• Social Innovation Fellowship
Charlie
Harding

Award Year 

2009
Assetmap, RUNA, Longitude

Assetmap Foundation and Assetmap Inc. together are a joint partnership for-profit / non-profit collaboration. Assetmap is built upon the Asset Based Community Development (ABCD) theory of grassroots mobilization developed at Northwestern. As its principal philosophy, Assetmap believes that that all individuals, communities and institutions have core assets that can be leveraged for effective collaboration in create value, and meaning. Due to an information gap and lack of communication in development settings, so often these assets are duplicated, or overlooked. As organizations are pressured into duplicative fundraising and programming, so often more energy is spent on bureaucracy then on serving the needs of communities.

Assetmap Uganda is creating directory tool software to aggregate assets and content from development agencies, NGOs, CBOs, and civil society in Uganda. Assetmap Uganda will smooth the flow of information and encourage communication and collaboration between discrete communities on an open online portal. This pilot project will instigate further exploration into the interface between online and offline communities in other locations.

    Personal Statement

    The vibrant community of social entrepreneurs at Brown University inspired me to concentrate in development studies and apply my coursework to real world contexts. Every day I get to interact with close friends working on projects all over the world and here in Providence. Their work is founded in a spirited commitment to create real value and meaning in underserved communities. They apply creative solutions to difficult problems, and they approach their work with humor and humility. The Social Innovation Initiative and these many friends have expanded my capacities to engage meaningfully in urban and rural, domestic and international settings. This work is important to me because I aspire to build and grow strong and equitable communities. If anything, college has taught me that my livelihood and work are interdependent upon my local and global communities. I believe this commitment has been a theme through my various projects. With Longitude, students in Rhode Island and Ghana taught each other complementary computer skills through cross-cultural learning. Runa is building cross-continental connections between indigenous cooperatives and healthy food consumers to make both better off. Assetmap will enable new opportunities for collaboration and creativity between global locatiosn. My work is a commitment of service to all of these communities.

    www.assetmap.org
    runa.typepad.com
    www.golongitude.org

    Awards/Recognition

    • 1st place RI Business Plan Competition: Runa
    • 1st place Brown Business Plan Competition: Runa