Transforming the Community Impact of Campus Space: Bow Valley College and WINS Open a Social Enterprise Thrift Store

Bow Valley College and Women In Need Society (WINS) have partnered to launch a new on-campus thrift store that combines affordability, sustainability, and hands-on learning. The initiative gives students access to low-cost essentials while creating real-world learning opportunities in social enterprise and community impact.

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What is social entrepreneurship?

We define social entrepreneurship as using business models (selling a good or service) to enhance social impact. This reflects most Canadian definitions.

Beyond balance

Many see the social and the entrepreneurial as being in opposition, like two sides of a scale that needs to be balanced. Instead, we see the social and the entrepreneurial as partners in progress.  

Aspirational

We support a social entrepreneurship movement that dares to ask, “How far could we go in solving the world’s problems, and even fulfilling our potential as human beings, if we fully harnessed the power of business models to enhance social impact?”

Green Cup is a new project started by post-secondary student Austin (Ozzy) Lang and co-founded by his colleague Emily Bartlett. This for-profit endeavour aims to make a positive impact on the environment by creating compostable coffee cups. Calgary does not currently have a compost system, so these cups are thrown out in bins labelled with the Green Cup logo and instructions for disposal.

To commemorate the first official Social Entrepreneurship Day in Calgary, Trico Charitable Foundation is pleased to announce $700,000 in local social entrepreneurship programming. "The existence of the Social Entrepreneurship Day Proclamation as well as the wonderful sentiments it contains (the Proclamation is attached to this News Release) are a fitting testament to the extraordinary momentum Calgary is gathering as a hub for social entrepreneurship" says Dan Overall, Director of the Trico Charitable Foundation. "We are honoured to both celebrate and support that momentum with this commitment to our home city."

ShelterBox was started in 2000 in the UK by an ex-military serviceman who had seen a need for shelter and supplies to be delivered to families effectively and immediately after a disaster. Since then, the organization has grown into a global leader in providing high-tech shelter solutions and supplies to families in over 100 countries around the world.

Our Q & A with Kody Baker, Founder and CTO of VeloMetro, discusses the founders’ social entrepreneurship journey, “Aha!” moments, the startup lifestyle, their vision that drives them, and much more.

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