Link Collab Fest Crosses Boundaries in Social Innovation
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While established players in the social service sector struggle to break conventions, resource-constrained innovators have brilliant ideas waiting to be realised. How can we do things differently together?
Link Together Initiatives, Link’s flagship charity and community engagement programme has linked up like-minded non-governmental organisation (NGO) partners with its other stakeholders, leveraging its network to amplify social impact. At the 10th anniversary of the programme, Link took one step further by hosting Collab Fest, an event which serves as a cross-sector collaboration platform to enable social enterprises (SE), social innovators (SI) in addition to NGOs to explore synergies in promoting youth empowerment.
Collab Fest brought participants to team up with like-minded partners, forge novel ideas into purpose-filled proposals, and maximise their unique strengths to create greater value for communities. On 21 October, Pitching Day, shortlisted teams competed in front of the public and a panel of judges at the Link Sustainability Lab. The winning collaborative project “Draw Your Own Legend” by Hong Kong Student Aid Society, StartChing Limited, and Rolling Books Limited stood out with its aim at connecting institutionalised boarders with special education needs (SEN) to society, and took home a $100,000 cash prize to bring their idea to life.
Communities first
Jessica Tam, Business Director of the Hong Kong Council of Social Service, has over a decade of experience working on collaborative initiatives with NGOs, SEs, and SIs. The judge and industry veteran shares that the key to a successful project pitch lies in the macro vision of the community’s need and development.
“The winning team in particular stood out with its ability to precisely identify the communal needs of its target demographic, which allow them to raise awareness more effectively within communities.”
Steven Tsoi, who holds a position…