The “Desafío Clave” (Key Challenge) is a development of the platform Socialab, an independent initiative of TECHO Chile.
It seeks to support products, services and business models which provide an efficient solution for solving the problems of all the people who are permanently excluded by the society, be it due to the lack of opportunities or resources.
It aims at motivating specifically young people to contribute their creative ideas in order to overcome poverty in Chile.
What is so striking about Desafío Clave is that unlike other competitive funds, this one actually monitors and follows up with each one of the ideas contributed to the contest.
It all starts with basic concepts, but with the help of professionals and the community, the ideas will develop until they finally, over time, convert to sustainable projects.
The second version of this contest was launched last Friday, August 17th, 2012 by INJUV with a public opening ceremony in Santiago de Chile.
This is only the second version of this kind of contest, but nevertheless the community’s curiosity was overwhelming when it was launched publicly at the “Plaza de la Constitución” in Santiago de Chile by the National Director of INJUV, Luis Felipe San Martín, and Julián Ugarte, Director of Socialab, initiative of TECHO Chile.
Luis Felipe San Martín even said that this competition is about projects that are more innovative than the government, and that really speaks for itself!
“The contest Desafío Clave seeks to encourage young people to participate in the development of innovative solutions in order to solve the problems of the most vulnerable communities.
The idea is to improve the quality of life of those people on behalf of education, health and work through entrepreneurship”,
– explains Luis Felipe.
Desafío Clave was implemented for the first time in 2011 and about 8,000 youngsters participated in it, that is unbelievable!
At the end, of those 8,000 teams, 23 received funding to carry out their projects. Finally, at the end of the contest 3 winners were chosen who EACH were funded with CLP 30 million (about US $60,000 USD)!
Julián Ugarte did a great job motivating all the young people who attended the opening ceremony last Friday. He made clear that all you need is the necessary conviction and given that there will be great projects in this second launch of the contest.
Dates and stages of this year’s contest
1) Brainstorm and share ideas
August 17th – October 7th: Socialab will be open to submit your social and open innovation business ideas to provide solutions for those living at the Base of the Economic Pyramid (BoP)
2) Pitch 1.0
October 13th – 23rd: 50 ideas will be pre-selected on a national level either via Skype or actual presence.
3) Co-creation and Beta Test
October 26th – December 9th: Resources will be given to all the teams who are still part of the contest in order to allow them to co-create their ideas. Then they a beta test will be performed, having to prove that their idea, planned and developed with the users, is actually feasible and scalable.
4) Pitch 2.0
December 18th: Exposition of the 10 finalists to a team of external judges who have already tested all the ideas. The judges will evaluate the entrepreneur and finally find out who’s behind this idea that has become a social innovation project.
Start being creative and submit your idea to Socialab!
Last year’s winners
Social Urban Gardens
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=knaXno265KI&feature=youtu.be[/youtube]
Ecological Bathrooms
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kz6NXusVw0M&feature=plcp[/youtube]
Proyecto Importa
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-XZi6V6lCQ&feature=plcp[/youtube]
