We’re excited to introduce the members of our pilot cohort of the Community Catalyst Program! These six individuals / teams from diverse sectors and communities across Alberta are each finding and testing new solutions to a “stuck” problem facing their community. We look forward to learning alongside them, sharing their experiences and stories, and exploring how the amazing people, resources, and ideas within ABSI Connect's community can be leveraged to support their work over the coming eight months.

Jerome Morgan

Sylvan Lake: inclusive innovation

Jerome Morgan is a community facilitator living in central Alberta. Jerome’s project is about inclusive innovation supporting BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Colour), rural, and immigrant communities around design thinking and social innovation.

Follow Eduardo and Alabama on social media:Instagram @sagegrass_1 — **Follow Eduardo and Alabama on social media:**
**Instagram @**sagegrass_1

Eduardo Many Heads and Alabama Kipp

Siksika Nation: food security

Oki, our names are Eduardo and Alabama we are both Blackfoot from Siksika Nation and were raised on the reserve. It wasn't until we had been away from the reserve for a while and worked different jobs that we began to realize the issue of food security in our community. What we began to see was that there was very little local food production on Siksika and that for a few years there was even no place to buy groceries on reserve.

We thought what could we do to change that and why was it this way?

Our asking questions and research led us to discover that community gardens and small livestock had all been done before but for a people who were nomadic and once followed the great Bison the transition to a more sedentary life was not an easy one. We realized that there were real difficulties in creating a new sustainable food system such as extreme weather, politics, financial support, etc.

Our research also led us to permaculture, regenerative agriculture and the many examples of sustainable food systems from Indigenous peoples all over the world. After taking a Permaculture design course we knew we could implement these practices and techniques back home. A year after our PDC (permaculture design course) we moved back to the reserve and began building up our farm from scratch.

In our first year, we had 100 chickens for meat and egg production, a garden and attracted the support of our Health Department and Blackfoot Confederacy to build a 4 season climate battery greenhouse. Currently, we run an after-school program on the Reserve where we bring youth out to learn permaculture and sustainability while giving them the opportunity to learn hands-on by helping build up the permaculture demonstration farm.

Eily Aurora

Calgary: arts and mental health

Eily is a singer/songwriter, harpist and social change facilitator living in Calgary. With a passion for supporting mental health, she founded the Home Shall Be Here project in 2019, which toured interactive concerts and music workshops to 14 communities across western Canada in the spring of 2019.

Her project offers a human centred design approach to addressing the mental health crisis. Eily plans to prototype a main event at cSPACE King Edward that will help build a participatory event model using Art of Hosting techniques and music to cultivate community dialogue and creative confidence. cSPACE is a historic sandstone school-turned arts and innovation hub in the heart of Calgary where Eily is active as an employee and community member.

Kayla BlackadarFollow Kayla on Linkedin at linkedin.com/kayla-blackadar — **Kayla Blackadar**
**Follow Kayla on Linkedin at** linkedin.com/kayla-blackadar

Kayla Blackadar and Nicoll Schreiner

Strathcona County: youth Engagement & Belonging

Kayla works part time for the Strathcona County Early Childhood Coalition and is currently enrolled at the University of Alberta School of Public Health, specializing in Health Promotion. Nicoll works as a Guest Services Representative for Strathcona County Recreation, Parks and Culture. Together through this program they are hoping to build skills in networking, storytelling, and capacity building. They are looking forward to having the time and space to explore innovative ideas to help support their community. They want to address the “stuck” problem of limited access to opportunities for youth to participate in worthwhile recreation and socialization, especially for children living in rural areas that are not involved in organized sports. They want to gain support and tools for improving engagement with youth, expand upon current supports and address accessibility barriers for rural youth.

Dra’s Angels

Natasha Saliken, Brandy Old, and Karen AndruschaK

Lethbridge and area: social enterprise Serving at-risk youth

Youth in transition from social systems need support to contribute to society and live quality lives. The mission of our social initiative is to make sure no youth falls through the gaps. Our approach focuses on eradicating pervasive problems faced by youth-at-risk, by supporting youth in their aspirations through skills training, empowerment, a sense of purpose, and access to meaningful work. The identified social need will be addressed by creating a social enterprise that builds community with at-risk youth. The social enterprise will aim to tackle this pervasive issue through community housing, life skills coaching, employment training and placements, and individualized programming that brings a wrap-around approach for each youth.

The virtual school project

Julia dalman, jean stiles, matthew whitman, and lyle tootoosis

Edmonton and Northern Alberta: education system and Indigenous students

The Virtual School Project team, stewarded by Julia Dalman and Jean Stiles, includes Matthew Whitman and Lyle Tootoosis as well as a wide net of community partners, including Animikii, to develop phase one of the Virtual School prototype. This team has a goal to build a new education model that incorporates Indigenous ways of knowing from the ground up and creates new pathways to meet the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's Calls to Action. This project will be prototyping online and blended styles of learning while also incorporating excellent land-based education practices guided by elders and knowledge keepers.