Social enterprise is a way of doing things; it is not an end goal in itself.
This is my favorite take-away from the May 5 Intro to Social Enterprise workshop. We were excited to welcome 24 participants into our Trico Foundation space for the first Enterprising Non-Profits Alberta workshop. It was wonderful to see the diversity of areas that our participants represented – disabilities, social justice, low-income, homelessness, youth, seniors, employment, philanthropy, and community investment. It is this diversity that is a real testament to the broad impact that social enterprise (as a verb) can have in our community.
Bringing the necessary resources and education around good social enterprise development is timely for Alberta. Our June workshop is already oversold, and we are working with a growing community of interested Calgarians to offer more informal ways to connect around social enterprise development and practice. It is truly an exciting time, but we’re just scratching the surface. From social purchasing, social finance, technology integration, storytelling, shared resources, mentorship – there are opportunities yet to be built.
We see it as the creation of a movement. If you feel inspired, we hope you get involved – share your comments, join us on Twitter, email us.