This is a guest post written by Marlina Davidson, instructor in the School of Communication at the University of Nebraska at Omaha. Marlina Davidson has also done some communication and presentation development consulting and training with several individuals and businesses in the Omaha area.

A lot has been going on in Omaha these past couple of months and sometimes it’s difficult to go to everything. If you weren’t able to go to Omaha’s first Social Impact Forum, held Friday, February 26, here’s a recap of what you missed.

The Social Impact Forum is a consortium of change makers, passionate and forward thinking and their mission is to empower people to positively impact their world. The focus of the event was to:

Become engaged as you meet fellow advocates. Grow even more energized as dynamic speakers share personal, proven formulas for improving the lives of others—locally, nationally and globally. Emerge empowered to make Omaha a better community in which to live and grow. Together, we can change our world!

The event included a full day of empowering, energizing, and engaging speakers and breakout sessions as well as a social entrepreneurship pitch competition to close out the day. During the pitch, social entrepreneurs presented innovative ideas that positively impacted a social issue. Lisa Mergen, Maura McGlynn, and Stuart Shell, all Creighton students, were the pitch competition winners.

• Lisa pitched E’ire, a recycling/sustainability effort focused on student consumer notebooks and their challenges in degrees of recycle-ability. It is a two-fold effort seeking to first establish a distribution network of stations around campus/school environments to recycle consumer notebooks and secondly to design a fully-recyclable consumer notebook.
• Maura pitched Network Against Malaria, a two year old existing not-for-profit seeking dollars to ramp up existing social impact upon malaria-ridden Uganda.
• Stuart pitched the Community Bike Shop, Omaha Branch, an existing not-for-profit in Gifford Park seeking to grow efforts in North Omaha. Congratulations to all of the participants and their ideas.

The morning started out with a motivational welcome from Taylor Keen, co-chair of the Forum and instructor of business at Creighton University, and an opening keynote address from Bill Laird, instructor at Creighton Prep. Laird talked about molding young minds towards social justice and specifically about Operation Others, a project designed to raise funds for providing staples to Omaha’s poor families and Solidarity, a student group whose focus right now is the injustices surrounding those living in Whiteclay, Nebraska.

During lunch, Stephen Vogel, CEO of Greameen America, gave an inspiring keynote address titled How One Idea Can Change the World: The Story of Grameen Bank. Vogel talked about Grameen Bank, the most widely-recognized microfinance company in the world and how in the past few years they have expanded into the U.S., building two branches, including one right here in Omaha.

The day was broken into three breakout sessions where participants were able to choose from three tracks: Empower, Energize, and Engage. Each breakout session included a panel of speakers and a moderator that helped facilitate dialogue and questions. See the titles and speakers of each session by visiting socialimpactomaha.org/schedule.

I attended the following three breakout sessions:

• Moving the Mind: How the arts and culture change the community – During this session speakers described how a community can be transformed through arts and culture and how we can be a part of this change as well.
• Thinking Globally, Eating Locally: Effecting Change One Bite at a Time – During this session speakers talked about how food isn’t just a way to creating greater personal and public health but can also be an agent for social change.
• Eco NOW: Omaha’s Green Entrepreneurs – During this session speakers talked about the ‘Green Movement’ and how they and we can use this movement to educate the public and grow businesses.

I also grabbed a few interviews after the Forum with attendees and speakers:

• Andrew Michaelson, project manager of Artspace – Michaelson was a speaker on the Moving the Mind: How the arts and culture change the community panel. He described how Artspace creates affordable house for artists and is currently working on a project in Council Bluffs.
• Dana Freeman, director of Gifford Park Community Garden – Freeman describes the purpose of the Thinking Globally, Eating Locally: Effecting Change One Bite at a Time session and how you can get involved in this movement.
• John Birge, principal of RDG Planning & Design – Birge was a speaker on the Thinking Globally, Eating Locally: Effecting Change One Bite at a Time panel and talked about how RDB Planning & Design is encouraging and facilitating its employees to become active participants in social change

I also conducted a brief interview with Taylor Keen, co-chair of the Social Impact Forum and instructor of business at Creighton University. Keen gives us a brief overview of the Forum and his outlook for the future of Omaha.

Photos above by Marlina Davidson, to view more photos visit the Forum’s Facebook page.

Marlina Davidson can be contacted at marlinadavidson@gmail.com.