Happy New Year! The start of 2021 gives us the opportunity to reflect and learn from 2020. Although 2020 came with its many challenges, the past twelve months were busy, historic, and made great progress in advancing both social entrepreneurship and Calgary’s role as a hub for social entrepreneurship.
The Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at Mount Royal University partners with the Trico Charitable Foundation to tackle social and environmental problems submitted by Calgary’s network of social innovation leaders.
Among the 10 impressive What’s Next YYC finalists who are using the power of business models to solve social problems is the Indigenous-run social enterprise Colouring It Forward. Colouring It Forward produces and sells colouring books and other products developed with Indigenous artists and elders to help to share (and preserve) the beautiful artwork and ancestral wisdom of our Indigenous peoples and promote reconciliation through the arts.
It is no secret that ideation is HARD, especially when you are tackling complex issues. That is why Mount Royal University’s (MRU) Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship and the Trico Charitable Foundation are excited to launch the Social Entrepreneurship Sprint this August!
For students around the world whose lives and studies have been upended by the pandemic, it was important to them to see their projects through to the finish. Over the course of three days, 150 students from all over the world came together virtually to present issues they care deeply about.
On May 28th, 2020, four amazing panelists from social enterprises around Alberta shared how they are finding opportunities to survive and serve as small-medium sized businesses during this unprecedented time of COVID-19.