Philosophy for Social Impact Leadership

I regard social impact leadership as the use of leadership as a tool and catalyst for long-lasting and positive social change. Leadership enables the establishment and sharing of vision, coordination of crucial planning and structure, and mobilization of others to a cause. 

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Systems thinking is a core principle of social impact leadership. Being able to understand any given social issue requires being able to firstly identify its complexity and its relation to other social, economic, and political issues and processes. With BSAN, systems thinking has played a large role in how we run our initiative. We have to recognize, for instance, major barriers to substance use interventions like the cost of Narcan (about $50 per dose) and be conscious of the Good Samaritan laws when teaching others. Beyond social, economic, and political systems, we also consider communities as interdependent systems, with the Purdue student body vs. the general Indiana community each being ‘systems’ with their own perceptions and interactions with SUD. 

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Moreover, social impact leadership is characterized by a strong sense of purpose that is also able to be conveyed and shared by others. A lot of BSAN’s work surrounds showing people the meaningfulness of SUD education and the positive impact awareness can have. Convincing one person creates a ripple effect, encouraging more and more people to get involved and be united by a common cause.

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Lastly, empathy is incredibly important to social impact leadership. Social issues are about people. Empathy allows us to put people at the center of our thought processes, thereby making actual progress towards improving lives. BSAN’s work focuses on getting the general community to empathize with affected individuals, thereby allowing for more compassionate actions that can make a difference in someone’s recovery journey.