9. Emerging Changemakers

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Many of our guests come to the conversation with years, if not decades, of experience in the social good sector. Today, we thought we’d shake things up and hear from changemakers of a different demographic. In this episode, ABSI Connect’s Elise Martinoski, a recent university graduate, sat down with three of her peers: Maya Pajevic, Sally Njoroge, and Xander Jensen, to discuss their experiences engaging with changemaking as students and recent graduates.  

Students and youth bring unique perspectives to the table when it comes to changemaking. Whether from theory they’ve learned in class or knowledge they gained through a fellowship or work term or volunteer experience, they are often equipped with bold ideas or big questions and are ready to hit the ground running and change the world post-grad. But what does it mean to ‘change the world’? How do we do that? Where do we even start? Are we qualified to do such a thing? These are some of the thoughts Elise often hears when she chats with other recent grads and emerging changemakers. So, she decided to sit down with three other Mount Royal University students and recent graduates to hear from them what it’s been like to learn about social innovation in the classroom, the experiences they’ve had translating this knowledge into the workforce, and their hopes for the world of changemaking. 

Recorded, edited, and produced by Elise Martinoski of ABSI Connect. Music by the Fort McMurray youth of the SoundForce Collective.

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8. The Allium

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The Allium is an elevated plant-based, worker cooperative restaurant focused on ethical, local, and creative food and libations in the heart of Calgary’s central Beltline community. Not only is The Allium serving up delicious drinks and dinners, but it is having a positive impact on the economy, changing the way we think about the structure of restaurants, and breaking down social stereotypes we’ve come to know.  

Through collective ownership, worker cooperatives help provide individuals with self-empowering work and offer an alternative to our society’s dominant paradigm about what it means to be a business owner and an employee in today’s economy. 

In this episode, we chatted with two dynamic individuals, Laura and Jared Blustein, co-owners and workers at The Allium. We talked about: 

  • What worker cooperatives are

  • How The Allium differs from a ‘traditional’ restaurant

  • What’s worked and has proved to be more challenging throughout their journey

  • What they are most hopeful about as they look ahead

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Recording and production by Elise Martinoski of ABSI Connect. Music by the Fort McMurray youth of the SoundForce Collective.

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7. Centre for Peace and Justice

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How might we get better at combating violence and injustice in our communities? The Centre for Peace and Justice at Burman University in Lacombe believes that the solution lies in building bridges--not walls--through the use of education and dialogue that engages and respects people across cultural, social, and political differences. Glen Graham founded the Centre for Peace and Justice at three years ago and has been running a variety of programs with the aim of fostering more inclusive and harmonious communities through education and dialogue. Maiden Manzanal-Frank has been a part of the Centre’s journey as well, contributing her consulting skills and community development knowledge to support the centre’s mission. 

In episode seven of Pause, we sat down with Maiden and Glen to talk about their work through the Centre for Peace and Justice. They reflect together about:

  • Current trends in our communities during a time of uncertainty;

  • Why we need a centre for peace and justice;

  • How the centre is using education and dialogue to foster more inclusive and respectful communities;

  • Tensions and challenges they face in this work; and

  • Where they see hope and possibilities.

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Recording and production by Elise Martinoski of ABSI Connect. Music by the Fort McMurray youth of the SoundForce Collective.

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6. Alberta Health Services Design Lab

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The Alberta Health Services Design Lab, founded in 2016, believes that the biggest opportunities to transform healthcare lie not within strategies or processes, but mindsets. People working within Alberta Health Services come to this team with complicated problems that have no clear solution and sit squarely in the grey zone of right and wrong. The lab uses design thinking to kick start meaningful discussions, breathe life into structures with human-centred design and develop co-designed solutions to capture hearts.

In this episode, we talked about design sprints with two dynamic team members of the Alberta Health Services Design Lab, Marlies van Dijk and Ali Abid. We discussed:

  • What design sprints are and where the inspiration for sprints came from;

  • Why and how the design lab team applies the design sprint process to health care;

  • What happens--and what can be learned--when things don’t go as planned; and

  • Some favourite moments during sprints.

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Recommendations

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If you love listening to Pause, we recommend checking out Disrupting Good: a podcast that explores how acts of doing good will change in response to the unprecedented disruptive changes that face humanity today. Brought to you by Human Elements Canada and the Institute for Community Prosperity at Mount Royal University, you can find it at http://www.humanelements.ca/disrupting-good.

Recording and production by Elise Martinoski of ABSI Connect. Music by the Fort McMurray youth of the SoundForce Collective.

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5. Early Childhood Coalitions of Alberta

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In episode five of Pause, Janice, Adrienne, and Debbie-Layne reflect on the importance of and the work they are doing to enhance the early years of children's lives.

Networks and coalitions can play an important role in fostering social innovation. When used well, they help diverse changemakers bring their unique perspectives and efforts together to better understand and address complex problems. 

In this episode, we hear from three changemakers within a province-wide coalition called ECCA (Early Childhood Coalitions of Alberta). We turned over the mic to Janice Kraemer, one of ECCA’s Provincial Liaisons. Janice summarized how ECCA’s model works, and invited two local coalition leaders, Adrienne Sprecker and Debbie-Layne Macleod, to reflect with her on how their coalitions have evolved and what they’ve learned along the way. 

Each Coalition within ECCA has a unique story and way of approaching their work. You can find information and contact information for your local coalition on ECCA’s website (http://ecdcoalitions.org/). Connect with them - they'd love to hear from you!

Learn More

Recommendations

Disrupting+Good+-+Podcast+Artwork+-+Final+-+3000x3000.jpg

If you love listening to Pause, we recommend checking out Disrupting Good: a podcast that explores how acts of doing good will change in response to the unprecedented disruptive changes that face humanity today. Brought to you by Human Elements Canada and the Institute for Community Prosperity at Mount Royal University, you can find it at http://www.humanelements.ca/disrupting-good.

Recording by Lisa Pruden of the Edmonton Community Foundation and Elise Martinoski of ABSI Connect. Editing and production by Elise Martinoski. Music by the Fort McMurray youth of the SoundForce Collective.

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4. Jasper Place Wellness Centre

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In episode four of Pause, Henry Motta and Murray Soroka reflect on the many ways they are addressing the root causes of systemic issues. 

What happens when a wellness centre starts asking how to address the root causes of systemic issues? A junk removal company may not be your first guess, but that’s exactly what Jasper Place Wellness Centre in west-central Edmonton created as its first social enterprise in 2011. This agile and collaborative organization takes seriously its mission to continuously explore and provide innovative and accessible health and community-based solutions. It owns and operates five businesses that provide employment opportunities for vulnerable community members, putting over 1 million dollars of payroll back into the community each year. It also runs a community health clinic, provides wellness education programs, and is a core partner in collaborative efforts to end homelessness and improve food security in Edmonton. 

In today’s episode of Pause, we welcome two of the brains behind Jasper Place Wellness Centre, Henry Motta and Murray Soroka. We hear their reflections on Jasper Place Wellness Centre’s evolution, including:

  • The benefits and tensions of running businesses that employ vulnerable populations

  • What it takes to be adaptive and truly learn from failure

  • What systemic barriers and gaps are currently standing in the way of meaningful change, and what’s needed to create systems change

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Recording by Lisa Pruden of the Edmonton Community Foundation. Production by Elise Martinoski of ABSI Connect with support from Lisa Pruden. Music by the Fort McMurray youth of the SoundForce Collective.

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3. Vivo for Healthier Generations

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In episode 3 of Pause, we sat down with Kris and Cynthia from Vivo, an organization on a mission: to raise healthier generations in Calgary and beyond.

They are a recreation centre, and much more. Vivo’s team works on “upstream” or preventative solutions to improve the health of children, youth, and families in north-Central Calgary. They describe their work as a “living lab” because of how intentionally they bring research and development, or R&D, practices into everything they do. Other changemakers we’ve spoken with have mentioned that they look to Vivo as an example of how curiosity, evidence, and strong community connections can spark innovation and create impact. 

In this episode, ABSI Connect’s Elise Martinoski sits down with Cynthia Watson and Kris Kelly-Frere to learn more about what Vivo’s work looks like, what tensions they face as they seek to do this work well, and what they’ve learned through their changemaking journeys. 

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Recording by Elise Martinoski of ABSI Connect. Production by Elise Martinoski of ABSI Connect and Lisa Pruden of the Edmonton Community Foundation. Music by the Fort McMurray youth of the SoundForce Collective.

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2. The Social Impact Lab

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In episode 2 of Pause, John Vardalos and Talia Bell reflected on their journey of creating The Social Impact Lab.

The Social Impact Lab was launched in February of 2018 as a partnership between the United Way of Calgary and Area and J5 Innovation. It is an example of a social innovation lab that brings together a diverse group of organizations and individuals, including people with lived experience, to address complex problems. Over the past year, much of the lab’s work has focused on mental health issues. The lab also offers a program to help nonprofit leaders learn and apply design thinking in their work.

As social innovation labs increase in popularity, we have an incredible opportunity to learn from the experiences and reflections of changemakers who are bringing this new way of working into their sectors and communities. In this episode, we speak with Talia Bell and John Vardalos about why they created the social impact lab, how the lab works, the tensions they face, and what they’ve learned over the past year and a half. 

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Recording by Elise Martinoski of ABSI Connect. Production by Lisa Pruden of the Edmonton Community Foundation. Music by the Fort McMurray youth of the SoundForce Collective.

1. The Edmonton Shift Lab

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In this pilot episode of Pause, Jodi Calahoo-Stonehouse, Ben Weinlick, and Ashley Dryburgh of the Edmonton Shift Lab sat down to reflect on the social innovation tools they bring to their work, the tensions they face, and the changes they’ve experienced.

The Edmonton Shift Lab is a diverse collective of Edmontonians working together to develop potential service, policy, system, and community action solutions that will reduce racism as it contributes to poverty. Why? Poverty is a real issue in Edmonton. 12% of Edmontonians do not have the means to assure stable housing, adequate nutritious food, or the conditions that foster health, safety and basic quality of life. And poverty and racism are inter-connected; racism makes it hard for people to find good jobs, housing, and services and to feel a sense of belonging.

The shift lab is an example of social innovation. The team is braiding together systems thinking, design thinking, and Cree perspectives to help Edmontonians understand and address these complex, intersecting problems in new ways.


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Recording and production by Lisa Pruden of the Edmonton Community Foundation. Music by the Fort McMurray youth of the SoundForce Collective.

We acknowledge that in Alberta we are on traditional territories of the First Nations, Métis, and Inuit whose footsteps have marked these lands for centuries.