Results tagged “centreforsocialinnovation”

The Creative Places and Spaces conference continued for a second day Friday, exploring how collaboration can foster innovation and lead to breakthroughs in city-building. Also, there were rhythmic gymnasts.

When is the new Dark Horse opening? For a fragment of the coffee-obsessed populace, the tease of a West Side Edition of the beloved café on Queen East became a mild obsession. The buzz began in January on Twitter, when word spread that co-owners Deanna Zunde and Ed Lynds would be expanding to a second location. (Zunde was surprised when asked back then for some more information on their plans. "We only took possession of the space a couple of days ago!" she said.) Delays caused by a stalled permit from the city turned the launch into a tantric exercise for devotees and, on Tuesday, the doors flung open at 215 Spadina Avenue.

In these perilous economic times non-profits can feel especially vulnerable: as markets drop and budgets tighten, both private and government donors become scarcer than usual. To help stabilize their finances, many non-profits have increasingly been venturing into social enterprise—a set-up whereby a non-profit runs a business that helps further its mission and also generates income for the organization. Leading the charge in Toronto is the Centre for Social Innovation, located in the historic Robertson Building on Spadina. The Centre provides affordable infrastructure (office space, meeting rooms, wireless, etc.) for a wide variety of social mission organizations: it's an open-concept, community-minded space, one which fosters interaction and collaboration among members and enables them each to do better work with fewer dollars. And in a case of happy symbiosis, the CSI pays for its operations in large part with the rental income it generates in the process.