innovation
The dynamic relationship between youth wellbeing and social change
What do we mean by Social Innovation?
Social innovation is another concept related to human flourishing for which there is no set definition. Generally, social innovation describes “new ideas that work in meeting social goals, which create new social relationships or collaborations oriented to enhance the society’s capacity to act and has the potential to improve either the quality or the quantity of life” (Juarez et al., 2018). When considering how to define social innovation within the context of human or youth flourishing, it becomes clear that social innovation can take many different forms and appear differently depending on the relations formed, the goals of the collaboration, and the environment in which the innovation takes place.
Social Innovation: A catalyst or result of youth flourishing?
Youth flourishing, as we understand it, is closely related to social innovation. The outcomes of building relationships and developing solutions to social issues can have wide-reaching influence on the wellbeing and flourishing of communities well beyond those directly involved in social innovation projects. On the other hand, when youth are flourishing, social innovations abound. Across the world, youth are building relationships and finding transformative and creative solutions to their social needs. The relationship between youth flourishing and social innovation may then resemble a cycle in which social innovation begets youth flourishing, which begets social innovation, and so the cycle continues towards improved wellbeing for youth on a global scale.
