We are pleased to announce our new project partners as part of the Regional Initiatives Program, an ecosystem building initiative funded by the Government of Canada’s Investment Readiness Program (IRP).
Following an open call for proposals, the following projects were carefully selected from 117 applications due to their innovative work in the CED / social innovation ecosystem in Canada. The volume of applications highlights how strategic ecosystem development at local and provincial/territorial levels is an ongoing need across the country. The criteria from which these initiatives were assessed considered how the project would contribute to building stronger ecosystems of support in their respective regions, and whether their planned approach operated in intersectional, intersectoral, and collaborative ways.
Congratulations to the following initiatives:
CDEC de Trois-Rivières in collaboration with CDEC’s across Quebec
- Region: Quebec
- Project: CDEC de Trois-Rivières in collaboration with CDEC’s across Quebec aim to review and adapt their organizational models and approaches to better meet community needs in their regional ecosystems and foster long term sustainability as part of Québec’s social economy ecosystem. In the process, they will document the past and current models of Quebec’s CDECs, including lessons learned and the changing context of regional development in Quebec. This project will highlight the distinctive characteristics of Quebec’s CDECs and the expertise built up over more than thirty years.
Common Good Solutions
- Region: Atlantic Canada (pan-provincial)
- Project: Common Good Solutions will host a collaborative, multi-stakeholder engagement summit on social innovation and social finance in Atlantic Canada. The goal is to bring together various stakeholders from the region to strengthen the Atlantic’s social impact ecosystem and build a strong impact network. This project is focused on connecting stakeholders, relationship building, knowledge sharing, and highlighting emerging initiatives from across the region to shape shared and strategic commitments in Atlantic Canada and to set a policy and advocacy agenda that will inform the direction of future ecosystem development.
Memorial University’s Centre for Social Enterprise (CSE)
in collaboration with the Community Sector Council of Newfoundland and Labrador (CSCNL), Propel Impact, and the Community Foundation of Newfoundland and Labrador (CFNL).
- Region: Newfoundland and Labrador
- Project: The Centre for Social Enterprise aims to quantify the size and stage of the social enterprise ecosystem in Newfoundland and Labrador in order to understand the potential demand for an impact investing fund in the province. The secondary objective is to educate social entrepreneurs, small business owners, and non-profit, charity, & co-operative leaders about the power and potential of social finance to help them stabilize and grow their operations.
Ontario Nonprofit Network (ONN)
- Region: Ontario
- Project: ONN’s Community Wealth Building project aims to build, strengthen and sustain Ontario’s broad social economy ecosystem across sectors. Through knowledge mobilization activities and convenings, ONN’s project will connect existing and new organizations in the social economy ecosystem, facilitate networking opportunities, and increase awareness of community economic development among key stakeholders. In addition, with the input from convening participants, ONN’s project will help identify the infrastructure and support needed in Ontario for future social economy ecosystem building in Ontario.
Purppl CCC in collaboration with SCALE and Vancity
- Region: British Columbia
- Project: BC Social Enterprise CED Convenings – Purppl Community Contribution Company (CCC), Scale Collaborative, and Vancity Community Foundation will convene four gatherings to help connect local social enterprise networks, enable networks to learn with and from each other, and raise awareness of social entrepreneurship as a means of CED. There are two primary activities that anchor this initiative: 1) Social Enterprise Conversations which are grassroots convenings about social enterprise leadership and the challenges and innovation required to acquire, operate and expand a social enterprise and impact strategy. 2) Connect Money Impact (CMI) bringing together social entrepreneurs, impact investors and ecosystem builders for a day of inspiration, learning, and connection.
Saskatchewan Economic Development Alliance (SEDA) in collaboration with Saskatchewan Social Enterprise Hub
- Region: Saskatchewan
- Project: This project will conduct a province-wide Social Enterprise Needs Assessment & Ecosystem Engagement, supporting the strategic goals of the newly formed Saskatchewan’s Social Enterprise Hub to 1) expand awareness for social enterprise (SE) as an inclusive business model that transcends the public, private and non-profit sectors and 2) increase the capacity of the provincial ecosystem to support retention and growth of SE.
We look forward building strategic regional ecosystem capacity with the above listed initiatives in 2023-2024!
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Funding Source: This opportunity is supported by the federal Investment Readiness Program.
