Where Ideas Root and Flourish
Happy anniversary to Cubic Zine! Echoing our first issue, we are focusing again on the hot topic mental health. Prof Fiona Ho and team set up social enterprise Wellness Travellers to advocate evidence-based lifestyle medicine, nurturing the “heart” via our “body” and raising the public’s resilience via proactive prevention. Their tips are certainly useful as we all struggle to cope with the new normal.
In this issue: #SocialEnterpriseStartupScheme #AWorldOfThreeZeros #PantonePeriod #ACT #WellnessTravellers #LifestyleMedicine
______
Scholar-Social Innovator→ LOCAL
En voyage to mental wellness: Prof Fiona Ho and students champion low-barrier services
“Why would you see a doctor when you’ve caught the flu, but not when your heart is ‘sick’?”
Prof Fiona Ho of CUHK Department of Psychology and her students Vincent Wong and Eliz Lam fill us in at InnoPort about their newly founded social enterprise Wellness Travellers, besides ranting about the stigmatisation and marginalisation of mental issues.
why are the three of them interested in community-based psychological services? How are their personal experiences different yet similar, leading to the founding of Wellness Travellers?
【Scholarly keyword】Acceptance and Commitment Therapy
During our interview, the three often mention common psychological therapies, including BT, CBT and ACT (Acceptance and Commitment Therapy). When she hit rock bottom, Eliz found comfort in The Happiness Trap – a book centred upon ACT.
According to Psychology Today, ACT suggests that when faced with distress, instead of “controlling” your pain, it is better to learn “accepting” these strong emotions by understanding the reasons behind these reactions. Then, practise mindfulness that focuses on the present, and concentrate on actions that agree with your personal values. “In other words, live your life under those constraints,” explains Vincent.
______
BUSINESS 2.0 → FORCE FOR GOOD
Pantone Period｜USA X Sweden
Towards the end of last year, a Nepali woman suffocated in a “menstruation hut” when she started a fire for warmth. The tragedy is a mere tip of the iceberg; stigma around period remains widespread in many countries.
Pantone, famous for its colour matching system, recently answered the “Seen + Heard” campaign initiated by Intimina, a Swedish brand for green feminine products. They created the daring shade Period, hoping to break down stigma and “normalising” conversations about menstruation through the power of colour. Hope that the bold message could infiltrate the developing countries – those with the greatest need.
______
Scholar-readers → FOOD FOR THOUGHT
By Ms Irene Ng | Director, I·CARE Centre for Whole-person Development
Creating a New Economic Infrastructure by Social Innovation
Over these years, the term “social business” has come across increasingly. The hit rate of it is comparable to that of “social enterprise”, a business model having flourished in Western countries and Hong Kong lately. Can the global economic inequality and community challenges nowadays be only tackled by “social business”? Although it is not a panacea, what its trailblazer Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus has suggested does make sense. He asserts that employing the “social business” framework may succeed to facilitate the young generation’s building of a new civilisation, to empower the vulnerable social groups, and to create sustainable solutions to pressing issues in society (e.g. climate change).
In his book A World of Three Zeros, Yunus sheds light on the aforesaid ideas by propounding zero poverty, zero unemployment and zero net carbon emissions. Packed with a plethora of real examples of “social business”, the book presents a hopeful picture for how individuals can create sustainable social impact. It may not convince that “social business” is the best economic system at present, it suffices to offer a new perspective to review modern “capitalism”.
______
BE → ENGAGING
Welcome CUHK students and young alumni!
Don’t put your strengths to waste – start or expand your social enterprise! Participants may be awarded up to HK$100,000 of seed funding from the CUSE Fund to initiate a business that tackles social issues.
Featured session: How to plan your business?
Speaker: Mr Howard Ling (Chief Consultant, Social Enterprise Business Centre)
Date: 22 Oct (Thur)
Time: 19:00 – 21:00
______
CUHK's support to scholar-social innovators
CUHK runs two funding schemes that support researchers to get down to social innovation – KPF and S-KPF. Selected projects may receive up to HK$400,000 for KPF projects or HK$600,000 for S-KPF companies. Over 200 teams have already benefited from the schemes, working on physical and mental well-being, social cohesion, cultural and heritage conservation, and so on.
The new round is coming! Eager to transform your research expertise into social impact? Keen to initiate social innovation projects to benefit the community, or even start your own social enterprise? Details will be released on our website and via email soon!
Info Session Details & Registration
______
Enjoyed reading?
Recommend Cubic Zine to your friends and partners – let us all do good and do well!
Latest scholar stories:
Prof Benny Zee’s three-pronged strategy to a dare-to-innovate culture
Prof Ng Mee Kam’s take on urban planning
Prof Maria Tam, the anthropologist taking the path few trodden
GlobalXplorer° founder marshalling netizens for heritage conservation
Esther Duflo’s experimental approach to poverty alleviation
______
Not yet a subscriber? Do it now!
One email to feed you the hottest info from the social innovation universe! Cubic Zine is a publication under CUHK ORKTS’s social innovation platform SoCUBE. We are excited to bring you stories on what CUHK and glocal social innovators are working on, events happening around you and much more!
Back to News