Social Innovation Academy
Demo Day
Now more than ever, we need to engage youth to realize their leadership potential as they solve community challenges.
The Social Innovation Academy Demo Day turned the spotlight on action taken by youth in the Greater Toronto Area.
On February 20, 2021, we hosted our inaugural Demo Day, where we celebrated the success of our first cohort. 6 groups presented their Social Impact Project, which tackled issues such as vaping, youth unemployment, education gaps, mental health, and economic opportunities for indigenous people. We invited experts from Ryerson Social Venture Zone and the City of Toronto to help us provide thoughtful feedback and determine the winner of a $1,000 cash prize to seed their social solution.
Project Showcase
During the past 5 months, our first cohort of 32 young motivated people between the ages of 14 - 19 participated in workshops designed to teach the skills necessary to launch social impact projects, awareness campaigns, and nonprofit organizations. These 8 online workshops, taught by industry and nonprofit experts, taught our young leaders skills such as social entrepreneurship, event planning, budgeting, research and development, networking, and more.
This year, the first recipient of the Social Innovation Academy grant was Our Resilient Inner Voices. Our winners will be using their grant funds to help fund their pilot project. As the grantee team, they will have the benefit of a continued support system while implementing their idea over the 12-month grant (through January 2021). They will be matched with additional mentors and benefit from support from the Vision Youth Social Innovation Academy staff as a sounding board during their implementation stage.
Bridge the Gap is an online community that aims to tackle the critical thinking and skills gap between high school and university. Click the image to view the full presentation.
Project Bawaajigan is an online platform that empowers indigenous businesses. Click the image to view the full presentation.
Our Resilient Inner Voices is a social platform that features anonymous stories about teen mental health struggles related to stress, and resources to alleviate stress for teens by teens. Click the image to view the full presentation.
Youth on Youth is a youth support program, that will prepare young people for today’s challenges by offering workshops, taught by experts, that will train the leaders we need and will prepare all adolescents and young adults to learn, discern and earn. Click the image to view the full presentation.
The Stress Help Button App gives youth the tools and aids to deal with stress. Click the image to view the full presentation.
Eliminate Vape Association is an online awareness campaign aiming to disrupt attempts to get another generation hooked on nicotine. Click the image to view the full presentation.
Get in touch.
Interested in learning more about joining the program or how you can help with Social Innovation Academy?
