Incubators, trainee programs, networks. There are many resources for young people with big dreams and the will to realize them. But what if those dreams aren't just about exit strategies and career ladders? Where do you find a community if you want to make a difference as a young person?

Together with 16 other young people, development consultant Jacob Lykke Andersen was accepted in 2023 into the TalentAcademy for Social Innovation, a partnership between Danish Social Innovation Academy and the Tuborg Foundation to support and develop young changemakers. The academy program was an eye-opener for Jacob

"What I got the most out of it was meeting so many other people working to do something good for others. It became very clear that partnerships, across all activities, are absolutely crucial to achieve more than you can alone."

Through the joint activities and individual sparring in a mentoring program, Jakob gained new perspectives on his work, including the difficult exercise of getting very different voices to meet.

"I dare more now! I'm more at ease trying to ask difficult questions and see what happens in the room. It's not always that the top ambition is grabbed, but you dare to start the conversation."

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The difficult art of change

Head of Danish Social Innovation Academy and CEO of Nordic Health Lab, Sara Gry Striegler, mentored Jacob in the TalentAcademy. Together they focused on Jacob's personal development and long-term goals.

"As a mentor, you're not bound by relationships and goals in the same way that you are as a leader of a organisation," says Sara Gry Striegler. "I'm completely free to help Jacob with the wishes and dreams he has. For example, to look five years ahead and ask: What am I made of? What am I known for? What is my practice path towards those goals?"

Sara has over 15 years of experience in creating change on the big agendas, such as health and social care and youth mental well-being. She has no doubt where the biggest challenges lie in choosing social change as the core of her work.

"It's a completely different way of leading. You have to be able to go into a market or a stakeholder landscape and lead a change process without a mandate or authority to tell people what to do. How do you motivate? How do you build vision across organisations? How do you create common goals that people want to work towards, despite coming from different organisations with different agendas? And how do you create excitement and direction that goes beyond your own organisation. That's one of the hardest, but also the most fun."

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‍Patienceand success experiences

Jacob recognizes Sara's experience from his work in the association Ethical Trade, whose main purpose is to create alliances across actors as diverse as companies, civil society, and trade unions.

"There is a lot of bad stuff happening in the world, but we just can't lose the courage to actually take action," he says. "As humans, we have to act now and we can actually do something. We have a role to play and we can't give up, even if sometimes it looks a little bit difficult."

"You also need to harness your impatience," says Sara. "It's easy to feel like things are moving too slowly when you're passionate about creating change."

"Yes, and you have to remember to celebrate your successes!" Jacob adds with a smile.

People instead of organisations

Both Jacob and Sara have gained valuable experience from the the TalentAcademy program and their mentor-mentee relationship.

"the TalentAcademy has really challenged me," says Jacob. "You get new approaches to system change and the opportunity to think creatively. You can tell that everyone in the team is passionate about doing something good for others, and we could talk to each other for hours!"

 For Sara, meeting Jacob and her role as a mentor has strengthened her daily work with leading change. "Jacob has in a way been a mirror for me. As a person, he is both critical and curious and has questioned some of the assumptions I make in my everyday life. I've learned a lot from that." Although her day-to-day relationship with her employees is different, she can transfer many of the skills she develops in her role as a mentor.

"Fundamentally, leadership is about honesty and trust, and helping my colleagues on their development journey. But being a mentor is actually also a strength when it comes to bringing together external stakeholders in a change process. You form relationships with people, not with organisations."

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Are you joining the TalentAcademy 2025?

the TalentAcademy for Social Innovation is a 1-year development program consisting of a series of full-day workshops focusing on the theory and practice of social innovation and social change. We will start a new class in September 2025. Based on the experiences from the first class, we are in the process of developing the program. If you are curious to hear more, have input or are interested in participating, please write to anne@afsi.dk. the TalentAcademy is aimed at people at the beginning of their working life, whether you are in the public sector, private sector or civil society. The only requirement is that you must be interested in creating social change through social innovation.

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