Entrants's Name: Dennis Hoenig-Ohnsorg

Country: Germany

Field: Citizen/Community Participation

Innovation - idea: At our first national contest for advancement of social engagement of adolescents the competition character acts together with attractive prizes as motivating incentive and lowers the inhibition of their commitment. Its broad- based efficient advancement benefits the creation of social networks and social capital. Both are essential for the social coherence and benefit a sustainable economic growth

Innovation - why it is pioneering: In Germany the willingness to socially engage is only independent of the adolescents’ social origin in schools. Our approach is the first concept of its kind to advance broad-based social commitment which can furthermore be integrated in the syllabus.

Strategy - how it achieves impact: Dealing with a relief project chosen by the teenagers they are being sensitised for “social disequilibrium“. Then they get socially active raising funds for their projects united by the will to plead for a good cause. Thereby they are being awarded e.g. for special creativity & and teamwork. The contest character & the prizes to be won are effective incentives for teenagers to overcome their inhibitions & to get involved. Almost all consider to get involved again also in other areas after the competition. Their engagement benefits the development of their individual values & their social competence. Furthermore, it leads to an improvement of their school achievements & to an enhancement of the willingness to get politically involved. Medium term the formation of social networks also contributes to the solution of further corporate problems in Germany: among others, the positive influence on topics like the integration of foreigners & the prevention of violence at schools are proven.

Strategy - growth plans: In the next phase the contest will address form of 750 grammar schools countrywide, since the potential for social engagement is especially high here. Afterwards the target group will expand nationwide to 3.120 grammar schools and later to a total of over 18.000 schools. Additionally, the possible recruitment offers an interesting growth potential for the contest to round about 300.000 youth groups in Germany. According to our detailed, recorded growth strategy, after 4 years more than 75.000 adolescents could profit directly from the competition in Germany alone. Indirectly, their families and their closer environment could consequently profit from it. In countries with similar social structure the project could also be realised promptly. To facilitate an imitation, the concept has already been published on the internet and is now demonstrated on Changemakers.net.

Impact to date: The first performance of the competition lead to inspiring results: Almost 30% of the contacted adolescents chose to enter the contest. On average, within few weeks the participants got involved in social projects for about 13h. 62% of the participants would definitely enter the contest again, only 3% excluded this possibility for the future. The public’s first reactions are throughout positive. Articles reporting especially creative actions of the participants were published on the internet and in newspapers. The project also attracts interest abroad. We already have an inquiry of a Spanish organisation which would like to adapt our successful concept for its own work and would like to realise it anew.

Future impact: In 10 years the concept will have established itself in numerous European countries as a well-known support program of social engagement of adolescents. In Germany it will be carried out as the biggest yearly school contest, supported by the country’s most important media in cooperation with big companies. The participation in the contest will be specially noted in the school certificate of the adolescents and will be imputed positively in job applications. The political engagement of the participating adolescents will grow significantly and will show in an increasing turnout of voters, for example. Augmented business foundations will reflect the newly gained self-confidence and the adolescents’ strengthened own-initiative.

Sustainability - resource base: Up to now the competition has been arranged successfully without greater costs thanks to the social engagement of the organizers. I am a developer and head of the competition, economics graduate of the European School of Business in Reutlingen with a German-Spanish double degree, founder and president of a German Association and a Bolivian Foundation. Over the past few months I was able to gather a team of highly qualified helpers around me which supports me honorary up to now. The concept of the competition is based on a professional, scientific analysis. A business plan with detailed financial budgeting of the first 5 years has been acquired and audited. The growth scenario described above arises from this business plan and is constituted with a detailed market analysis and a financial budgeting. The project will already reach the break-even after a start-up financing in the third year. The number of jobs will increase from 3 to at least 9 within the first 5 years.

Major challenge for the field: In Germany Social Entrepreneurship is still unknown and just started to build up a lobby. Mayor parts of German society are still critical about social commitment by commercial companies, thus Social Entrepreneurship has an even worse standing.

Contact Information:

Dennis Hoenig Ohnsorg

Name: Dennis Hoenig-Ohnsorg
Mailing address: Am Teich 12 - 61191 Rosbach
Country: Germany
Email: info@valor-support.de
Tel: 0163-2028767
Website: www.valor-support.de

Bio: In this summer 2006 I finish my study of international economics at European School of Business (ESB) in Reutlingen. I worked in Consumer-Goods brand marketing, management consultancy and as project-manager for the German technical cooperation in Bolivia. When people asked me about my hobbies and what I want to do after university I always told them that I try to solve social problems using my economic background. This answer made me feel strange and crazy since this combination is not common in Germany and even less at my university. 2005 Ashoka Germany invited me to the first German Social Entrepreneur forum. There I learned about Social Entrepreneurship and since then I know what and who I am, now I call myself a Social Entrepreneur and I am proud of it. In my thesis I analysed the German market for Social Entrepreneurship looking for sustainable ways of promoting social commitment. Part of my thesis is a detailed business plan for the Charity-Cup pointing out his long-term profitability.

Along the way I founded and now run Valor-Support e.V. (VS), a German NPO & the Bolivian foundation Primeros Pasos (FPP). At FPP I direct a team of 15-20 persons running projects in order to make lasting improvements to the living conditions of the young population. With VS I promote social commitment in Germany; the Charity-Cup is one of my tools for it (see above). I sensitise high potential students and young professionals for social commitment and offer informal CSR consultancy to small and medium-sized enterprises at VS. This concept is now being evaluated to be turned into an official student- consultancy for NPOs. At ESB the interest in the topic “Social Responsibility” is growing constantly, this year’s ESB charity-agenda culminates with the realization of the “Social Responsibility Event” I initiated and organize. The coaction of 800 Students, famous speakers and numerous experts will give rise to one of Europe’s biggest events dealing with this topic. www.valor- support.de