The Changemaker Institute Award Project in Pakistan is the first of its kind in the country. The concept of changemaking (social innovation and social entrepreneurship) is not yet sufficiently integrated in schools and higher education institutions’ culture and curricula. There are no established social innovation or social entrepreneurship professorships, departments and institutes for changemaking in Pakistan. The project is catalyzing social innovation in educational and technical institutions to ultimately impact the education of millions of students and empowers them to solve local challenges. The purpose of Changemaker Institute Award is to create and recognise universities that are interested in embedding student-led social innovation as a core value and in building supportive environments for changemaking across the entire institution. Dedicated start-up support services is the need of the hour to transform an ‘Average’ or ‘Good’ campus into a ‘Changemaker Campus’ that could offer the students with the much required social entrepreneurship practice opportunities, infrastructure, skills training, financial assistance, management skills, markets and peer networks. The Changemaker Institute Award takes an institutional change approach to impact the education of millions of students. It intends to collaborate with schools, colleges and universities to break down barriers to institutional change and foster a campus-wide culture of social innovation.
The project provides a structured support to the interested institutions to navigate through the process of achieving the status of “Changemaker Institute Award.” This support includes:
- Changemaking Campus Scan
- Creation of a Changemaking Team
- Launching Changemaking Competitions
- Startup Funding and Mentoring Services to Students to Drive Change
- Holding Changemaking Exhibitions
- Changemaking Curriculum Development
- Awarding Changemaker Institute Status
- Plugging into other Global Changemaker Institutions