UCalgary’s social innovation ecosystem collaborates on new soft skills workshop

A new series which appeals to social impact leaders at any stage of their innovation, entrepreneurial, and social impact journeys has been launched at the University of Calgary. 

The Social Impact Starter Series is a five-part workshop that equips participants with essential soft skills and practical tools such as leadership, public speaking, networking, and communicating.

“It’s a great opportunity for people to develop the various soft skills they’ll need to be successful in creating a compelling social impact story,” says Sue Crawford, manager of the Health Systems Transformation Initiative (HIVE) in the Faculty of Nursing.

The series is a collaboration between the Faculty of Nursing’s HIVE, the Social Innovation Initiative in the Office of the Vice President (Research) and Innovate Calgary’s Social Innovation Hub. 

As part of UCalgary’s robust social innovation ecosystem, these groups found that although they were working with different audiences, the challenges they were seeing were similar.

For the HIVE, there is a focus on nursing students, faculty, professional nurses, and patients looking to improve patient care and experience within the larger health system. The Social Innovation Initiative works with faculty and researchers looking to move their knowledge into the community. The Social Innovation Hub works with founders and entrepreneurs of social innovation ventures from both on and off campus. 

While all these audiences had a clear idea of the social impact they’d like to make, they were seeking guidance on how to communicate that story in a way that gets to the root of their social impact.

Tara Barnas, manager of the Social Innovation Initiative, says other services offered campus and community members the ability to sandbox their ideas in a safe space, but they didn’t deep dive into the softer skills of knowledge mobilization.

“The series allows individuals to learn how to start telling their story and how to create meaningful connections with community or other individuals to bring this knowledge forward,” Barnas says.

The groups also noticed that individuals didn’t consider themselves social innovators or would never label themselves as social innovators, but they were working on very impactful projects or research.

“The starter series is a great place to do exactly that: start,” explains Barnas.

The series offers a low-commitment way for individuals to begin interacting with the university’s social innovation ecosystem. Individuals are encouraged to attend all sessions in the series to gain the full benefit from the cohort while building support and connections throughout.

“The participants in our pilot last semester all have either an idea they want to move forward with, or an area or population they’re super passionate about supporting,” says Crawford.

“There’s benefit for them to not only connect with us as facilitators and coaches, but also connecting with one another in the cohort to share and hone in on different challenges.”

The series was piloted in the Fall 2024 semester, and officially launches in the Winter 2025 semester, with the first session scheduled to take place on January 28: The Art of Storytelling.

Eva Verity, the Social Innovation Navigator at the Social Innovation Hub, says the collaboration between the three groups allows these social impact leaders to get the specific help they need in the next step of their journey.

“Everybody is at a different point in their journey and has a different skillset and areas of need or growth,” says Verity. 

“To be able to know what each other is offering, and the resources and opportunities that are available across all of our different areas of focus, allows us to make sure whatever somebody needs, we can guide them in that direction without anyone slipping through the cracks.”

More information about the Social Impact Starter series can be found at: https://research.ucalgary.ca/social-innovation-home/social-impact-starter-series