Nov 14, 2018 | Accessibility, Community, Social Innovation, Social Venture Development, Universal Access Design
City of Lethbridge Creating New Masterplan for Inclusive Design It was an unusual sight: Lethbridge city officials and consultants wandering around outside city hall, some blindfolded and holding canes, some in wheelchairs, all struggling. A local reporter who just...
May 4, 2018 | Civic Social Innovation, Community, Social Innovation
Developing Physical Infrastructure With Social Outcomes In Mind Physical infrastructure has always been created to achieve a social outcome, a measurable improvement to the quality of life of the people it is being created to serve. From clean drinking water systems,...
May 2, 2018 | case study, case study: social enterprise development, Social Innovation, Social Venture Development
Most people would likely guess that universal accessibility is not today’s reality – but most people wouldn’t have a grasp on the magnitude of the issue. Things are set up for the able-bodied majority (or TABs in Stan’s parlance, the Temporarily Able Bodied), its...
Feb 15, 2018 | Social Finance, Social Innovation
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...
Feb 6, 2018 | Affordable Housing, Civic Social Innovation, Community, Homelessness, Housing, Social Innovation
Join us at Techstars Startup Weekend Okanagan, March 9-11, 2018, pitch your idea for affordable housing and win an incubation package!
Jan 19, 2018 | Affordable Housing, Homelessness, Housing, Housing Consultant, Social Innovation
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 –...
Nov 23, 2017 | Community, Social Innovation
Karen Lai is an Inclusion and Accessibility Consultant, helping governments, businesses and NGOs understand and act upon improving their outcomes by engaging the whole Community. She is a collaborator and guest blogger here for Urban Matters CCC too! She can be...
Nov 16, 2017 | BC’s Affordable Housing Conference, Housing Central, Housing Consultant, Social Innovation
Access to safe, secure and affordable housing is a massive pain point in many areas of Canada, but the stress in British Columbia these days is extreme. The reasons are varied; homeless counts are surging and rental vacancy rates have sunk to historic lows. Because of...
Sep 26, 2017 | Social Enterprise, Social Innovation
Stan Leyenhorst was born into a big family in Richmond B.C. He had 11 siblings and grew up a hardworking kid on a dairy farm in the Fraser Valley. One summer night at the age of 16, the course of Stan’s life was forever altered when he dove into a friend’s backyard...
Sep 11, 2017 | Indigenous Communities, Social Enterprise, Social Innovation
By Trina Wamboldt, Community Catalyst It’s high time that the socio-economic status of Indigenous peoples in Canada becomes equal to that of non-Indigenous Canadians. While it seems that things are trending in the right direction with education, employment and income...
Aug 16, 2017 | Social Innovation
By Erin Welk, Civic Social Innovation Lead, Urban Matters Al Etmanski is an inspiring mentor for us at Urban Matters – as a poignant social change agent, he reminds us: “we do not live in a leaderless society. Our society is full of leaders who commit without fanfare,...
Jul 13, 2017 | Indigenous Communities, Social Innovation
New Executive Director for Program Aiming to Address Indigenous Unemployment Hits the Ground Running Interview by Cindy Hughes Danielle Levine has never been afraid to try new things or explore what she calls “paths that never seemed like paths.” So her new role as...
