Innovation on the homefront

For the above video, please scroll to "1: 16:00" or 1 hr, 16 minutes into the video for my 2-minute short speech on innovation in how to connect ideas, solutions and human capital within communities like Red Hook, as well as to get resources and funds more directly into the area, controlled by the residents rather than merely by elites or outsiders. I use my Human Terrain Team's village and tribal work within Afghanistan as an example of how this is possible.





Background
Our idea formed during the Hurricane Sandy relief effort.  We discovered a nimble, grassroots movement like Occupy Sandy was a more effective humanitarian venture than large bureaucratic organizations like city government or FEMA.  It was so significant at one point
government relief workers were directing storm victims to Occupy Sandy.  But the
grassroots approach is not just effective disaster relief.  It is the way
forward to bringing innovative growth.



The ideal outcome of our movement is this: To define projects together as a community and have some say over funds, set aside, to make these projects come alive, on a local level.


In addition, to share this with social enterprises around the country and even globally, exchanging best practices, so that Red Hook can be a working example for other neighborhoods, even other cities and states nationwide. We don’t see this as an unworkable
goal. 

Neither do others we know outside of Red Hook with a lifetime of experience in community-based social enterprise.




Red Hook is ready. The neighborhood and its residents are ready. We should do this, now,
without further delay. So that Red Hook, as a community, represented by its lifetime members and most active players, can have a conversation with the rest of the outside world on funding these projects, on spearheading these ideas, on lighting the spark and keeping it going


It is not so much a lack of resources – these are often quite present within the communities
and neighborhoods themselves – but a lack of opportunity. A simple lack of capital and resources getting to where they need to go, and – above all – a lack of local control and local say by the community itself on how they are helped and which of their projects and ideas get support from the outside. This lack of opportunity is about the skilled tradesman who wants to teach and coach youth on valuable job skills but doesn’t have the outlet to do it; the seasoned but underemployed craftsman or technical expert who is not being served by the traditional economy; the unemployed mother or father who wants to work, and the jobs that are needed in the community but aren’t available, all for a simple lack of basic capital. The youth who want to put their talents ad brains to use learning new things but lack the means to do so, and the elders who want to impart wisdom and knowledge as teachers to these youth, but lack the paid positions to make this happen.



In Red Hook, like far too many US communities, there are needs not being met, in spite of
lots of people with the skills, talents and motivation to meet them if given the chance. Unfortunately, these areas –needs and assets - do not seem to come together much, with hundreds of people remaining stagnant in an economy that’s not serving the majority, nor appreciating its human capital or taking advantage of its untapped skill and talent.


Fortunately, there are ways we can link all this together.
There are tools and approaches in the Special Operations toolkit that we’ve applied in our war zones, which our Iraq and Afghanistan veterans can help apply to fighting poverty and social isolation; there are numerous tools and skills in the tech industry as well. We should apply it here on the home front, to address some of our most pressing social problems.


We put so much creativity, risk, and above all, reward, into innovating our social apps
and tech industry, our smartphones and iPads, and other things we deem to be investment-worthy as ‘the next big idea’. Let’s innovate how we help neighborhoods.; better still, how we simply empower neighborhoods to help themselves with the vast array of intellectual and human capital it already has. This is worth venture backing. By people, foundations, businesses – anyone who wants to be first to get behind it. This is not funding any single project or person or idea. It is planting the seed for an entire community to water and
grow the social capital it already has, from youth to skilled workers to veterans…and to be a shining , workable, replicable example of a community coming together. This is far more bold and far-reaching than traditional charity, and it is the experience of many in Red Hook that much of our most pressing social problems across our communities cannot be quickly nor
sufficiently tackled by charity alone. Rather, this project is a big step forward for the way we look at communities, and how we grow and scale solutions. This is a project for venture philanthropy.


We want to see this takeoff. It is something the entire community is talking about, one way
or another, and something the City Council, the NYC government, and people in the social enterprise field coast to coast, even abroad, are seeing this take shape. People believe in it. We believe it will happen. We know it can happen. We’ve worked very hard to create this opportunity, and just need a little help to reap it. The only thing missing at this stage is basic
capital to plant the seed. We have worked as a community to fight our own battle and build our own backyard from the ground up. The veterans from multiple wars, across multiple generations, are at the forefront of this effort, tired of seeing so much of our effort as a country go to warfighting and so little progress made fighting directly for the people in our own homeland. Now, Red Hook’s veterans are fighting on American soil,for American soil. For a
better way of helping our neighborhoods, towns and cities, one community at a
time.


Let’s plant this seed together, and watch it grow. The project plan is in place, the
people are ready, the community is ready. The only thing needed at this point is
someone, anyone, to light this initial spark.

At about 9:50, toward the end of the clip, I introduce the NYC Comptroller and speak briefly on Red Hook and the new veterans'- and community-led 'incubator' between the best of non-lethal Special operations approaches and nonprofit innovation, to start building our communities from the ground up.

Starting locally, of course. hence my concept and promotional paper, "One Community at a Time" and "From The Niger Delta to Red Hook"