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Team DynamITE brings innovation in social care and wins the Social Innovation Relay 2018

Brussels, 20 June 2018

The Global Final of the Social Innovation Relay took place online on 19 June 2018. Team DynamITE from Singapore, won the 8th edition of the Social Innovation Relay, a JA Europe initiative supported by NN Group that challenges secondary school students to develop an innovative business concept that addresses a social need or challenge. This edition involved more than 14,000 students and 250 NN Group volunteers from across 10 countries: Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Greece, Hungary, Japan, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Singapore, and Spain.

DynamITE, created an app called HELP which is a free, one-stop mobile app that easily matches people who need help to volunteers on a real-time basis. These varied requests can involve helping someone to run an errand, finding a missing person or providing a listening ear. Through the use of an algorithm, the app provides targeted matching of requests to the right volunteers based on their location, interests, skills and time availability, creating a more inclusive society.
After qualifying in Singapore, DynamITE competed for the global title against student teams from across the world.

“We are grateful for this opportunity to take part in the Social Innovation Relay. We gained a better understanding of the social needs around us and learnt to develop practical solutions to address these issues.  We would like to thank our JA Mentor, Mr Raj Jayaram and our ITE Lecturer, Ms Karen Loh for their coaching and guidance.  The SIR experience has equipped us with business knowledge and we are now more confident to share our ideas with others.  The networking and learnings from the different teams have been great and we would certainly recommend the SIR to our peers,” said Team DynamITE.

“Together with NN Group, JA Europe seeks to increase students’ self-confidence, empowering them to get creative and find solutions to both local and global social needs in the following sectors: education, health, social inclusion, livelihood development, and sustainability,” explains Caroline Jenner, CEO, JA Europe.

Fleur Hudig, Head of Corporate Citizenship, NN Group: “Through the Social Innovation Relay young people are provided with a unique learning experience that sparks their entrepreneurial spirit and teaches them the day to day skills that are required in any job or business. It fits perfectly with the goal of NN Future Matters, our global corporate citizenship programme. As part of this programme we offer our talent, expertise and resources to help provide young people the relevant (financial) skills to create economic opportunities. We also believe the SIR offers our NN colleagues in the different markets a great opportunity to interact on societal challenges and help teenagers improve their problem solving skills in a fun and rewarding way”.

“Entrepreneurship competences are increasingly important to equip people with lifelong skills. At the same time, awareness is growing of the role that social entrepreneurship can play in fostering inclusive jobs, growth and sustainable development. This initiative combines both. It was impressive to see the ideas from these young participants to find business solutions to social problems and their deep commitment to making a difference to the world around them, " said Ann Branch, Head of the ‘Job Creation’ unit in the Skills Directorate, European Commission

Watch team DynamITE’s video


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Learn more about the SIR Global Final: www.sir.jaeurope.org

The jury:
•    Fleur Hudig, Head of Corporate Citizenship, NN Group
•    Basak Beleli, CHRO, NN Japan
•    Steven Lang, Founder and Director, InSpring
•    Ann Branch, Head of the ‘Job Creation’ Unit in the Skills Directorate, European Commission
•    Mathias Snejstrup, Partner, Dancatech

The Awards
•    Social Innovation Relay Winner 2018: Singapore
•    2nd place: Spain
•    3rd place: Japan


JA Europe
JA Europe is Europe’s largest provider of education programmes for entrepreneurship, work readiness and financial literacy. In 2017, we equipped 3.6 million students in 40 countries with the knowledge, skills and attitude they require to start a business or get a job. JA works with the education and business communities as well as governments to provide young people from primary school to university with experiences that build the skills and competences they will need to succeed in a global economy. JA Europe is the European Regional Operating Centre for JA Worldwide®.


NN Group
NN Group is an international financial services company, active in 18 countries, with a strong presence in a number of European countries and Japan. With all our employees, the Group provides retirement services, pensions, insurance, investments and banking to approximately 17 million customers. NN Group’s main brands are Nationale-Nederlanden, NN, Delta Lloyd, NN Investment Partners, ABN AMRO Insurance, Movir, AZL, BeFrank and OHRA. NN Group is listed on Euronext Amsterdam (NN).

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