Impact Hub Ottawa is excited to announce we have joined the growing movement of organizations working to advance the United Nations’ 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development—including our close partner and neighbours at the Community Foundations of Canada and the entire Impact Hub network around the globe. Collectively known as the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), these “17 goals to transform our world” aim to unify and mobilize people, organizations and nations to “end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all.”
As leaders in Ottawa’s social innovation ecosystem, we have a responsibility and opportunity to drive social impact by directing our energies toward moving the needle on the SDGs. While the work of our member community touches on many of the goals, we have made a commitment to focus our 2018 programming on No. 11: Make cities inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable.
Over 80 per cent of Canadians live in urban areas, and the issues they face are shared by city dwellers everywhere, from rising inequality to the accelerating pace of climate change. Municipalities across Canada are currently competing in the federal government’s Smart Cities Challenge. In recent years, there has been a proliferation of civic innovation labs, offices and strategies, plus a growing network of grassroots civic tech groups. With both provincial and municipal elections taking place later this year, there is no better time to contribute to the important dialogue around the kind of cities we want to shape, and to develop the next generation of civic leaders who will be part of turning those aspirations into a reality.
We at Impact Hub Ottawa have committed to help raise awareness, build leadership capacity and foster collaborative and entrepreneurial action through four major programs.
Ottawa Social Impact Awards
In January, we launched the second edition of the Ottawa Social Impact Awards in partnership with the City of Ottawa and the IgniteAC Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at Algonquin College. These awards recognize and celebrate community leaders and organizations who are contributing to a more inclusive and sustainable city. We received 42 nominations and 22,000 votes from the public for three categories: social enterprise, community initiative and future leaders. Congratulations to Hidden Harvest Ottawa, Ausome Ottawa and the Algonquin College Public Relations Agency!
Read more on our blog post: “2018 Ottawa Social Impact Awards: Congratulations to our Recipients!“
Future Cities Forum
In February, Impact Hub Ottawa partnered with Artengine to host the Future Cities Forum. The event united hundreds of engaged citizens and 60 youth leaders, students and young professionals from the technology, social impact and cultural/creative sectors—talented individuals who represent the next generation of our civic leadership. Together, they explored how cities will be increasingly powered, influenced or controlled by technology, data and algorithms. We designed the Forum to provoke critical inquiry about the social and cultural implications of “smart cities” and their inevitable disruptions to the way we live, work and play. This cohort’s perspectives, aspirations and relationships with technology will only grow in importance as Canadian municipalities compete with each other—and communities around the world—in the race to become smarter.
Read more on our blog post: “What do we mean when we talk about smart cities?”
Civic Leadership Program
We are working with community partners and engaged citizens to design, develop and pilot a new kind of civic leadership development program. This effort combines a deep dive into a particular social issue (in this case, housing and homelessness) with a hands-on experiential component (for instance, curated conversations in shelters or supervised injection sites) and an introduction to social innovation principles and practices (such as collective impact, design thinking or impact investing). Our belief is that smart cities are nothing without smart leaders. This program represents another way we are investing in our civic leadership and developing their knowledge, networks and collective capacity to create more inclusive and sustainable communities in which no one is left behind.
Read more on our blog post: “Linking Leaders to prevent and end homelessness in Ottawa”
Impact Hub Global Gathering
Impact Hub Ottawa is part of a global network of almost 100 Impact Hubs on five continents. Our network’s on-the-ground presence ranges from global metropolises like Tokyo and Mexico City to developing urban centres in Kigali and Yangon to international capitals of creativity and innovation like Berlin and San Francisco. It is a tangible manifestation of the old adage “think global, act local” that makes us uniquely positioned to advance the SDGs through collaborative and entrepreneurial action.Once a year, our entire network comes together for a week-long family reunion, knowledge exchange and strategic retreat.
This year, in what is an historic first for all of us, the Ottawa group is proud to partner with our kindred spirits at Impact Hub Montréal to jointly host the gathering in our two cities. This will be an unprecedented opportunity to showcase the strength and diversity of one of the world’s largest networks of social entrepreneurs and changemakers. The 2018 Global Gathering will take place in Montréal from June 24–26 before moving to Ottawa from June 26–29.
If you represent an organization that is aligned with our goals, values and vision for a better world, we would love to partner with you. Get in touch with our managing director, Katie Miller, to learn more.
This text was originally published in expanded form by Impact Hub Ottawa.
Photo by Marc-Olivier Jodoin on Unsplash.