Innovation and  social impact for mental health – check out the latest Changemakers competition. There are entries from across the world, the competition closes in 6 days – please spread the word:

“Ashoka’s Changemakers, in partnership with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, is launching the “Rethinking Mental Health: Improving Community Wellbeing” competition in order to explore innovations that allow individuals, families, communities, and society to move past narrow perceptions of mental health and expand our understanding and collective involvement in finding solutions. The winners of this Changemakers collaborative competition will be those entries that best meet the following criteria”:

• Innovation: This is the knock-out test. The entrant must describe a systematic and/or disruptive innovation in the field of mental health. The innovation should be a unique model of change, demonstrating a substantial difference from other initiatives in the field and ready for large-scale expansion.
• Social Impact: It is important that the innovation provides a system-changing solution toward improving individual and community wellbeing. The entry must demonstrate impact on the target population it addresses, either a specific underserved community or the society at large. Some innovations will have proven success at a small level, while others will have grown to engage millions of people. Regardless of the level of demonstrated impact, it is important that the innovation has a potential for application globally. This will be judged by considering the innovation’s potential for scale and replication, in addition to the entrant’s ability to formulate a clear “road map” to reaching larger goals.
• Sustainability: For an innovation to be truly effective it must have a long-term plan for securing financial backing and community support. Entries should describe not only how they are currently financing their work, but also how they plan to finance their work in the future. The most successful entrants go beyond discussing whether or not they will charge for services and describe a business plan. They should also demonstrate that they have strong partnerships and support networks to address an ongoing need, and to aid in scalability and the maintenance of a clear financial strategy.