
Types of Social Enterprises Trico is Excited About
The Trico Foundation is most excited by social enterprise’s that have the potential to do at least one and ideally all of: a) Tapping into

The Trico Foundation is most excited by social enterprise’s that have the potential to do at least one and ideally all of: a) Tapping into

This journey update involves 2013 Social EnterPrize recipient JUMP Math, and our chat with Scott McMeekin, CEO of JUMP Math. JUMP Math’s mission is to help improve life outcomes for the students it reaches. To do so, it has developed an approach that builds math achievement, while promoting the social and emotional skills that are critical to academic and life success. JUMP Math provides teacher and student resources for Kindergarten to grade 8, and supporting teacher professional development. Although JUMP Math design criteria focus on the needs of students at risk of failure, its resources are used by some of Canada’s most elite private schools, highlighting the fact that all students benefit from excellent pedagogy. Resources are also available for parents to use with their children.

The Trico Charitable Foundation (TCF) is excited to announce a new role, and welcome its newest team member. Alexandra Daignault joins TCF as Liaison for Student Social Entrepreneurs. In that capacity she will work with post-secondary students that are developing a social enterprise, by providing coaching, workshops, and other materials developed by TCF. The position was created to support the growing number of student social enterprises in our city, and help Calgary take one more step to realizing its potential as a Canadian social enterprise hub.

This 2013 Social EnterPrize recipient is a brilliant example of how perseverance, planning, and maintaining quality can turn a grant based charity into a self-sustaining social enterprise. We had a chance to catch up with Founder and CEO, Marcia Nozick on the most recent updates on ESS.

Happy New Year! The start of 2019 gives us the opportunity to reflect and learn from 2018. The past twelve months brought the Trico Charitable Foundation amazing insights such as crossing the chasm; the 6 key mindsets of social entrepreneurship; the release of 9 A.S.E.S.S. blogs; social entrepreneurs’, summer students’, and Social EnterPrize recipients’ journeys and learnings; and the grand opening of the Trico Changemakers Studio.

Richard’s journey with TAC and Opportunity For All Youth is another example of how social entrepreneurship can stem from pivoting in a new direction and thinking about succession planning of your social enterprise. This is a pattern Trico Foundation and others are seeing in terms of scale: it isn’t necessarily a bigger social enterprise, it is about using the knowledge you gained from the social enterprise in a different way on a whole new level.

This past summer working at the Trico Foundation’s Summer Student Internship, I was able to take my company from an ideation stage that had undergone 2 years of evolution, to its first pilot, to an official launch of operations, to a now rapid scale of production on its way to reaching a steady state within the next 18 months. Trico Foundation’s one-on-one coaching and group sharing through the A.S.E.S.S. program were pivotal to my progress.

We are extremely delighted to have a number of amazing organizations join us at SVI Alberta to share their own learnings with the ecosystem. We were able to connect with a few of these attendees who shared with us their involvement in social enterprise and what experiences they would like to share, the challenges they are facing and what they hope to discover at SVI Alberta.

When one hears “entrepreneur”, I’m sure the descriptions of trailblazer, problem-solver, innovator or risk-taker pop into the listener’s head. It becomes a description for someone who is brave and ready slay the dragon but also prepared to be imprisoned by the belly of the beast and make their way out to try again. It means never giving up, fail forward, solve the problem, and make a difference—create real change.
With these admirable traits, who wouldn’t want to be considered an entrepreneur?

Well, here we are again at the close of another summer. I always feel like these months slip right through my hands – which is probably why I’m writing this blog about time management. Over the past few months, I’ve found myself learning my way into innovation and entrepreneurship in a way that is sufficiently self-directed.