KC Social Innovation Center kicks off with $100K
June 23, 2016 | Kat Hungerford
Education in Kansas City is receiving an innovative boost.
Village Capital, a global entrepreneurial development organization, recently announced that Kansas City will be one of its pioneer “VilCap communities.”
The KC Social Innovation Center, or KCSIC, will manage Kansas City’s VilCap community. The organization — launched by Think Big Partners in May — focuses on education as a means to fuel economic development, said Kari Keefe, executive director of the KC Social Innovation Center.
The program opened its doors to 16 U.S. cities, inviting entrepreneurs in each community to tackle hot-button issues. Each city has an assigned focus. Kansas City will be the only education-focused community, while other metros will work on health, water and energy, food and agriculture, financial technology and minority entrepreneurship.
“We provide a central hub for social innovation to amplify and open the community of innovation to initiate and establish new methods in economic development, tech, education and learning in digital cities,” Keefe said. “We’re not only creating spaces where change happens, but leveraging the co-work and co-design models to produce a network of networks with innovative actors and ideas that work together for the public good.”
Growing education innovation efforts sets the stage for the area becoming a national innovation leader, Keefe added.
“Kansas City’s education sector is rapidly evolving,” she said. “It is progressive and innovative, and VilCap has recognized our capacity to lead the nation as a catalyst for education innovation and ed entrepreneurship.”
To become a VilCap community, KCSIC secured $50,000 from the City of Kansas City, Mo., and partnered with The Lean Lab to match an additional $50,000. The Lean Lab will also provide curriculum and other support for VilCap efforts.
“This is exciting for Kansas City, and VilCap Communities is just the beginning,” Keefe said. “With the financial boost from the City of Kansas City, Missouri, now we can continue developing superior education innovations and entrepreneurs throughout the region.”
The non-profit hopes to provide much-needed structure to fully develop education efforts for the region, said Keefe.
“My hope is that KCSIC provides the infrastructure and network needed to actualize the advancement of education innovations, learning and workforce development in digital cities,” she said.
2016 Startups to Watch
stats here
Related Posts on Startland News
Chamber showcase fills Union Station with real-life social networking for small biz owners
Entrepreneur Dane Moss likes to do things a little over the top, he shared Wednesday from inside the Grand Hall at Union Station, noting that simply handing out T-shirts and koozies to event attendees simply doesn’t fit his style. So for his first KC Chamber Small Business Celebration Candidates’ Showcase, Moss and his team from…
1 Million Cups relocating back to Kauffman Foundation, renewing weekly meetup’s energy, sense of purpose
After more than six years connecting entrepreneurs in Midtown, 1 Million Cups Kansas City is returning to its roots — relocating the weekly event series April 9 to the Kauffman Foundation Conference Center where the now-coast-to-coast morning meetup series first percolated. Changing the brew for the Wednesday entrepreneur pitch showcase came from the same voices…
Why the Savannah Bananas founder is coming back to KC (with a tip of his hat to winning leadership styles)
Jesse Cole isn’t afraid to reimagine the way things are done in business, he shared, and his brand of Banana Ball is paying off. In the past nine years, the ringleader of the Savannah Bananas — baseball’s answer to the trick ball-handling and exhibition athleticism of the Harlem Globetrotters — has gone from selling his…
‘Never settle’: He started small, now Drue Stewart is bringing TikTok-famous food to former Westport Ale House
‘Bigger, better, crazier; Never settle; The building had a dark cloud but we are going to bring new life to it’ Less than a year after opening Holy Brunch KC in Westport — and one small expansion — Drue Stewart is making an enormous leap. He’ll go from 2,000-square-feet on one floor, to a 16,000-square-foot…