Ideas to solve problems are generated when people work together. On September 27, 2018, Non-Profits, Social Enterprise Businesses and literally anyone aspiring to make a positive social, environmental, or spiritual impact in the world came to the recently open, socially inspiring, Roundhouse of MacEwan University.

This Community Innovation Challenge was co-hosted by EDGE, the R&D team of the United Church of Canada, and MacEwan University’s new Social Innovation Institute. 

The Challenge was focused on empowering everyday citizens to take action on the Sustainable Development Goals, particularly SDG 8 – Decent work and Economic Growth and SDG 1 – No Poverty. Soni Dasmohapatra drew wisdom from her masters thesis in her presentation using the common adage, “think global, act local” by bringing the global SDG goals and pairing them with localized data for the City of Edmonton from the most recent Vital Signs report.

ABC Head Start project of giving shoes to less fortunate  kids instead of a teddy bear won the first prize of $1,500, followed by Randal Adcock’s business cooperative idea of creating a platform to match opportunities and opportunity seekers in a gig economy. His vision took home $1,000.