Exploring Social Innovation at Humber

Tags: February 2023, Vol. 3, Issue 2

Over the course of the Winter 2023 semester, the Centre for Social Innovation hosted its inaugural Social Innovation Workshop Series. The events on March 1, March 22, and April 3 brought together over 125 students, faculty, and community members to engage in conversation and learning. The workshops highlighted that social innovation truly is everywhere, as participants heard from faculty, students and community organizations about initiatives and research that they are championing and why this work matters to their community.

Through facilitated workshops, participants worked with presenters to share feedback, ideas, and experiences related to their workshop theme. Topics included affordable housing, the new world of work, mental health crisis care, employment for individuals with developmental disabilities, police partnerships with the community, and more.

As the newest in the Centres of Innovation (COI) Network at Humber, the Centre for Social Innovation began activities in 2022. Our aim is to address systemic social barriers and open up social opportunities. We do this by working alongside equity-deserving populations and the community organizations that support them.

For more information about the Centre for Social Innovation and our future events, please visit

Our Workshops:

Looking for Answers Within: How the Non-profit Sector Can Take an Asset-Based Approach to the Privatization Crisis

Benjamin Miller (Ontario Non-Profit Network)

Countless critical services, from long-term care to childcare, are being turned over to for-profit actors, who are incentivized to spend as little as possible on quality and cease services when it becomes more profitable to sell critical infrastructure. Expanding the delivery of these services by nonprofits would have several advantages, but a lack of capital and workforce is in the way. In this workshop, students, community members, and faculty with a wide range of experience discussed how the nonprofit sector could draw on its own resources to overcome these barriers in new and innovative ways.

Developing a Best Practice Model for Mental Health Crisis Care: A Community-Engaged Approach

Polly Ford-Jones, Danielle Pomeroy, and Sheryl Thompson (Humber College)

This workshop shared a brief summary of the project’s research goals, process, and current findings regarding response to emergency mental health calls. The perspectives of emergency services, community-based organizations, and community members with lived experiences were highlighted.

Highlighting the Indigenous Economy through the Power of Storytelling

Audrey Wubbenhorst, James Henebry, and Patrycja Szkudlarek (Humber College)

The Insights team presented their collaborative work, which is being completed in partnership with the Canadian Council for Aboriginal Business. These include case studies on Indigenous entrepreneurs, which are open educational resources available for free at www.indsights.ca.

Policing and Community Partnerships: Learning From Each Other

Emma Smith and Doug Thomson (Humber College)

In partnership with the Toronto Police Service, Humber College has helped to analyze and enhance the effectiveness of the Neighbourhood Community Officer Program (NCOP) throughout select neighbourhoods in Toronto. The Neighbourhood Community Officers aim to move away from the traditional policing model of crime control and more towards community wellness and engagement.

Aging in Place: Examining Community Care Resource Needs

Alexa Christopoulos and Lisa Post (Humber College)

Humber Community Development students, Alexa Christopoulos and Lisa Post presented their capstone project. This research project explores what resources a community care model would have to provide to allow seniors to age in place safely and independently. Their workshop aimed to shift perceptions of aging and inspire future research in the sector.

Engaging and Educating Young-Adult Cannabis 2.0 Consumers

Daniel Bear (Humber College)

Public education campaigns about drugs have often relied on fear and stigma to dissuade drug use, but doing so rarely works, and leaves consumers without evidence-informed information about how to reduce potential harms. Instead, we developed Weed Out Misinformation, a harm-reduction and benefit maximization campaign for cannabis consumers. We utilized a human-centred design approach, and, at the workshops, asked participants to help us develop improved methods of connecting with stakeholders in future work.

New World of Work

Jeremy Staples (Humber College)

This workshop explored the impact of exponential change driven by the pandemic, inflation and technology on organizations. As organizations are trying to navigate this New World of Work (NWOW) the ORI research team is looking to measure the impact of building Organizational Health (OH) capacity in organizations so that they are more effective at responding to rapid change.

Sexual Assault and Police Reporting - What Data Can & Can’t Tell Us

Sevval Ogutcu & Izabella Dulinska (Humber Students – Bachelor of Social Science Criminal Justice)

This session discussed the shift that occurred during Covid-19 lockdowns, where communities and law enforcement agencies saw sexual assaults move from public spaces to inside the home. Our research focused on factors, such as economic instability and social distance, that further “trapped” and victimized women experiencing sexual assault. We compared crime patterns in 11 neighbourhoods in Toronto and examined the occurrence versus reported sexual assault crimes. Our research displayed an alarming wait time for victims to report sexual assaults, prompting us to predict a future spike in reporting of sexual assaults from our time in lockdowns.

Community Agency Partnerships: Best Practices for the Creation of Healthy Communities

Ann Wallington (Humber College)

This workshop explored research completed in partnership with the John Howard Society of Saskatchewan and Street Culture Project Inc. which examined the characteristics of effective community agency partnership networks. Ann spoke to the group about data on current best practices within existing community agency partnership networks and engaged attendees on how we can continue to strengthen these partnerships and ensure agencies are offering trauma-informed, culturally sensitive, and antiracist programming that is also committed to reconciliation.

Employment for Individuals with Developmental Disabilities

Inés E. de Escallon (Family Support Network for Employment)

In Canada, 26% of individuals with intellectual disabilities are working, compared to 53% of those with other disabilities. The family-led coalition, Family Support Network for Employment, facilitated an understanding of where stakeholders fit into the Relationship-Consultative-Selling with Third-Party Support Representation Employment Model, aiming to inspire investments in a social innovation system shift.

Community-Based Participatory Research and Housing Affordability

Salomeh Ahmadi (Humber College)

The South Etobicoke Housing Affordability project is a partnership between the LAMP Community Health Centre and Humber College. Using community-based participatory research we uncovered cost of living issues for renters. Our work involved gathering input from marginalized community members to assess housing affordability, co-develop strategies and solutions around housing affordability, and advocate for the building of affordable housing through social policy change.

Social Services in a Time of Crisis: What Can Nonprofits Learn From Their COVID Response

Saadia Akram-Pall & Nasrin Hotaki (Rexdale Women’s Centre)

The pandemic was an unprecedented global phenomenon that starkly increased the need for social services and strained many non-profit organizations. This workshop examined how the Rexdale Women’s Centre navigated the pandemic and how those lessons can be applied moving forward.