“Your network is the people who want to help you, and you want to help them, and that’s really what matters.”

This powerful quote by Reid Hoffman perfectly sums up the main idea behind the Common Good First campaign.

This campaign was conceived as a digital network to identify, showcase and connect community-driven social impact projects to others and to universities around the world for research, learning and teaching and student engagement.

Common Good First grew out of an idea from Glasgow Caledonian University (GCU) and was trialed as a proof of concept in 2016 in a partnership between GCU and the University of Johannesburg (UJ) in South Africa. It was funded by the European Union and the GCU.

The North West University is among nine universities from South Africa and Europe that are involved with this campaign.

One of the main objectives of the campaign is to stimulate digital literacy and to stimulate the idea of storytelling in all types of communities. As this is all about the “common good”, it focuses on encouraging people who have found their own solutions for their own challenges to share their stories.

This platform is mainly designed for social innovators and very different from a YouTube channel says Bibi Bouwman, director for Sustainability and Community Impact at the NWU and Chair of the South African Higher Education Community Engagement Forum (SAHECEF)

“When we compiled the selection criteria for social innovators, we worked very closely with all the universities involved.

“A colleague from UJ and I identified who the partners would be and recommended to Glasgow Caledonian University that they should choose institutions who are extremely invested in community engagement and digital storytelling.”

Each university then identified some of their projects and shared this platform with the people involved with these projects.

Anyone is welcome to share a story, says Bibi, as long as it is about their own solutions, replicable and sustainable.

“When they are willing to share their stories, we provide them with a template to create their own profiles and showed them how the process works, “she says.

All one needs is a cellphone that can connect to the internet, so it is very cost-effective. Guidelines are provided on how to create a story circle – in other words, people sitting together to share their stories.

This is important, as digital storytelling is based on such a story circle where people feel comfortable enough to share their stories which sometimes can be heart rendering.

An example of this is when a young woman from UJ shared her story about bullying and how she overcame it.

The idea behind the project is to share any kind of social innovation with the world and more especially between universities and students.

“Our European partners learnt quite a lot from us, especially with regard to community engagement. Until recently they have not experienced the serious challenges that we are faced with, but now, because of the refugee crisis, they face the challenge of dealing with people who have no resources.”

To make the story telling easier, the NWU is currently setting up a mobile lab in the CSI unit in Potchefstroom, where people can come and share their stories. Because it is mobile, staff from the university can also go into communities to record their stories.

Currently this mobile lab has four computers, 14 tablets, a camera and a microphone. There are also facilitators who assist with copy editing and helping people upload videos. “Part of the idea is for people to form ‘tribes’ who work together to find solutions to challenges.”

Lecturers and even industry partners can also be involved in this project.

“Lecturers can use this as a tool for impact measurement, learning about society, and finding new research opportunities. Industry partners can perhaps fund people through corporate social investment funding.

Margaret Mead said, “It is small groups of committed people working together who change our world for the better.” Common Good First hopes that, in creating real-world and virtual communities of solution-finders – and telling their stories – they can make a difference too.

“It is an excellent project and we are proud to be associated with it,” emphasizes Bibi.

For more information about this venture, please visit their website https://commongoodfirst.com/ or contact BiBi Bouwman at the community engagement office.