ECONOUS2019

This session is focused on youth-led social innovation. We will be telling stories about young people who have started non-profits, grassroots organizations, social enterprises, community projects and school clubs. Current best practices recognize the importance of youth voice, choice, and structured opportunities for youth to lead and be mentors. Many people agree programs should be designed the “Nothing for Us Without Us”. Yet a lot of youth programming is designed without youth. We will discuss with the audience what steps can be taken to move the sector forward.

Neighbourhood renewal is becoming increasingly important as a site for organizing community power to control economic development and advocate to build inclusive economies and communities. Inner city post-industrial neighbourhoods are being targeted for economic development as pressures to increase density, engage in brownfield redevelopment, and address issues of climate change associated with urban sprawl are upon us. This session will propose a toolkit of neighbourhood economic development practices aimed at achieving equitable outcomes and identify ways that such practices are resisted, repressed, and mobilized in communities.

Community benefit agreements, cooperative business development, land trusts, and local democracy all become possible in the context of neighbourhood renewal. The challenge is how to spot those opportunities and how to organize to achieve them. Learn about a model for how such activities can be organized and engage in a co-learning process to explore ways that such opportunities exist across communities, how other's have organized and where barriers exist to move forward.

How many of you have frank conversations about power in your teams, organizations or communities?  For many of us, power is a taboo subject. And yet, in an era of #MeToo, Truth and Reconciliation and Black Lives Matter, we are all being called to do power differently. This is no different for the social innovation ecosystem. As social innovation, seen as a vehicle for creating new solutions to complex social and economic challenges, gains more and more attention, time and access to resources from business, government, foundations and communities, how do we ensure a conscious use of power centred in those whose lives we purport to serve?

This experiential workshop offers the EconoUs2019 community an opportunity to explore, through Social Presencing Theatre, how we transform power in ourselves and the social innovation ecosystem to ensure a society and an economy where no one gets left behind. Theatre, an emotional language, enables communities to access a deeper body wisdom that in traditional problem-solving approaches remains hidden. Theatre creates a brave and equitable space for the diversity of all voices and experiences to be heard and witnessed. Through embodied leadership, more creative and sustainable solutions are possible.

JUDGEMENT FREE ZONE. NO ACTING EXPERIENCE REQUIRED. CURIOSITY, PLAYFULNESS AND PRESENCE REQUIRED.