Foodscapes encourages people to think about how the food choices they make have a global impact on nature, society, economics, health and community. We reconnect people with food through storytelling, seed and recipe sharing.

(USA, Guatemala, Sri Lanka)

Safe Spaces is a girl empowerment organization that works with young girls and women between the ages of 7 – 25 to build a stronger generation of dynamic young women. Through life-skills training, arts and sports programs, vocational and enterprise training, mentorship and international exchange, the girls are set up for incredible learning opportunities that lead towards economic opportunity, civic leadership and community health. 

(Nairobi, Kenya)

Diverse in its origins, this network both critiques existing education systems that are broken and cultivates new practices to regenerate ecological and cultural ecosystems: hence the name ‘eco-versities.’ We’ve been engaged in this movement since we left our academic jobs in 2012 to visit and learn from new experiments in higher education right across the world.

(Tamera, Portugal)

(Paris, France)

Groundation Grenada is a social action collective focused on the use of creative media and ancestral knowledges to assess the needs of our communities, raise consciousness and to create positive, radical and transformative change. Our mission is to provide active safe(r) spaces to incubate new modes of resistance, building from the local and grassroots to affect regional and international solidarity and change. We pursue our mission online, through our website and social media, and also through live events and special projects in collaboration with local, regional and international artists, activists and institutions. Groundation Grenada’s website supports both local and diasporic voices, acting as an interface to connect people who are hungry for innovative change.

(Grenada)

Impact Hub Oakland is a coworking & events space for a global community of professionals taking action to drive positive social and environmental change.

(Oakland, CA & Global Network)

Why Not Theatre is committed to exploring new forms of storytelling, with particular focus on the use of international modes of theatre creation, in a theatre deeply invested in the language of physical movement sharing the importance of the written and spoken text. Our work is dedicated to artistic innovation, plurality of voices and diversity of cultures, forms & ages. Our work is international in the truest sense of the word: it is created between nations and transcends the borders of race, culture, language and form. Guided by our core values of innovation, community and collaboration we strive to play 3 roles: Creator, Presenter and Social Innovator.

(Toronto, Canada)

Shadeism: Digging Deeper explores the issue of shadeism (i.e. colourism), the discrimination that exists between lighter-skinned and darker-skinned members of the same community. This issue of skin tone, of certain shades being considered “better” than others, was never missing from conversation while growing up for Director Nayani Thiyagarajah. She was able to feel its harmful presence in conversations and commentary amongst family and friends, but she did not have the language to name it. And so, in many ways, it was easier to ignore its presence, suppress its signs, and normalize its existence. But in 2009, a conversation with her then three-year-old niece Maanu forced Nayani to face the fact that we cannot continue to ignore this issue. Silence will not save anyone from suffering. Through the eyes and experiences of her friends and family, Nayani finally digs deeper to uncover the roots and impacts of shadeism on the women in her life, including herself, and attempts to recover and re-imagine what beauty means for women of colour globally. This film explores where the issue comes from, how it directly affects women individually, and ultimately begins to explore how we can move forward together.

(Toronto, Canada)

The International Center for Traditional Childbearing (ICTC) is a non-profit infant mortality prevention, breastfeeding promotion, and midwife training organization. Established in 1991 and headquartered in Portland, Oregon it has members and chapters around the globe. It is comprised of women and men who want to improve birth outcomes and provide training opportunities in their communities. Our mission is to increase the number of midwives, doulas and healers of color, to empower families, in order to reduce and prevent maternal and infant mortality, which are both aftermaths of enslavement and a legacy for poverty. ICTC outreaches, recruits, and trains women and young girls, on the legacy of the African American midwife as empowerment strategies for self-esteem, self- advocacy, and access to health care.

(Portland, Oregon)

Beatbox Without Borders (BWB) is an organization dedicated to the use and promotion of beatboxing, vocal percussion, and vocal mimesis (vocal sound imitation with an intentional element), as tools for individual and social healing and transformation. BWB’s mission is “Creating a Soundation for All”, a world in which people are using their own humanly produced sounds to overcome suffering, pain and disharmony in themselves and in society, and to connect more deeply with themselves, each other, the natural world, and the spiritual world. Building self-understanding and cross-cultural understanding, through workshops, friendly competitions, collaborative events, talks, publications and story telling, Beatbox Without Borders honors the diversity of vocal mimetic history and experience and seeks to promote these practices not just as art forms, but also as highly significant cultural practices that are rooted in healing and transformative processes to transcend and overcome real individual and social struggles. Inspiration behind BWB is based in the founder Cameron Campbell’s struggle to use his own beatboxing and throat-singing as tools to cure his lyme disease, and stories such as the use if throat singing and animal mimesis among Inuit women to escape the confines of domesticated life.

(Delhi, India)

Economic systems and markets are simultaneously beneficial and harmful forces in the world, providing opportunity for billions of people but also causing significant social and environmental degradation. However, it is imminently possible for our economic systems to provide for all aspects of the individual and society. Not only through financial stability, but also by engendering purpose in people's lives, promoting healthy lifestyles, and enabling the full expression of the individual.

(Oxford, UK)

Promote cross-cultural dialogue and education around permaculture design within diverse communities. Provide culturally relevant and hands-on learning opportunities for diverse communities around permaculture design. Serve as an informational hub to access best practices, training resources and current events in the field of permaculture design. Provide educational and leadership opportunities for educators, activists, students, and community members currently underrepresented in the field of sustainability.

(Berkeley, California)

Recognized as one of Zagat’s 30 under 30, Tim West is a Slow Food chef turned Social Entrepreneur. Tim founded True West Ventures, LLC as a consulting and experiential educational design agency specializing in facilitating conversations on the future of food, food systems, food hacking, food entrepreneurship and food culture. Tim is a Culinary Institute of America graduate and grandson of Arch West, the inventor of Doritos.  He has cooked his way from the St. Regis Hotel in New York, to the Facebook headquarters in California, where he entered the world of food and technology entrepreneurship.

(San Francisco, California)

Global gathering of youth leaders, healers, mobilizers to define Youth Social Infrastructure. Groundfloors report available here. 

(Toronto, ON)

Ignite is an initiative that brought together over 200 young artists, cultural industry professionals and government policy experts from across the Americas to explore and develop effective ways to amplify the power that arts and culture has in building social inclusion and generating economic opportunities.

Report available here.

SERES is a for-benefit emerging community based organization committed to empowering youth in Guatemala and El Salvador to lead sustainable communities. These are the most populous countries in Central America with more than half of the population under 20. The latter, coupled with the dearth of community leaders as casualties of decades of civil war, has left youth with no leadership role models to take on development on their hands. SERES seeks to galvanize the potential of youth to become leaders of sustainable change and reverse the current downward social and environmental trajectory through education, leadership and capacity building.

(La Antigua, Guatemala)

Our core question is how do individuals dream bigger and deliver on those dreams for a better world. For us, we are testing a learning experience that is peer-driven, global, and focused on entrepreneurship and empathy. We structured the year to broaden our perspectives on how we see ourselves, communities and businesses through 1) a year-long effort for each individual to launch a venture 2) work placements for 3 month stints in 3 emerging markets for immersive professional experiences, and, most importantly, 3) a cohort of co-habitating professionals pushing each other to answer our core question.

(Chile, Turkey, Thailand)

Ubuntu Learning Village is located in Serima, Gutu, Zimbabwe. It is located on 80 hectares of mixed farm land and natural forest. Ubuntu Learning Village is the unity of land, water, air, earth, creatures, people, plants and spirits, intentionally weaving together capabilities, resources, strengths, and knowledges free of hierarchies to create a community of love, respect, fullness, positive relationships, growth and sustainability. We endeavour to experiment with old methods of cooperative economics (in ChiKaranga, this is known as mushandirapamwe), feed one another, utilize skills inherent in ourselves and ultimately eliminate the cycle of one-sided dependency. We also aim to pull together our knowledges, document them, create new ideas and methods and share with local communities and the world. Our long-term vision is that in living a natural, peaceful, ecologically sustainable existence we can demonstrate the possibilities that lie in creative cooperation outside of the capitalist-individualism construct.

(Serima, Gutu, Zimbabwe)

SKETCH is a 17-year award winning community arts development organization based in Toronto, engaging diverse young people who live homeless, street involved or on the margins, ages 16-29, coming from across Canada, to experience the transformative power of the arts; to build leadership and self-sufficiency in the arts; and to cultivate social and environmental change through the arts. SKETCH celebrates the creativity, resilience and entrepreneurship of youth living homeless and on the margins and sees a movement where these young people are celebrated and engaged as culture makers, perception changers and builders of creative community.

(Toronto, Canada)

The Hollyhock Summer Gathering is an intergenerational leadership conference imbued with a heartfelt sense of community, spirit, and service.

(Cortes Island, British Columbia)

Education too often teaches us what to think, not how to think. The B Studio Project is designed to be an alternative education program that helps participants deepen their 'thinking habits'. The content of the program is designed to help participants thrive in both the traditional educational context, and the non-traditional educational journey's. The program draws on systems thinking, integrative thinking, design thinking, transformative education and critical pedagogy approaches. It teaches participant how to develop their sense of empathy, learn to ask the right questions, approach problems from a systems perspective, think creatively, and finally, how to leverage their strengths to make a difference in their community.

(Trinidad and Tobago)

Shikshantar seeks to explore swaraj ("self-rule") in our lives. The center in Udaipur, India actively supports experimentation with gift culture, jugaad thinking, and unlearning. Shikshantar has recently launched Swaraj U to further redefine the practice of higher education.

(Udaipur, India)

In 2001, the South East District Council formed an HIV/AIDS capacity building partnership with the City of Toronto supported by the Federation of the Canadian Municipalities (FCM). This partnership involved collaboration on a variety of fronts one being youth engagement strategies and delivery of HIV/AIDS education/information through sports. The results have been astounding. Through a partnership... with Commonwealth Games Canada, UK Sport and Mathare Youth Sports Association of Kenya, the South East District Youth Empowerment League (SEDYEL), was formed in 2005 with an aim of channeling the energy and enthusiasm of young people away from risky behaviors which are the main factors in high incidence of HIV/AIDS in the country. It was projected that through a partnership with the Mathare Youth Sports Association (MYSA) and using it’s model of integrating sports and community development and Kicking AIDS approach of integrating Life skills and sports skills through movement games and physical activities to promote behavioral change; the project would present a great platform for sharing and learning in a fun but effective way.

(Ramotswa, Botsawana)

ARTS - is augmented reality telepresence system designed for aerial and underwater drones.We make it possible for our users to explore the real world in VR.

(Global)

Project Drawdown describes when and how humanity can reach drawdown, the point at which greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere begin to decline.

(San Francisco, California)

An educator by profession, traveller by design. Edumodels is keen on exploring models of schooling that break outdated patterns of conventional systems; that focus on holistic, integrated development for our children.

(Toronto, Ontario)

Terrestrial Journeys is a 6 week theatre project that consists of daily practical workshops with Syrian & Palestinian refugee women, culminating in a performance to a public audience in Beirut in December 2015.

Dina Mousawi will lead daily practical workshops to poetically and theatrically explore collective experiences of migration.  Responding to stimuli such as poetry, visual art, film and stage design the actors and creative team will work collaboratively to devise a theatrical piece to be performed in front of a live audience in Beirut.