Continuing the work highlighted during Hope Summit 2023, leaders in various fields– who are motivated toward the work of social impact– convened on Tuesday, Oct. 24 for the first event in a new series from Belmont’s Innovation Labs for Social Impact. The Impact Table was developed to serve as a forum to connect and offer new mindsets, skillsets and toolsets to leaders as they work to find solutions to complex problems.
Executive Director of the Innovation Labs Josh Yates “set the table” by providing an overview of the Impact Table’s purpose and vision. “Throughout the year, Impact Tables aim to introduce organizations and people (local, national and international) who are doing things that demonstrate a particular approach and perspective on the work of social impact,” Yates said.
Introduction to TBN and TBN-Africa
A biotech entrepreneur turned social impact pioneer, Kim Tan is the co-founder of the Transformational Business Network (TBN) and Jacob Zikusooka is the regional director of TBN – Africa. Tan and Zikusooka presented the work of TBN and TBN-Africa, sharing stories from around the globe where creative solutions are driving change and enabling regions to thrive.
TBN is a network of over 2,000 businesspeople who bring community transformation through sustainable business solutions to poverty and environmental challenges throughout the world.
TBN has projects in South Africa, Uganda, Malaysia, Singapore, Kenya, Indonesia and many other countries.
Conservation Funded Through Eco-Tourism
The Kuzuko Game Reserve in South Africa is one of the many examples Tan and Zikusooka shared that showcase the type purposeful and multi-faceted impact creative solutions can have in regions. The reserve has re-homed large African animals in an area that has been uninhabited by animals for 150 years. The conservation work of the reserve is funded through eco-tourism in the form of a 5-star, luxury hotel on the reserve grounds. Children from the local communities are bussed in for the day to visit the education park where they are exposed to animals and parts of their own culture. Most of the children had never seen some of the animals. The hotel also has created jobs in an area plagued with unemployment.
Agape Connecting People in Singapore
Within Singapore’s largest prison, the Agape Connecting People call center employs currently incarcerated individuals with remaining sentences of 12 to 24 months. Pre-pandemic, Agape employed 100 women and 80 men. Agape employees who work in the prison are trained with computing skills, they develop conversational skills from the nature of the work, and they are paid a minimum wage of 600 Singapore dollars which is almost equivalent to 600 USD. With their earnings from the call center, they have an opportunity to contribute to the financial well-being of their families on the outside. As financial contributors, their families begin to visit them and an opportunity for restoration is available. Having money in their pockets, useful skills and reestablished family support, they are better equipped to integrate into society upon release. Furthermore, Agape will rehire them at a call center within the city. The work and mission in the Agape call centers have contributed to decreasing Singapore’s 30-35% recidivism rate by 3-4 percent.
Scale for Success in Entrepreneurship
There is a distinguished gap between affluence and poverty in Africa, without an economic in-between. The relatively non-existent middle class is a foreground for development that TBN is focusing on through projects like the Scale for Success program. Scale for Success is an entrepreneur accelerator that works with small business entrepreneurs in African countries in a six-month training program that addresses topics like purpose, operations, structuring finances, governance structure, and other topics relevant to small business entrepreneurs looking to scale. Instilling a growth mindset into budding and burgeoning businesses, the pillars of Scale for Success are capacity, community and capital. The Scale for Success program has created 2,000+ jobs, raised 17.5M USD, trained 420+ entrepreneurs – 42% of whom are women– and has a 12% median growth rate. The program also provides empowerment through establishing a network and community for entrepreneurs who have graduated and those currently in the program.
Building a Community to Address Complex Challenges
The leaders within Belmont Innovation Labs understand that addressing complex challenges requires a community of people across sectors, working together over time to figure out sustainable, incredible and effective ways to do good in the world.
“Nashville is a place that has an incredible wealth of people and organizations that are spread out like a constellation of stars across the region,” Yates said. “There is also an enormous generosity of spirit here that is baked into the culture of this community. If you add to that the caliber of people and institutions that are moving to Nashville, we have the ingredients for something special.”
Looking Ahead: Fostering Learning and Encouragement
Tan and Zikusooka future-casted what the Innovation Labs hope to achieve through Impact Tables. Impact Tables are meant to be places to learn, encourage and hear from others who are doing social impact work in pioneering ways – “ways that can fertilize our own imaginations and help catalyze us to do things better,” said Yates.
At the next Impact Table, guests will meet with Henry Kaestner and Luke Roush of Faith-Driven Investor and Sovereign’s Capital on Thursday, Nov. 16.