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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We define social entrepreneurship as using business models (selling a good or service) to enhance social impact. This reflects most Canadian definitions.
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.
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?”
It was an idea Julian Sharpe couldn’t let go – the devastation caused by the 2004 Mega Thrust Earthquake and Tsunami Wave in Indonesia. It didn’t help that the more research he did, the more he learned that this was a global issue, meaning it would happen again and in more places.
We are pleased to announce the five local social ventures that will be competing for $10,000 on September 16 as part of Social Entrepreneurship Day in Calgary (listed alphabetically): Age-in-Place Laneway House aGRO Systems Bundles of Hope Deepwater Farms Green Cup
We ask the acclaimed author of “Lean Startups for Social Change: The Revolutionary Path to Big Impact”: What’s your elevator pitch on the promise and power of bringing lean startup thinking to the social sector?, What is typically the greatest challenge for social organizations as they try to use lean startup thinking? and Explain the idea of “the one metric that matters”?
This is part of our series focusing on The World of Social Entrepreneurship, showcasing social impact stories at Beakerhead 2016. Our Q & A with Gavin Armstrong, Founder and CEO of Lucky Iron Fish, discusses his personal social entrepreneurship journey, the joy and challenges of pitching, the art of pivoting and much more.