Once a month, we profile a young social entrepreneur in our community who answers 5 questions. If you know of someone who should be profiled, let us know!

YSEC Pitch Competition Winner: Neighborhood Basketball Association

Nkem Anizor of Neighbourhood Basketball Association’s B.R.O.S. (Brothers Reaching Our Sons) Mentoring Recreation Program. The B.R.O.S program addresses the lack of positive adult male role models for young, Black males in the Kingston-Galloway community of east Scarborough by connecting young males with role models.

The $1,000 loan from YSEC will be used to teach economically challenged participants entrepreneurial skills by providing an opportunity to earn their registration fee by selling t-shirts. The loan will be repaid within 4 months through t-shirt sale profits.

Read more about Nkem Anizor below.

1. What are you working on and why does it matter?

We are currently working on securing core operating funding to pay at least 2 full time staff and to operate our current programs.

Like many grassroots, charitable organizations, a lack of staff has proven to be a hindrance to our productivity and the growth of our organizational capacity.

Because we cater to a community with a particularly large high-risk youth population, the needs are great, and making sure that we have dedicated staff is essential.

2. What motivates you?

We are motivated by our desire to see an end to the senseless Black youth on youth violence that plague Black communities not only across the GTA, but across North America, and truthfully, the world.  We believe that all youth deserve the opportunity to reach their full potential and that being poor and Black should not be a death sentence.

3. What’s the biggest lesson you’ve learned recently?

The biggest lesson we’ve learned recently is that despite the rise of emails, texts and social networking, nothing beats face-to-face interaction with people of like mind.

Looking into someone’s eyes and watching their physical reaction to your words helps you to detect their sincerity and prevents wasting time on connections that will ultimately prove to be frustrating if not fruitless.

4. If you could invite 5 people dead or alive to dinner, who would they be?

1. God, 2. Jesus Christ, 3. Nat Turner, 4. Harriet Tubman, 5. Marcus Garvey

5. Best resource people don’t know about?

Our youth are the best resource that people don’t know about.  If you get past token ‘youth input’ and stereotypes and really pick their brains, you’ll realize very quickly how much they know and how much they can offer.

Once a month, we profile a young social entrepreneur in our community who answers 5 questions. If you know of someone who should be profiled, let us know!

YSEC Pitch Competition Winner: Young Urban Farmers Community Shared Agriculture

Christopher Wong and Ronald Ha are on the Executive Team of Young Urban Farmers Community Shared Agriculture (YUF CSA), an organization that turns Toronto’s backyards into a sustainable source of fresh, organic food for community shareholders.

The $1,000 loan from YSEC will be used to purchase a greenhouse to extend their growing season and be repaid within 4 months through community shareholder fees.

Read Christopher Wong’s profile below.

1. What are you working on and why does it matter?

Young Urban Farmers CSA’s mission is to reconnect people with fresh, locally grown food. We do that by converting backyards in productive vegetable gardens and sharing the produce with community members through a CSA (community shared agriculture) program.

As the general manager of YUF CSA, we’re currently planning our operations for our upcoming season, choosing the crops, recruiting volunteers, increasing our land base, and creating the plans for our new urban greenhouse.

Food unites us all and is the basis for our health and well-being. By engaging, educating, and reconnecting people with how and where food is grown, we hope to share with them the joy that comes with eating well and living a more sustainable lifestyle.

2. What motivates you?

As an entrepreneur, I understand that what you put into your business is what you get out of it.

To that end, striving to do my best, working hard to make a difference in people’s lives, and not settling for second best are a few of the things that really motivate me and get me up and out of bed in the mornings. Working with great people and working towards a shared cause never hurts as well.

3. What’s the biggest lesson you’ve learned recently?

Everyone has a beautiful and amazing story to tell. You just need to take the time to listen, understand, and connect with them before you can uncover it.

4. If you could invite 5 people dead or alive to dinner, who would they be?

A tough choice, but if I had to choose 5, they would be: Warren Buffet, Mozart, Mohandas Gandhi, Will Allen, Bono.

5. Best resource people don’t know about?

Coming from a business background and being an avid reader, many people ask me for business book recommendations.

My favourite resource is  the Personal MBA, whose manifesto is simple: MBA programs don’t have a monopoly on advanced business knowledge: you can teach yourself everything you need to know to succeed in life and at work.

They’ve put together a list of the 99 best business books for you to give yourself a personal MBA. Check out their list here: http://personalmba.com/business-book-recommender/

In January, we announced that YSEC was providing a $1,000 for youth, by youth loan to a young social entrepreneur in Toronto. On Thursday, March 25th we’re hosting the first ever YSEC Pitch Competition at the Centre for Social Innovation (215 Spadina, 4th Floor) from 6-9 p.m.

With our judges from organizations such as the Canadian Youth Business Foundation, we’ll be selecting a winner from our exciting three finalist projects.

After the pitch competition, it’s a typical YSEC MeetUP with a chance to network and catch up with other young social entrepreneurs. Feel free to promote any of your upcoming events and don’t forget your business cards.

Come on out for a fun, edge-of-your seat night!

Please register by March 19, 2010.

$10 online, $12 at door, free for YSEC members.

The Finalists

Carolyn Burns, Karibou Corp. (with Creative Director, Marcel Witboo)

Karibou Corp. is an organization that is dedicated to promoting and distributing contemporary African art and design. Its mission is to challenge the negative perceptions of African culture and small business that are prevalent in North America. In a nut shell, Karibou Corp. is creating an audience and a consumer base for designers and artists from across the African continent. Check out their website for features on different creatives every month.  Look out for its online store, opening in May. Find out more.

Mike Edwards, Preparing the Trail

Preparing the Trail uses the power of athletics to drive health and environmental messages in our communities.  It is a grassroots, environmentally active, not-for profit organization dedicated to successfully executing programs that bring athletes, volunteers, and community supporters together at events, tree planting initiatives, and green awareness festivals throughout the GTA and the surrounding Greenbelt. Now partnered with Right to Play and Trees Ontario, Preparing the Trail hopes to lead communities towards an environmentally sustainable, healthy, green and vibrant future. Find out more.

Tim Nash, Strategic Sustainable Investments (SSI)

Strategic Sustainable Investments (SSI) is an investment consulting firm that specializes in sustainability education and analysis. Through powerful seminars, workshops, and personalized coaching, SSI helps investors recognize sustainable investment opportunities emerging from today’s challenging economic environment that generate profits for people & planet. Find out more.

Congratulations to all our finalists!  Be there on March 25, 2010 to find out who takes home the $1,000.

YSEC is launching a video competition for the chance to win a free ticket to YSEC’s Re:Vision 2010 conference, the Social Entrepreneurship event of the year!

Click here now to enter, and be sure to let your friends know!

Thursday, March 25, 2010 @ 6-9 pm, Centre for Social Innovation (4th floor)

For this month’s YSEC MeetUP, we’re hosting a Dragon’s Den style (but nicer) Pitch Competition.

Three of Toronto’s top youth-driven ideas will be presented to a panel of Toronto’s social entrepreneur and finance experts. The winner will receive:

• $1,000 as an interest free loan from the YSEC Fund, Canada’s first for youth, by youth, fund for social entrepreneurs
• 5 hours of free consulting with George Brown’s Institute of Entrepreneurship and Community Innovation
• Applicants that fit with the Toronto Enterprise Fund’s (TEF) program mandate will be considered for entry into TEF’s seed funding program (grants run from $5,000 to $50,000).

Who are the judges?

• Sarah Hashem,Business Manager for Central Ontario, Canadian Youth Business Foundation
• Magnus Sandberg, Director of Investments, Social Capital Partners
• Mark Simpson, Professor and Founder, George Brown College’s Institute of Entrepreneurship and Community Innovation
• Eli Malinsky, Director of Programs and Partnerships, Centre for Social Innovation
• Assaf Weisz, Executive Director, Young Social Entrepreneurs of Canada

It’s going to be a great show. Don’t miss this entertaining, edge-of-your seat, and historic night!

Admission is $10 online for non-members, and $12 at the door
YSEC Members have free admission! Aren’t a member yet? Learn more here.

Please RSVP to watch the Pitch Competition by March 18, 2010.

This event is made possible with the generous support of the Ontario Ministry of Citizenship and Immigration, the Laidlaw Foundation, Sherwood Park Management, and Toronto’s burgeoning movement of young social entrepreneurs.

How does the YSEC Fund work?

Help support "Green it Up", an awesome initiative by Dom Kawa

The Aviva Community Fund is a three round process and YSEC is proud to announce that two members of the YSEC community have made it to round 2.

Dom Kawa’s Green It Up project’s mission is to transform every flat roof in the GTA into an ecologically-friendly green space. Green It Up roofs sustain vegetation and fresh produce and house solar panels that generate clean energy.

Susheela Ramachandran’s Elephant Tale organization is all about engaging Canadian high school students in a dialogue about human rights.  The sooner we are exposed to global issues, the sooner we can take a stand and start to make a difference.

Dom and Susheela are great examples of what innovations young Canadians bring to the table and the determination we all have to make a living making change. Both projects are sure to have a positive impact in the world.

Only the most popular ideas, as chosen by Canadians, will have a chance at sharing in the $500,000 Aviva Community Fund. So we all have to pitch in and vote for our YSEC community members. The best news? You don’t have to choose, you can vote for both ideas once a day, EVERY DAY!!

Follow the links and let’s cast those votes and help these ideas get the seed money required to advance their current actions. We’ll keep you posted on their progress. Happy Voting!

Every day it seems that new competitions are emerging for social entrepreneurs and social innovators to win money for coming up with great ideas to solve social problems.

Aviva’s Community Fund is offering up to $500,000 to Canadians with ideas to create positive change and improve the lives of people in our communities.

Dell’s Social Innovation Competition is offering $50,000 for university students from around the world to pitch innovative ideas that address social issues in the areas of human rights, education, and microfinance, among others, and to transform these  ideas into actionable plans.

The University of Washington’s Foster School of Business is running a Global Social Entrepreneurship Competition for university students worldwide to come up with ideas to alleviate poverty in the developing world for prizes up to $17,000.

Aid for AIDS is running a competition for young social entrepreneurs to come up with the most successful fundraising model, in terms of money, outreach and awareness, to support people living with HIV and AIDS.  The prize for this competition is $25,000 and a chance to intern with the Aid for AIDS organization.

The good news is not only that companies and organizations are putting large sums of money on the table to address critical human needs around the world, but that this indicates that social entrepreneurship and social innovation are finally entering into the mainstream.  Additionally, many of these competitions are directed at young people…

This is an exciting prospect.

The non-profit organization, Aids for Aids, has launched an exciting new global campaign challenging young people around the world between the ages of 16-25 to find new ways to raise awareness and funds to support people living with HIV and AIDS in developing countries.  

Winners of the Love Life: Search for Young Social Entrepreneurs will receive $25,000 as a seed budget to develop their ideas into a full-scale project during the summer of 2010.  Winners will also receive a paid summer internship at the Aid for Aids New York City office or one of their five satellite offices in Latin America during the summer of 2010.

We, at the Young Social Entrepreneurs in Canada,  think this competition is a great opportunity to showcase the innovative ideas and talent of young Canadians!

For more information on this competition and how to register, check out the Love Life: Search For Young Social Entrepreneurs website.