Jane Addams & the Spirit of Social Entrepreneurship

When I was a little girl, I read all the biographies of women in my elementary school library. There weren’t many — Harriet Tubman, Eleanor Roosevelt, Elizabeth Blackwell, Florence Nightingale and Jane Addams. All were individuals of moral courage, all spent their lives in the service of others, all became fierce heroes and role models to me.

David Brooks captures the spirit of Jane Addams so beautifully in The New York Times today for it is the spirit of social entrepreneurship, of investing in change not simply from the perspective of efficiency but from that of human flourishing, of helping all of us — rich and poor — see ourselves in a different way.

At Acumen, our fellows around the world read and discuss great writing and poetry written (or spoken) by the greats — Plato, Khaldun, Rumi, Heaney, MLK, Jr., Gandhi, Mandela, Achebe. The list is long and part of our global heritage. Some of our fellows take those readings and ways of discussing and share them through conversations with members of their communities — tribal areas of Pakistan, fishing villages in Ghana, slums in Nairobi and Mumbai…

But that is just the start. What if we equipped hundreds of thousands around the world with frameworks to interact with those who are different, who have been left out of too many opportunities? We have to start new conversations in which we see each other, in which we know each other, in which we learn from each other. We have to change our mindset around who we can be together — as communities, as nations, as a world.

To get to us, we have to start with those who feel excluded, vulnerable, poor. It starts by standing with the poor. And defining success based on human flourishing and dignity. And that is within our reach.

Thank you, David, for your inspiration. There is so much wisdom here, and you remind us to revisit those on whose shoulders we stand.