Each Spring, Prof. Ashton teaches an interdisciplinary, project-based Social Entrepreneurship course. Graduate students, from business administration, marketing analytics, environmental management, public administration and design collaborate to develop their own ideas for a for-profit or non-profit social enterprise to address a specific real world problem, or to assist existing Chicago-based for-profit or non-profit social ventures to improve their impact.

In Spring 2020, we worked with six partners to explore business models for social impact in their activities.

Artist Design the Future Housing Cooperative: The partners are in the process of developing an artists’ housing cooperative that is intended to provide living and working spaces for ~25 artists. The team helped to explore pre-development financing opportunities and creative place-making strategies for the organization.

Calumet Collaborative: Calumet Collaborative works to support environment, community and economic development in the post-industrial Calumet region in Illinois and Indiana. Flag Calumet is a product-service offering developed by students in the Institute of Design for community engagement, environmental education and habitat remediation. The team explored the market potential for the Flag Calumet product-service, including potential customers, willingness to pay, business and ownership models.

Chicago Cannabis Company: CCC is a worker owned-cooperative operating within the newly legalized cannabis industry in Illinois. The team explored business opportunities for CBD-infused products, identifying niches that can have significant positive impact on communities through worker ownership.

Chicago Food Policy Action Council: With growing demand for locally grown food, the team conducted background research for the feasibility of a cooperatively owned, Black Indigenous People of Color (BIPOC)-led food aggregation/distribution business for selling locally produced food to Chicago's public programs.

Co-op Education Center: The newly-formed CEC is working to build co-ops in Black and Brown communities in Chicago through education and incubation. The team worked to identify industry sectors that are well-suited to the employment and economic development needs in the communities, and which have promising growth potential.

Free Write Arts & Literacy: Free Write works to empower youth in the juvenile justice system through arts and literacy education. The team explored models for re-structuring the NGO to give the students and alumni of the program greater ownership over the enterprise.

Textile Waste: The team researched business opportunities for reusing textile waste as construction materials to help identify market niches for future exploration.