Letter to Editor: Encouraging Social Entrepreneurs

The following letter to the editor appeared in the May 27, 2005, Daily Record. Pamela King is director of community fellowships and initiatives for the Open Society Institute-Baltimore.

Neil R.G. Young’s "Eye on the Entrepreneur," April 29, highlights the difference that dedicated social entrepreneurs can make to change the quality of life for us all.

Lauren Abramson used her expertise, persistence and charisma to adapt a good idea from New Zealand to critical needs in Baltimore. The result: community conferencing that offers Baltimore youth who have committed offenses a chance to be heard, understand the consequences of their actions, take steps to redress the wrongs and, importantly, receive attention and services to address the underlying situations that led to the offenses in the first place.

Community conferencing now provides an alternative to suspension and expulsion from school and to detention in the juvenile justice system.

The social and economic problems affecting Baltimore’s poorest neighborhoods can often feel intractable. But, a talented individual can be a catalyst for significant change, suggesting new approaches, connecting resources and people, and monitoring and publicizing what works and what does not.

A successful social entrepreneur must mobilize support from the community and, almost always, from government officials and private donors.

In 1998, when the Open Society Institute established the Baltimore Community Fellowship Program, Abramson was one of our first recipients. It has been gratifying to see how strategically she used the 18-month fellowship to introduce community conferencing to Baltimore.

In fact, Abramson is one of 70 Baltimore Community Fellows, all of whom have used the fellowship to bring justice and opportunity to underserved communities in our city. These social entrepreneurs deserve our support. They have the vision and zeal to introduce new ways of doing business—and reap important social and economic returns for us all.