Joseph Kelly and Isabella Stefanic
Earlier this month, the ICB’s Health Promoter Program was selected amongst a competitive pool of programs to participate in the Johnson & Johnson Social Impact Challenge. The main idea of the program was for the Changemakers of J&J, national and international employees dedicated to corporate social justice, to encounter the obstacles faced by a community-based or non-profit organization. With the dual intention of enhancing the skills of J&J Changemakers and the selected community organizations, the goal was for the J&J team to design and develop effective, sustainable solutions in conjunction with the organization’s representatives.
On October 4th, four members of the ICB staff traveled to the J&J headquarters in New Brunswick, New Jersey and took part in the day-long challenge. The day was broken into four different components: the first being our presentation on the background and significance of the Health Promoter Program and the issues that challenge the program’s initiatives. Our main concern for the Health Promoter was getting students interested in leadership roles at an early stage in their college years. This issue ties into the main question we posed to the J&J teams: “how can we develop a process for growing our leadership in proportion to the growth of the program?” Following our presentation, the Changemakers at J&J broke off into 5 separate groups to brainstorm, strengthen their understanding of the ICB and Health Promoter, and ask further questions about our issues. We, as the ICB staff, walked around the room, ready to further discuss specific aspects of our program and its barriers with the teams at any given moment. After sufficient brainstorming, the teams then worked together to develop recommendations on how we could go about resolving our problems. To conclude this informative session, the J&J teams presented their own unique recommendations to us one by one.
While we received a wide variety of recommendations, one specific suggestion stood out as the most significant to our group. J&J encouraged us to rebrand the Health Promoter Program, in order to increase our marketing efforts and make the program appear more appealing to volunteers. In the weeks following the Social Impact Challenge, the ICB has been actively working to increase our social media presence, push more of our events through the university’s media outlets, and engage with students of the Haub School of Business. Overall, this event was a profound experience for the ICB as a whole, and offered the staff representatives an unprecedented opportunity to enhance their problem solving and public speaking skills. Alongside individuals from a variety of backgrounds from countries across the world, the ICB staff thoroughly analyzed the Health Promoter Program and brought home a list of sustainable goals to enhance the program’s future. The Social Impact Challenge opened our eyes to considerations about our program that we have never before considered, illustrating the importance of diverse, global perspectives.
Addendum: On November 6th, we received a notification from an executive with Johnson & Johnson stating “Thank you for your participation in the Social Impact Challenge as part of the Changemaker Program 2023. The Johnson & Johnson Foundation will be rewarding your organization with a $15,000 grant to apply towards the impact work your team does and in implementing any of the recommendations that may have come from the Social Impact Challenge”. This grant is a great honor and we will be dedicating it towards our marketing efforts as recommended by the team at J&J.