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?”

Eden Full Goh, Founder of The SunSaluter, describes 2016 as a building year for The SunSaluter and many things that were put into motion a few years ago have finally come to life. Overall, the two major focal points Eden and her team have been concentrating on is getting their open source materials out and amplifying partnerships.

Recently, we had a chance to catch up with Shobhita Soor, Chief Impact Officer & Co-Founder of Aspire Food Group to find out what they have been up to for the past year. As with many budding and successful social entrepreneurs, the issue of disciplined focus loomed large.

As part of the Enough For All, a cohort of stakeholders came together to understand how they each support social entrepreneurship in Calgary. Working collectively, the cohort met in depth with nine social ventures and interviewed three others. The intent was to understand the wider social entrepreneurship support system in Calgary while seeking to strengthen the supports available to local social entrepreneurs.

Imagination is a powerful tool. Partner it with design and engineering and you’ve got a combination that can transform – and solve -- the most complex of social issues. This year during Beakerhead, meet six founders, engineers and designers tackling social issues through ingenious entrepreneurial endeavors.

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