A weekend of purposeful fun and actionable facilitated experiential learning for impact entrepreneurship, innovation and changemaking
Introduction
The Global Goals Jam Canada Winter 2023 is a keystone event of the SDG Innovation Lab at the Centre of Innovation & Entrepreneurship, Centennial College, organized with the support from Canadian partners, the Ontario Society of Professional Engineers (OSPE), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and Digital Society School Amsterdam. Each Fall and Winter semester, the Jam brings together changemakers, social innovators, designers, developers, strategists, and enthusiasts from Centennial and diverse colleges and universities as well as community members to contribute to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through a unique weekend of experiential learning and impact entrepreneurship.
Over the weekend, the teams learned and applied leading-edge design and entrepreneurial methodologies in a safe, facilitated and mentored environment. As a result, the nine vibrant, dedicated teams were able to not only build a well-thought solution to a global challenge, but also pitch and defend them to a panel of eminent Judges in just just 2½ days. Each team member is heavily engaged and develops a variety of skills that future-proof their careers.
Our Story
The Global Goals Jam is a worldwide movement founded by the United Nations Development Programme and Digital Society School in 2016. It was created to connect the design community with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (also known as the Global Goals) – the planet’s blueprint for peace and prosperity for all. The Global Goals Jam combines world-renowned Design Methods with international, cross-cultural and multidisciplinary collaboration to create direct impact for the global goals in their local context. Any community can host a Jam, and in the last 6 years, the Global Goals Jam has grown to become a creative community of thousands in over 100 cities around the world.
The SDG Innovation Lab hosted its first Global Goals Jam in 2020, in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. Held over the October 24-25th weekend, the first Global Goals Jam Canada set the stage for this biannual event led by COE team, featuring Innovation ecosystem leaders, Academic leadership and expertise from Centennial, Toronto colleges, universities and a host of executive mentors from diverse organizations and community groups who provided guidance and mentorship to the teams on business ideas, pitches, developing virtual prototypes, and integrating advice and feedback throughout the design journey. Since then, this intense, hands-on and collaborative event has been a much-anticipated program in the SDG Innovation Lab, with the Global Goals Jam Canada Winter 2023 being the sixth Jam brought by the Centre of Entrepreneurship. With a consistent level of participation and engagement from students, community members, experts, changemakers and sustainability leaders, the Global Goals Jam Canada has established itself as a valuable partner of the movement in advancing collective SDG-oriented action, as recognized by Marco van Hout, co-founder of the Global Goals Jam.
Overview of the Global Goals Jam Canada Winter 2023
The Global Goals Jam Canada Winter 2023 is based on two selected Global Themes with three topics each. Participants work on their problems and solutions with the support and guidance of diverse, expert mentors. The Jam is divided into four stages with an associated deliverable in each stage.
To start, the 128 registrants – of which 40 were Centennial College students and alumni across all 5 schools – were placed into teams grouped by their chosen theme and topic as well as a process to diversify each team’s education/career fields and experience levels. Below are the themes and topics of this Jam:
Theme 1: Designing a Thriving Planet for All
Theme 2: Designing Equitable Communities for All
The Global Goals Jam was opened by Jonathan Hack, Dean of ARIES and Lalit Guglani Manager Business Innovation and Entrepreneurship along with a special message from Marco van Hout, co-founder of the Global Goals Jam,as well as four illustrious keynote speakers:
- Desirée Bombenon, CEO, Surecall
- Sandra Odendahl, Senior VP and Head, Sustainability and Diversity at BDC
- David Nicholas Oswald, Founder & President, DE Design + Environment Inc and Associate Faculty, Royal Roads University
- Angie Redecopp, Corporate & ESG Lawyer at Impact Business Law
The speakers engaged the 63 plenary attendees in a holistic view of sustainability, providing engineering, design, economic, sustainable finance, ESG legislation, and governance perspectives to eager participants.
Stage 1: Meeting the team & finding a problem worth solving
After the inspiring opening plenary , participants enter the first stage of their teamwork – the Initial Alignment and Problem Identification stage. In this stage, participants meet their teams for the first time and learn more about each other, including their team’s interests, strengths and weaknesses, as well as how they can best work together throughout the next two and a half days.
Teams also discuss and agree on a problem worth solving in an open brainstorming session with the support of Subject Matter Expert Mentors. At the end of the stage, each team submits their team name as well as a team lead.
Stage 2: Defining and stating the problem as an opportunity
Teams enter the Problem Definition & Statement stage on Day 2, beginning with a rapid presentation on Design Thinking in the morning where they learn about the double diamond design process model. Participants also learn how to conduct Empathy Mapping to delve deeper and look at the problem from the point of view of the affected. Design Thinking Expert Mentors are provided, and to facilitate an immersive collaborative experience, participants are given a team-specific Miro board where they can communicate their thoughts and ideas. Once teams define the problem from the point of view of the user, they work on the “Problem Statement” deliverable in the form of a “How Might We…” statement, clearly identifying the specific problem and opportunity that the team is exploring.
Stage 3: Building a value proposition and Business Model Canvas
Then, teams are engaged in the Lean/Business Model Canvas stage, where they are first introduced to the Business model validation process and the components of Business Model Canvas (BMC) and Value Proposition Canvas through a rapid presentation before starting their teamwork on evaluating the opportunities and building solutions. They learn how to create a value proposition by understanding the user’s jobs, pains, gains, and how they can create their products/services-fit. They use an iterative reflective process to prototype and test their Minimum Viable Product (MVP) with support from Lean/BMC Expert Mentors. At the end of this stage, teams submit their deliverable the Value Proposition Statement, the core of their offering.
Stage 4: Developing a persuasive, concise and powerful pitch
The morning of Day 3 is set aside for teams to finalize their BMC before they move to the final stage of the Jam’s process, the Pitch Development, Practice & Presentation stage. Participants receive a rapid presentation by a pitching expert and work to build their 3-minute pitch presentation in the afternoon. Pitching Expert Mentors engage with each team, offering advice and feedback as teams practice their pitches. On Day 3 afternoon, the pitch presentation deck is the last deliverable of their work before moving to the public pitching presentations.
This stage concludes with teams pitching their solution to a panel of eminent Judges for a chance to win awards. Each team has a maximum of 3 minutes to pitch, followed by 5 minutes to answer judges’ questions. Judges score the pitches based on 5 judging criteria.
Purpose of the Jam
At its core, the purpose of this fun and purposeful weekend is to facilitate experiential learning that fosters changemaking and leadership skills while creating collective and actionable change towards the SDGs. While the Jam is heavily supported by illustrious speakers, eminent judges, expert mentors, the participants – with 31% Centennial College students and alumni – are the ones who put in their time, hard work, collaboration, effort and energy brainstorming, discovering, defining, developing, and iterating through the weekend to bring their vision to life and deliver and defend their final presentations.
Our Winning Teams:
Bloom Health – Overall Winner
Bloom Health is a website that assists adults with autoimmune diseases who want to connect to people with similar experiences. By creating meaningful connection and support, Bloom Health reduces their feelings of hopelessness and loneliness while providing credible information and educational resources, ultimately encouraging them in reaching their health goals.
Bloom Health aims to be the one-stop place for information and community for adults with autoimmune diseases. By providing a supportive community that shares accurate and relatable information for these underserved communities, Bloom Health strives to help them regain control of their health. Their community members will be able to read articles, participate in forums, and ask questions where everyone is able to take part and feel included through their experiences. With the aim of spreading globally, Bloom Health will start with English groups and follow up with groups in other languages. As they grow, they will hire doctors and staff with diverse autoimmune diseases to contribute and actively participate in the Bloom Health communities.
Teammates:
- Jessica Correia (Children’s Media, SCMAD)
- Alvin Huang
- Meladul Ahmadzai
Omni Hopes – 2nd Place
Omni Hopes aims to revolutionize the future of living spaces with their Omhi Hope Living Model, which helps estranged students who want to pursue higher education to thrive in life through a shared living model with elderly individuals. By creating shared outcomes for both estranged students and elderly people through providing safe and suitable housing and diverse (social, financial, educational) well-being programs, their goal is to directly increase the sense of community and belonging for these vulnerable populations, unlike current subsidized housing models.
Omni Hopes aims to take over failing care homes and convert them to holistically-designed living spaces to accommodate elderly people and estranged students and help them thrive, starting in the United Kingdom where in 2020, over 8,000 university students were estranged from their families and over 74,750 elderly individuals lived in retirement community units. Omni Hopes sees the potential in creating unique win-win communities that reduce isolation and encourage well-being on all fronts.
Teammates:
- Dineshtga Frandsen
- Muhammad Badrah
- Sherry Ing (Massage Therapy & Fitness and Health Promotion Alumni, SCHS)
MCompass by Misha – 3rd Place
MCompass is a curriculum course and digital platform to support school boards in Toronto in embedding emotional development tools and life skills within their curricula. Through resources such as educator training, online delivery of classes, programs to increase mental health awareness and advocacy skills, MCompass aims to improve K12 students’ mental health and related emotional skills while reducing its stigma.
Their curriculum course will focus on mental health and emotional development with cultural awareness for each student stage, with 8 modules ranging from identifying and navigating emotions, psychology 101 and BIPOC support to advocacy and compassion, being a support system, transitioning to secondary or higher education, and growth. These modules alongside companion resources will be offered through a digital learning platform where assessments on emotion and skills are done on a weekly basis, and feedback and questions are welcome for students, parents and teachers alike. Upon completion, students will earn credits towards graduation and join the Alumni Community Hub where they will have access to mentors, events, and ongoing support. To implement these learnings into the education system, they will deliver 3-week teacher training programs with certification.
Teammates:
- Garisha Nathan
- Miha Tran (Centennial Student)
- Michelle Harris (Child and Youth Care, SCHS)
Acknowledgements
The SDG Innovation Lab at the Centre of Entrepreneurship would like to acknowledge key supporters and enablers of the Global Goals Jam Canada Winter 2023, including the leadership of Jonathan Hack, Dean of Applied Research, Innovation and Entrepreneurship Services (ARIES), Centennial College; partnership of of UNDP and Digital Society School Amsterdam; Ontario Society of Professional Engineers (OSPE) and Canadian Partners; and all expert keynote speakers, mentors and judges who shared their time and expertise with all the participants.