A HUB FOR SOCIAL MRU

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1 A HUB FOR SOCIAL MRU

2 Our world faces an immense set of complex societal and environmental challenges, and the solutions are often as complex as the problems. The good news is that we have people and organizations in Calgary who are not only up for tackling these challenges, but who see opportunity. This includes students and faculty at Mount Royal University (MRU) who combine courage, empathy and creativity in the service of making an impact, changing a life, and transforming a system. However, bridging the gap across sectors and concentrations is challenging. We need new methods, and a new approach. To this date, there is no one central place where social innovators gather. There is no space where solutions are prototyped, ideated, and implemented with the help of the greater community. Unlike other Canadian cities such as Toronto, and Vancouver, Calgary is lacking in space for impactful, collaborative efforts. READY TO HARVESTA PLACE WHERE THE HUB: DISCOVERY MEETS COMMUNITY In recognizing the need for a new approach to the complex challenges we face, and our core value of community and collaboration, MRU is creating a hub for social innovation. A joint initiative of the Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship and the Institute for Community Prosperity, the yet-to-be-named hub is a shared working and learning space. It will be a place on campus where social-purpose businesses and organizations, embedded in the community, with a strong culture of learning, innovation and collaboration, will be able co-locate with, mentor and engage MRU emerging student social entrepreneurs. This is a shared office space, where the student changemakers and community organizations with a social mission will work alongside and with one another. These organizations span the spectrum of socially-purposed commercial for profit entities, to non-profit community organizations. The common thread is that the organization is making a positive impact on the world. Part of the vision of this hub is to act as a social R&D space, where the space itself acts as a place where research, experimentation and prototyping can lead to the development of new breakthrough collaborations, and new innovative social-purpose solutions.

3 WHO IS THE HUB FOR? The hub sits at the intersection of learning, community and innovation. We see the hub for social innovation as a catalyst for supporting Calgary s social innovation community, serving as a unique and urgently needed social R&D space as part of a larger innovation ecosystem of hubs, labs, incubators, and accelerators throughout the city. Toronto and Vancouver have a major head-start on Calgary, in terms of the diversity and strength of support for social innovation ecosystems. But we know this city has talent, drive, ideas and organizations - the right DNA, in other words. We need now to provide places for this DNA to replicate. For ideas to germinate, incubate and flourish. What makes the MRU hub thoroughly unique, however, is that learning will be core to the mission of the hub: It will provide real-time, curriculum-tied learning experiences to student changemakers, along with reciprocal learning to community changemakers. These exchanges can range from lunch-and-learn workshops, and one-on-one mentoring to classroom collaborations, to formal research projects. These three core values of learning, community and innovation will not only guide the overall vision of the hub, but also the membership: The co-locating partner organizations - some non-profit, others for-profit - must model a culture of learning, must embrace innovation, risk and experimentation, and must value and be able to demonstrate working in authentic partnership with community. With a footprint of roughly 5,000 square feet, MRU s hub for social innovation will have room for between 30 and 60 members within the space, not including student ventures, depending on the size of organizational partners and the chosen configuration. With a mixed use space of offices, shared desks, and hot desks, there is opportunity for many organizations to work on campus within the hub. Included in the footprint is common space to allow for coffee chats & collisions, social labs, workshops, and team meetings. The space will be designed purposely and collaboratively to serve the needs of the greater community. On November 30th, 2015 we held our first community gathering to continue the conversation, generate interest and buzz, and move the co-creation process forward. We look forward to many more community gatherings and discussions as we continue to build out the social innovation hub offering and space.

4 CHANGEMAKER CAMPUS At MRU our vision is create an exceptional undergraduate educational experience a philosophy that puts the learning needs of students at the core, and that places value on learning experiences well beyond the classroom. In the service of developing a community of engaged and active citizens, Mount Royal provides experiential and outcome-based learning opportunities. In many cases, this learning occurs in collaboration with community. MRU therefore strives to be relentlessly innovative in its teaching, both in the currency, relevance and unblinkered frankness of content and through a teaching style that is student-centered, participatory, and cultivating an entrepreneurial mindset. MRU is also committed to nurturing a campus-wide culture of changemaking that inspires and empowers us to create meaningful change in partnership with communities. This commitment is both recognized and enabled by support from the J.W. READY McConnell Family Foundation TO to be one of HARVEST 18 RECODE campuses in Canada working to build a culture of social entrepreneurship and innovation - the only such campus between BC and Ontario. Being recognized as a RECODE campus helps tie MRU to a broader changemaker ecosystem within Calgary and across the country. SOCIAL MRU The Bissett School of Business, working with the Institute for Community Prosperity and the Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, is creating the most robust program of undergraduate social innovation education in Canada, having hired new faculty dedicated to social innovation, and rolling out new courses in the service of a 6-course Social Innovation Minor (available to all students in any degree program on campus) and a soon-to-be approved 9 course Social Innovation Concentration for students in the General Management BBA stream. In addition, we offer an Innovation and Entrepreneurship Minor with a Concentration under development. Outside of the classroom, there are many supports for students, including RBC Slate, a 1500 sq. ft. collaboration space, JMH Venture LaunchPad, which recognizes and supports startup social ventures and commercial ventures, and the Community Prosperity Student Research Awards for senior students deepen their understanding of social finance, international development, transformative leadership, human service models, philanthropy and many other other social-purpose topics.

5 STUDENTS AS CHANGEMAKERS A portion of this hub will have dedicated workspace, including hot desks, for students. Priority will be given to MRU students engaged with Community Prosperity Student Research Awards, running social ventures, creating and implementing Enactus projects, or perhaps interning or working part time for a hub partner/member organizations. Paul Shumlich STUDENT SPOTLIGHT Deepwater Farms grew out of a passion to tackle the challenge of year round growing in northern climates. Paul first began growing lettuce in a self assembled backyard greenhouse through an aquaponics system. Nearly two years later, Paul is now growing fresh, year round produce to local restaurants and business harvested through a unique aquaponics system. Deepwater Farms is helping to reduce the distance from farm to plate, and year round growing in local climates. Stokes Stoves are pyrolytic stoves that reduce the amount of smoke released while cooking by over 95%. This is not only crucial to health of those exposed to the smoke, but significantly reduces the amount of CO2 released into the atmosphere. Paisley & Tim are leading a group of Enactus students to create mirco-enterprises in Kenya that produce and sell these stoves to locals in need of a solution to the 5million deaths a year due to respiratory illness. Both Paisley & Timothy were participants in the Student Research Awards, helping to further their work. Paisley Dressler & Timothy Lipp Austin Lang Green Cup YYC began in the kitchen & garage of Austin's parents house, where he spent hours mixing, blending, baking, and tirelessly trying to figure out a secondary use for the coffee cup waste stream. When Austin felt he had expelled all options, he decided to eliminate the waste stream altogether by producing organic cups. In order to encourage adoption, they provide the cups for free to small coffee shops and other business. They remain financially sustainable by selling advertising on the cups to business' and organizations looking to gain exposure.

6 JOIN US As an experiential learning opportunity, we have engaged an Interior Design class to create the design concept for the hub. As part of the class, potential members will be engaged through design charrettes and conversations around usage, which will result in floor plans and design spec documents produced by the class. This will be the first of many student & community collaborations within the space. As we plan to launch the hub in the second half of 2016, we are looking for partners to help fund the development and programming capacity of the hub. As such, these partners will be given the opportunity to provide organizations and individuals a chance to magnify their impact, including students who are focused on creating a positive impact on society. Through the creation of this hub, all members will be exposed to a learning environment that will not only encourage innovation and collaboration, but will enhance student s capabilities to generate and apply leading ideas and approaches in social innovation to solve real problems in our world. Join us in building a new way of learning today for a better world tomorrow.