In 2016, as part of our strategic goal to serve our community, Kaiser Permanente of the Mid-Atlantic States partnered with Coppin State University in Baltimore to present the Social Innovation Challenge—a two-day social and community contest where developers, activists, idea generators, designers, and more came together to develop digital solutions to Baltimore’s most complex issues: education and workforce development, health care access, and mental health. The pace and intensity of the Social Innovation Challenge required participants to think on their feet, come together as a cohesive team, and work quickly to produce something tangible in just 36 hours (a.k.a., a “hackathon”).
This year, the top three challenge winners have entered into a 12-week “incubation program” that started February 15. The Juxtopia Urban Innovation and Cooperative Entrepreneurship (JUICE) Bootcamp is training and coaching the entrepreneurs and helping them take an idea from concept to commercialization. Access to mentors from Living Well and the Office of Patent and Trademark (among other organizations) is also a vital component of the program. The end goal of the 12-week program is to help the winning teams further develop their product or service into a minimum viable product to be presented to Baltimore’s local investor community at a Shark Tank style “pitch” event in May 2017.
All KPMAS employees are welcome to attend the Incubation classes to listen, learn, and even help the teams with their ideas. The classes are held every Wednesday night through May 3, 2017 in Baltimore City. Logistics information below:
Real News Network Building
235 Holliday Street, 2nd Floor
Baltimore, MD 21202
Wednesdays, 7-9:30 p.m.
We need volunteers to make this program a success. Opportunities include:
- Assisting with class preparation by posting relevant material into Breezio (an online collaboration tool used by internal and external participants – picture an e-black board) – Does not requires on-site support – can be done from a PC.
- Helping team participants with their pitches.
- Helping to plan and execute the May pitch event.
If you would like to volunteer or have questions, please contact Alise Brzezinski at Alise.K.Brzezinski@kp.org.
