Applied Social Innovation

Urban Matters CCC was created to deliver upon Applied Social Innovation; working with communities to bring real solutions to life in the social serving sector in a sustainable way.

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.

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Reframe Housing Competition

We know that there are dozens of brilliant solutions out there, developed in communities and by communities far and wide. We want to help you and your organization bring these housing innovations to scale, and help you get more people into homes. This is an opportunity to grow your impact in community and share with others across the country as we are all grappling with the challenges of creating affordable homes for everyone.

To help get you there, BC Non-Profit Housing Association (BCNPHA) and Urban Matters CCC have partnered to launch Reframe Housing. A housing competition to help nurture innovations in community housing, from light bulb ideas to established housing ventures, from across Western Canada and the Territories. Check out contest details here to see if your idea could be a winner!

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Our Stories

Nobody Left Behind

Jul 23, 2018 | 0 Comments

How the City of Grand Forks is turning a one-in-200-year flooding event into an opportunity for long-term housing solutions for their community. In early May, many residents of the City of Grand Forks and neighbouring areas of the Regional District of...

Lee Prevost – New Affordable Housing Development Lead

Jul 9, 2018 | 0 Comments

No - that’s not a typo in Lee’s job title. This is Lee’s big dream - that we drop the ‘affordable’ term and value all types of housing as important elements of healthy and inclusive communities. He wants housing developments to focus on cutting edge design, creative...

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How we work

ADVISORY
SERVICES

COMMUNITY
HOUSING

SOCIAL VENTURE DEVELOPMENT

what we’re working on

Pender Harbour Health Centre Needs Assessment

Urban Matters CCC in 2017 to 2018 supported the Pender Harbour Health Centre in completing a needs assessment to identify and assess opportunities for expansion of health services in Pender Harbour. The needs assessment process was engagement-oriented, including over 25 interviews with key stakeholders, as well as an open house component.

OGO Car Share Co-Op

OGO, or the Okanagan Car Share Co-Operative, is a car sharing service based in Kelowna, BC. Launched in 2013, Urban Matters CCC ‘cut its teeth’ in social venture development and incubation with OGO, supporting its early development by creatively getting its very first vehicle on the road and successively negotiating with other public vehicle fleets in the Community to further develop the vehicle inventory. OGO has grown from 2 cars and 35 members in 2013, to 13 vehicles and over 450 members today. We were most recently involved with its successful merger with Modo CarShare (out of Vancouver, Victoria, and Nanaimo) to effectively scale its impact. In addition to these highlights, we supported OGO throughout its development with office space, network access and governance support.

Aboriginal Friendship Centres of Saskatchewan Entrepreneurship Workshops

In 2016 Urban Matters CCC conducted workshops in indigenous communities in Saskatchewan to test an “in-reach” approach to training and capacity building. Urban Matters CCC developed the concept in partnership with the BC Association of Aboriginal Friendship Centres and the Aboriginal Friendship Centres of Saskatchewan, and all supported prototyping activities with workshops in Indigenous communities.

Purppl

Between 2015 and 2017 Urban Matters CCC partnered with Andrew Greer (then of Accelerate Okanagan, a tech accelerator) to support the development and launch of Purppl (PURposeful PeoPLe, www.purppl.com), a social enterprise accelerator. Urban Matters CCC provided early seed funding, mentorship, facilities and equipment, credibility, as well as access to the Urban’s network of potential clients in municipalities and NGOs.

City of Vancouver Homeless Count

Urban Matters CCC in 2018 participated in panning and delivering the 2018 Vancouver Homeless Count, alongside many other partners. Urban Matters has supported survey development, survey planning and coordination, and is leading data analysis and report development.

Universal Access Design

In 2017 Urban Matters CCC partnered with Stan Leyenhorst (formerly of the Rick Hansen Foundation) to support the development of Universal Access Design Inc. (www.uadi.ca), an accessibility consulting and education social venture. Aspiring toward ‘Access for Everyone, Everywhere, All the Time’ Urban Matters CCC provided early stage financial support, mentorship, social venture development expertise, network access and development building, partnership on funded projects together and some early sales development through Urban’s deep connectivity in sectors related to the built environment.

City of Richmond Homelessness Strategy Update

Along with BC Non-Profit Housing Association Urban Matters CCC is working with the City of Richmond to update their Homelessness Strategy. The stakeholder focused – co-creation project will focus on gap analyses, best practices reviews and finally strategy development.