Dear Reader:
We are very pleased to bring you our Mini 12th Winter Edition of the Philadelphia Social Innovations Journal (PSIJ). All the articles in this edition were nominated by you, the readers of the Journal.
When we first conceptualized the Journal, our intent was to highlight innovations happening in and around the Philadelphia region; what better way for us to learn about innovations than through the Journal’s audience? Hence, the Nominate an Innovator section was born.
We encourage all of you to go to the Journal’s website and nominate an organization, initiative, partnership or individual you believe is innovative and worthy of publication in the Journal. A team of wonderful volunteers leads our Nominate an Innovator process. This nomination process, like the Journal as a whole, has community and volunteerism at its core. Everyone involved with the Journal is a volunteer. With no one individual or group having ownership, it is truly the community’s.
The Nominate an Innovator Team is a group of young professionals, led by Keri Salerno, committed to the non-profit, public, academic and philanthropic sectors. It is their responsibility to form teams among themselves and to write articles about your nominations, as well as to take on various tasks to ensure the work of the Journal gets done.
Through this special edition, we thank the Nominate an Innovator Team, and the many other committed volunteers who make the Journal run.
As always, we thank our readers and our sponsors, whose support is essential to what we do. We also want to recognize and thank our advisory board members, including the Scattergood Foundation, United Way of Southeastern Pennsylvania and New Jersey, The Philadelphia Foundation, Public Health Foundation, Public Health Management Corporation, Independence Blue Cross Foundation, Green Tree Community Health Foundation, Independence Foundation, St. Christopher's Foundation for Children, Inglis Foundation, Barra Foundation, Knight Foundation, Bank of America, The Patricia Kind Family Foundation, Wells Fargo, Sage Communications, and University of Pennsylvania.
We hope you will enjoy this edition and wish you all a safe and happy holiday season.
See you in 2013 for more engaging editions, thought provoking events, and some other surprises in store for our Journal family!
Very truly yours,
Nicholas Torres, Publisher
Tine Hansen-Turton, Publisher