Louisiana’s Office of the Lieutenant Governor is now hiring a manager to lead the nation’s first-ever, newly-established Office of Social Entrepreneurship. Created in late 2006 as a way to encourage more effective responses to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, the Office aims to “increase awareness and understanding of social entrepreneurship and encourage Louisiana citizens to seek solutions to the important issues facing the state.” Louisiana Lieutenant Governor Mitch Landrieu sees the Office of Social Entrepreneurship as a way to make overburdened social services in the state more innovative, entrepreneurial, and results-oriented in the face of increasing demand. His intention is to make Louisiana “the most hospitable place in the country for those who are testing and launching the best, most effective new program models for social innovation.”

Though the government in the UK has long involved itself in the field of social entrepreneurship, this effort is the first of its kind in the U.S. The Office of Social Entrepreneurship in Louisiana has identified its goals but is still developing its strategy and refining its approach. Its primary initiative thus far, “Changing Louisiana,” focuses on building public awareness of volunteerism and social entrepreneurship. So far, over 1,250 people have attended gatherings in New Orleans, Lake Charles, Shreveport, and Alexandria to learn about how social enterprise can create positive social change.

Moving forward, the Office of Social Entrepreneurship plans to create partnerships with companies, foundations, individuals, and other government bodies that will allow it to serve as a resource and clearinghouse for information and funding of social enterprises. According to its website, it will “encourage Louisiana non-profits to become more entrepreneurial in their programs and services, host events that will provide networking opportunities for social entrepreneurs, and promote the inclusion of social entrepreneurship as coursework in high schools and colleges throughout Louisiana.” In addition to creating strategic partnerships, it sees brand building and visibility as core elements of its plan to encourage the growth of social entrepreneurship in the state.

It’s mildly ironic that a government office now sees the need to intervene in a phenomenon that was born as a response to the failure of the public sector to effectively address intractable social problems. It supports the idea, however, that creating lasting social change will require the combined efforts of the public and private sectors, which have discovered severe limits so far in their ability to create change on their own. The Office of Social Entrepreneurship in Louisiana will be the first in the U.S. to grapple with how to structure and execute this collaboration so as to combine the best of both worlds. Though not often seen as a leader in policymaking or progressive politics, Louisiana is nonetheless an appropriate site for this experiment in that the demand there for more effective solutions to social problems is undeniable and growing.