Innovating with Communities
Together, we create, launch and scale social ventures for better outcomes in our communities.
Our team works with social entrepreneurs, governments and socially-conscious business leaders to introduce and scale social innovation in communities. We combine 40+ years of community development experience with social planning and social finance methodologies to achieve results. Change is hard — we can help.
Our Stories
Budget 2018 – Our Response to the BC Government’s 30 Point Plan for Affordable Housing
The BC Provincial Government recently released the 2018 Budget and announced a robust commitment to make life more affordable for British Columbians. We asked Matt Thomson, Urban Matters' Community Housing Lead for his thoughts on the B.C. Government’s 30-Point Plan...
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Program-Related Investments – Investing with Social and Financial Return
Program-Related Investments is the third post in our series about social finance tools. Urban Matters' Social Finance Lead, Jerome Lengkeek, explores Program-Related Investments (PRIs), how social entrepreneurs, non-profit organizations and charities can...
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Social Lending – Innovation in Social Finance
This is the second post in our series about social finance tools and our view on how they can be applied in various contexts. In the first post of our series on Social Finance, Jerome Lengkeek, Urban Matters' Social Finance Lead, gave us a comprehensive look at...
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Startup Weekend Okanagan – Bring Your Ideas for Affordable Housing
Join us at Techstars Startup Weekend Okanagan, March 9-11, 2018, pitch your idea for affordable housing and win an incubation package!
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Seed Funds – Scary Territory or an Opportunity for Impact?
This is post #1 in a series as we explore a number of different social finance tools and how they work in different contexts. Seed Funds: what they are and how they work Seed funds are set up by investors or fund managers who wish to create a pool of...
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We’re Growing Our Community Housing Team!
We're kicking 2018 off with gusto: we're hiring a new member to our team to help tackle the affordable housing crisis! No big deal, right? Except that it is. Today there are thousands of people in Canada experiencing housing insecurity and worse - facing homelessness....
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