The Age Friendly London Network (AFLN) has been working for the past three years to enhance respect and social inclusion of older adults in London, Ontario. In the fall of 2015, the AFLN Work Group had the privilege of working with the Gerontology in Practice class to develop workshops on how to identify, prevent, and respond to ageism and negative stereotypes of aging. The students worked closely with members of the AFLN and of the broader community to develop an educational, non-intimidating workshop that can be tailored to a variety of audiences. The students found their experience so rewarding that two of them chose to continue to volunteer with the AFLN after the project. They are currently helping administer the workshop in local schools and in the community.
This project will provide the AFLN with the opportunity to extend the scope and the reach of our efforts to change the stereotypes of seniors and reduce ageism. The Empathy Lab is based on experiential, intergenerational learning, which would be a valuable first step for our target audiences to experience. The educational workshop developed by AFLN will be a natural second step. Combined, they will help promote empathy and provide tools to address and stop ageism The Empathy Lab will validate the need for more information that will be shared through the anti-ageism workshop. The Lab will also allow us to have the equipment and educational materials necessary to ensure our workshops are of the highest quality. This project will strengthen the existing collaboration between the AFLN and Western University, and will expand to new cross-sector collaborations with stakeholders through knowledge sharing and learning. We will build upon the ongoing joint efforts to catalyze change, increase compassion and empathy, and change prevalent culture of ageism in a sustainable way. Zecevic Dr
Ms
Vivacity provides a great opportunity for the City to work in new ways with students from all post secondary institutions in Calgary. Vivacity facilitates students and City staff working together as a team on projects and challenges while providing the opportunity for creative collaboration and ideas from students on a number of civic topics. The project not only provides students with real-world experience, but also engages staff in new ways of thinking and approaching challenges, which is important for our own organizational development and learning.
The City is always looking for new ways to approach engagement in the planning department. The youth demographic has always been challenging to engage and we know it is a lost opportunity when we don’t capture their ideas or nurture their interest in civic issues. Vivacity gives us access to a demographic that we have otherwise missed in typical planning processes. Working with students through Vivacity projects will help us learn more about meaningful and effective ways to bring young voices and ideas into the city.
Scott Lockwood, MURP, MCIP
Manager, Local Area Planning & Implementation
City of Calgary Derbyshire Ms
Mr
LEDlab is a multi-stakeholder collaboration that engages all sectors in co-creative economic innovation and solution building. Through it, RADIUS SFU works in deep collaboration with respected charity - Ecotrust Canada, as well as a broad network of social enterprise, community organizations, public and private sector partners. Please see a selection of quotes from our partners.
“From Ecotrust Canada's perspective, the LEDlab partnership with RADIUS SFU is an exciting marriage of our organization’s boots-on-the-ground community development work with the social venture expertise and research rigour of RADIUS and Simon Fraser University. Through our Mitacs partnership with SFU, we unlock the creativity and passion of students, which has proved to be a unique talent development pipeline for our organization, and through research and publication we hope to increase Ecotrust Canada’s ability to scale our work. While we have always worked with people in communities of place, LEDlab has introduced new rigour and methodology from the toolkit of social innovation to our work, which has enhanced our ability to document and capture what works, and learn from what doesn't. It has also allowed us to test our methodology for community-building and social change in the context of an inner city instead of in a remote community.”
- Brenda Kuecks, Past President of Ecotrust Canada
“Working with LEDlab has widened our understanding of how community organizations such as our own can meaningfully and practically collaborate with academic institutions. In prior collaborations, more often than not we saw considerable value generated for (and captured by) the students partners but little-to-no real value created for Potluck. LEDlab’s commitment to building sustainable capacity and their explicit desire to realize mutually beneficial outcomes has proven to be more than mere lip service: we are already seeing results and LEDlab staff are helping us to plan for mid- and long-term success. This collaboration has powered the launch of our newest employment initiative – an on-demand system of competency based employment for individuals living on income assistance – and has identified clear pathways to partnering with Simon Fraser University. Potluck is a stronger organization now than we were before connecting with LEDlab.”
- Colin Stansfield, Executive Director of Potluck Cafe Society
“The quality of support and collaboration that the LEDlab has brought as a partner to the DTES Street Market Society has been instrumental in strengthening its organizational capacity, enabling the Society to work with the City of Vancouver to further expand the creation of a safe and legal survival vending economy in the Downtown Eastside - one of Canada’s most marginalized communities.”
- Tobin Postma, Strategic Issues Manager of City of Vancouver
“The LEDlab has provided me with an opportunity to jump into the social enterprise sector and put my business skills to the test. The internship (work term) is a required part of my MBA program, and I was grateful for the hands-on experience to work specially in the sector of social innovation as I had no experience prior to starting my masters degree. During the past 5 months, I have had the opportunity to apply the lean methodology to a project called “Knack” and build a strong network of likeminded professionals.”
- Anna Migicovsky, MBA Candidate and LEDlab Graduate Student Intern Smith Mr
Mr
Since the organization was founded in 2007, Roots to Harvest has developed a strong community presence and has established itself as a lead organization in the city, pioneering many successful projects such as a summer youth employment program, developing value added urban fruit products, and incubating small scale producer seed saving. The organization has significant experience in youth employment, agricultural training and in bringing diverse groups and demographics together for change. Increasingly, this work transects with many other existing efforts within the City and region. In order to respond to the broad factors affecting community health and well-being, there is a need for an innovative and collaborative approach. Roots to Harvest has an opportunity to become a leader in the Thunder Bay region by enhancing programs, better leveraging resources and skills, and deepening impact. Co-locating with other organizations will be an extremely valuable opportunity for the work of Roots to Harvest and for the evolution of the organization. The Collaborative Commons will create a much needed opportunity for regular communications and connections between a range of stakeholders working to improve the local food system. The space will provide a means to foster a larger support network, alternative avenues for civic engagement and meaningful impact in different aspects of the food system. Additionally, working alongside and in partnership with students and faculty from the university will bring a depth and context to the work and position it more accurately within food systems thinking. The Collaborative Commons is much needed within the Thunder Bay region and Roots to Harvest is willing and able to play a leadership role. Funding from RECODE & Cities for People Innovation Awards will provide the necessary support for assembling the research, creating an inclusive and meaningful process, developing a clear vision and laying the groundwork (e.g. environmental scan, business plan). This project promises to fully take advantage of the current momentum and ensure that the foundation for collaboration is solid and representative of the community priorities. Blay-Palmer Dr
Mrs
The collaboration will allow us to achieve one of the strategic objectives of the Board and management of ventureLAB. That objective is to expand our client-focus to include social entrepreneurs with both sustainable businesses and social impact. VentureLAB has many years of experience with innovation and mentoring for traditional entrepreneurs from the sectors of ITC, CleanTech and Healthcare. It has all of the expertise, skills and networks that are important to foster successful social entrepreneurs and drive sustainable social innovation. We will be more effective in achieving the Board’s objectives as a collaborative.
Secondly, the expertise and networks ventureLAB will access through communityBUILD will allow ventureLAB to expand its offerings to all of its clients. Roughly 20% of ventures self-identify as being mission-driven in their businesses but to-date we have been unable to support the mission-side of their ventures adequately. Now ventureLAB will be able to attract more clients while achieving an important objective of the Board to increase the reach and size of our client-community.
Finally, communityBUILD will allow ventureLAB to dig itself more deeply into the communities of York Region and to build a more diverse client-base. These are two of the fundamental strategic objectives of the organization. This will occur through accessing our collaborators’ networks and new communities of entrepreneurs, their customers and clients. Kistruck Dr
Ms
The support from the Civic Innovation Awards program will enable The Artful City to legitimize the collaboration in the eyes of those partners involved; it will allow us to sustain commitment from partners over the short and medium term; establish an implementable timeline guided by a granting schedule; and, begin the process of raising the profile of public art in post-secondary institutions through critical discourse. Looking ahead, support will allow The Artful City to evaluate the issues we are raising from a transdisciplinary perspective, primarily through including a more diverse range of perspectives and stakeholders in the conversation. In doing so, we will reach a broader audience and identify opportunities to scale up our efforts. Lastly, and most importantly, we believe this level of support will set in motion changes in education that are fundamental to advancing public art practice in Canada.
Funding support from the Civic Innovation Awards program will allow the Artful City to advance all components of the mapping project, including the development of an online, publicly accessible platform. In addition, funding will support a launch event, a photo exhibition, panel discussion, walking tours, and a live mapping demonstration. Taken together, this level of activity that will enable our collective to engage new audiences for the first time. During the launch we will also partner with ongoing efforts promoting engagement and education, such as Jane's Walk. These public-facing efforts would be unattainable in the absence of support from this award. Ultimately, these proposed initiatives will enable The Artful City to move from behind the scenes into the public eye. Vickerd Mr
Ms
We have worked hard to engage strategic collaborators who can help us create the aforementioned civic dialogue feedback loop. With the CSDC, we will be able to develop the research design methodology and data analysis know how and tools to measure the impact of our work.
The broadcasting collaborator MaTV gives us a platform for our content to be viewed and engaged with by a large Montreal audience. Also, in the next tv season, we will include texting (sms) polls at the conclusion of many of the show’s segments. All of this data generated from viewers via tv and in subsequent online availability will be provided to the CSDC for analysis and subsequent recommendation reports.
Collaborators like Projet Mtl, Equipe Coderre, the administration of City Hall and our growing list of community based organizations are essential for our loop. They will make our community leaders accessible to participate in the loop, responding to citizen comments and questions and, in some cases, campaigns and action plans organized via The Street Speaks. As a result of this initiative The Street Speaks expands to empower the people of the street to take action with their legislators. Vissers Ms
Mr
The IMSC program challenges students to reimagine their communities as thriving spaces in the city. The program infuses the real-world interdisciplinary aspects of the architectural profession with the grade 7 and 8 academic curricula, and gives youth the tools they need to be agents for change in their communities. Collectively, the students' vision for their sustainable city leads to discussions of civic engagement, governance, and living a sustainable lifestyle.
IMSC has been brought to over 1500 TDSB students, and has also been tested in Chicago with the participation of the Chicago Architecture Foundation. Currently, the program is being extended to schools in the Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board (HWDSB).
The Community Design and Build pilot project in Hamilton moves IMSC to a new and important phase; it brings IMSC out of the classroom into the elementary students’ own environment, showing the program participants that their ideas can become real and implementable. The Community Design and Build project is an important step in transforming the school into a space for collaboration, civic action, and place making.
The Institute without Boundaries is a leader in social innovation and civic engagement through its work that emphasizes the collaborative design process and systems thinking. The Centre for Arts, Design, and Information Technology at George Brown College is known for its skilled students and graduates. By harnessing the IwB methods as well as the design and technology training of the GBC students, we will be giving life to the Bennetto student designs. From a practical perspective, the IMSC process will gain high quality schematic renderings that would otherwise not have been possible to generate. These renderings will be used to better promote the program, recruit new partners, and generally work to extend it to other regions of Canada. Daam Ms
Mr
'Les Bibliothèques de Montréal accueillent avec enthousiasme cette possibilité d’une collaboration avec les Ruches d’art visant à expérimenter la création d’activités et d’espaces favorisant l’inclusion sociale par les arts.
Les Bibliothèques de Montréal qui comptent 45 établissements et qui se consacrent au développement social et culturel. Elles se revendiquent du modèle de la bibliothèque “tiers lieu” visant à favoriser la participation culturelle active, le partage des savoirs et des idées, l’apprentissage collaboratif, les conversations citoyennes.
Dans plusieurs démarches de co-design réalisées dans les bibliothèques de Montréal en 2014 et 2015, les ateliers de créations artistiques communautaires qui se tiennent dans les Ruches d’art sont apparus comme des modèles souhaités par les citoyens. Ils sont en voie d’inspirer la programmation des nouveaux espaces/labos de créativités/fabs labs/makerspaces en bibliothèque.
Suite à une tournée des ruches d’art qui s’est déroulée les 27 et 28 janvier 2016, quelques bibliothèques (Saint-Léonard, Mordecai-Richler et Benny) préparent une offre de service en lien avec les Ruches d’art.
Il existe une convergence très forte entre le projet des Ruches d’art autour des communautés créatives et de la création de communauté. De plus, chacune des ruches est unique et se développe suivant l'identité de son quartier, les aspirations des citoyens et des communautés qui l'animent, ce qui répond aux visées des bibliothèques de quartiers qui s’ancrent dans les projets culturels locaux.
-Louise Lapointe, Chef de division, Programmes et Services aux arrondissements, Direction des Bibliothèques de Montréal Reilly Dr
Ms
This project will help 10 Carden to fully document the story. The past 2 years during which most of this project developed have been innovative with many fast-moving parts. This collaboration with the City of Guelph and the University of Guelph will enable 10 Carden to pull together a number of complex pieces and present key information in the form of a practical resource guide that can be referenced by others. This work will also strengthen the relationship between the project partners. Adding an academic lens to the community bond components, particularly through evaluation of our own process, and the existing community investors, will add depth and rigour to this aspect of the project. This will benefit 10 Carden directly in our current relationships with our investors, as well as inform future community-engaged projects.
Share the story and inspire others. This collaboration will help 10 Carden to extend networks, share the story and further strengthen the placemaking model through feedback and new ideas that will inevitably develop as a result of this research and public engagement. By playing a leadership role within our city, and possibly in other cities, 10 Carden will have an opportunity to work with others to bring similar projects to life. This may also add a future revenue stream or consulting component to 10 Carden’s business model.
In an era of austerity, with governments being challenged to do more with less, the 10 Carden Expansion project has an opportunity to empower 10 Carden and other not-for-profits, especially those social enterprises (of all types) interested in shared resources and facilities, with a method of retaining into perpetuity – more space for the community. These collaborative projects could begin to extend the civic commons, in a very tangible way. Leach Dr
Ms
This initiative will enable the Small Arms Society to:
•Plan, host and evaluate community events at a scale previously not possible.
•Animate the Small Arms Building in ways not previously possible.
•Access the infrastructure and expertise needed to engage in action research.
•Increase public participation with the SAB site and project.
•Transform how the community perceives and uses the SAB.
•Engage the public imagination.
•Influence the municipal planning and design process.
•Network with similar regional and national infrastructure and re-purposing projects.
•Learn about the building, the site, the community, the latent potential from and with academic leaders, student work and various research initiatives.
•Create innovative, transdisciplinary, and collaborative partnerships across sectors and neighbourhoods.
•Engage students in authentic civic action. Snell Ms
Ms
This initiative would allow +city lab the opportunity to grow its partnership with Eabametoong First Nation and increase its presence as a consulting firm in the space of Indigenous community development. As an emerging social enterprise, +city lab is focused on bringing innovation to this field, embracing community-led development and ensuring that Indigenous values are placed at the centre of decision making practices. Breaking from the existing colonial model, whose social impact continues to devastate communities, we look to develop an alternative. Visioning our Future Dwelling Together builds towards creating a healthier community, translating the visions shared by community members into action and through sustainable change focused on capacity development.
Enabling +city lab to work with Ryerson University students creates the opportunity to influence the future of the discipline. A future which is also influenced by the exhibition, allowing +city lab to lead a showcase of this initiative to a broad audience, changing attitudes towards planning with Indigenous communities. Sharing and building allies across institutions and disciplines furthers the goal of creating healthier communities. Further dissemination, made possible by this initiative will look to disrupt the existing housing system, influencing policy, processes and practice by injecting a new set of values. This initiative would support an innovative partnership in providing a model of engagement, allowing +city lab to introduce the value of community-focused development to a much broader audience and drive action for change amongst all partners. McCartney Dr
Mr
Technology and entrepreneurship are cornerstones of the new Kelowna economy, and a maker space enables citizens to develop the skills they need to thrive in this environment. Situating such a project in the public library ensures that learning opportunities will be made broadly available to all members of society. With this partnership, ORL will be able to offer equitable access to technologies that support design thinking, STEM learning, creativity, and a maker ethic, all of which are qualities sought after in the current skills-based job market.
During public consultations about the renovation plans for the Kelowna Branch of Okanagan Regional Library the strongest public support was for a maker space to be included in the library. There are already active groups of makers working independently in the city, and there is great interest in having a public space where people can meet others and work together. This collaborative project will strengthen the library as a community hub; support collaboration, entrepreneurship, and creativity; create partnerships within the community and post-secondary education sector; mine potential within the existing library facility; and create collaborative spaces with minimum impact on existing systems and structure but with maximum impact on programming and space.
Beyond enhancing the space, the partnership will further formalize relationships between ORL, UBC, and OC, enabling development of a robust framework for engaging student experts in building and delivering rich programming in our Innovation Lab beyond the term of the initial student co-op positions. Thorne Ms
Ms
In March, OBIAA will begin a parallel project to gather the return on investment of Ontario’s economy and community since the inception of the BIA legislation in the 1970s. As a part of this project we will be identifying key indicators for success for BIAs as well as identifying and, if possible, creating tools which will help keep our downtowns relevant and vital.
Developing the popup research (VKCPS) will assist our BIAs in strategically developing incubator and popup businesses. In 2005 the OBIAA Board presented to the Planning, Environment, Resource, and Land-use (PERL) Deputy Minister arguing that the vacant unit rebate is actually adding to the decline of our downtowns and that it should be reignited as an Attraction Rebate. The Attraction Guidelines include popup vs incubator for Main Street Class.
For over 200 years, our downtowns have nurtured independent businesses and are the last bastion for the independent local entrepreneurs to develop and flourish. This project may be a key tool in the BIA tool kit. Lee Dr
Ms
Le Salon 1861 is a social enterprise dedicated to fostering innovative collaboration between stakeholders across all sectors of society–citizens, universities, businesses, and nonprofit organizations–in pursuit of a better neighbourhood, city, and society at large. For this reason, we have and will continue to support collaboration with TML and FARMM as key university partners. We see the Little Burgundy Narratives project as an excellent opportunity to bring citizens and the researchers, architects, and artists of our university partners to engage in a unique community-building initiative. For our young organization, this is a chance to forge better connections with our neighbours and to bring the public into our space.
As an engagement strategy for Le Salon 1861, LBN will allow us to cooperate more closely with the community and its residents on future projects, creating an ongoing dialogue about what they want to see at Le Salon 1861, while informing them of our capacities as a key civic asset in the community. While we are currently actively seeking to foster this dialogue, LBN will undoubtedly increase our capacities in this regard.
Finally, by using cutting-edge technology embedded in the coworking space of Le Salon 1861, LBN will forge new connections and raise our profile as an organization that hosts and supports the development of virtual reality and other emerging forms of digital media. As we are intent on our role as an alternative disseminator of knowledge, Le Salon 1861 will seek to offer our user groups as well as other organizations and communities the chance to learn from the experience of the LBN project. In this sense, we will be fulfilling our core mandate to unite various sectors of society on a highly innovative, broadly participatory project. Montanaro Mr
Ms
Before our collaboration with SeaCans Ltd. and the Northern Innovation Hub we would be without space to run our social enterprise and programming. We recycle materials into new furniture while working with at-risk youth to teach them skills within the woodworking and design trades. Space in Iqaluit is a prized commodity that we didn’t have the capital to compete for, however now, thanks to the Northern Innovation Hub, we can scale our program knowing we have a steady space to operate within. As a result, we will be able to work with more youth, develop more products, and generate greater levels of revenue. We will now be able to have a permanent storefront and workspace for our youth programming under one roof which will allow our team to better allocate our resources and time to serve the participants and potential customers as we will be able to operate the two branches in tandem. This space will also help us establish roots within the community, instead of having to work within makeshift areas. Daze Mr
Ms
En lançant l’appel citoyen Transforme ta ville, le Centre d’écologie urbaine de Montréal avait comme objectif de stimuler le changement dans la ville, porté par les citoyens, avec un impact sur la qualité de vie de la communauté. Lorsque le projet Un toit sur mon banc a rencontré des obstacles techniques, le partenariat avec l’ÉTS s’est avéré naturel et surtout, porteur d’impacts encore plus grands sur la manière dont la ville est conçue par les professionnels, les fonctionnaires et les citoyens.
Cette collaboration avec de futurs ingénieurs et l’École d’innovation citoyenne de l’ÉTS nous permet de concrétiser une volonté citoyenne, d’expérimenter les défis et les opportunités de combiner le savoir-faire technique, les besoins citoyens et l’expérience terrain, au profit d’une ville plus résiliente et durable.
Le projet est le tout début d’une collaboration que nous envisageons entre les institutions universitaires, les étudiants en génie et en design, et nos pratiques en participation citoyenne et de notre expertise en aménagement de la ville à échelle humaine.
_ Mme Francine
Verrier
514-396-8401
Le MR-63 vise à faire grandir les marchés des produits d'entreprise sociale locales et éco-reponsables ainsi que les artistes indépendants locaux. Pour se faire, il deviendra un lieu qui poussera tous les usagés vers sur la découverte de nouveauté. Autant l'espace d'exposition que le café/bar changeront leur offre constamment afin d'amener un public ouvert à l'expérimentation qui cherche à découvrir ce qui se fait de mieux localement à entrer en contact intime avec des produits et des oeuvres d'art qui repousse les standards de l'industrie.
Grâce à la collaboration avec les universités, ce processus pourra être mieux documenté et reproduit par des étudiants qui l'auront bien appris. À terme, le concept d'entreprise sociale résonnera dans la tête comme des projets ambitieux qui peuvent avoir un effet important sur un problème et aidera à accomplir la mission du MR-63. M Benoît