The Centre for Sustainability and Social Innovation

Social Entrepreneur Program

A fundamental mandate for ISIS is the advancement of social innovation through incubation. At ISIS we believe that innovation and specifically innovation in the social space has happened through the courage, passion, and creativity of individuals. The Social Entrepreneur program, launched in 2010, is meant to nurture the social entrepreneur and social innovation, through strategic incubation of ideas, planning, concept development, and execution, network development and mentoring. The program enables Social Entrepreneurs to have a physical space to work out of, to be part of a collaborative culture and team to work within, and to provide them with the tools they need to succeed.

The program is a year-long program, with Social Entrepreneurs accepted through an annual competition in the Spring hosted through ISIS at the Sauder School of Business. Successful Social Entrepreneur Program applications are those in the early to mid stages of the development and execution of their social venture, with a new and innovative model that addresses one of the current social or environmental issues that (or multiple) that exist in our world, and a strong and creative vision of how to implement it.