history
The Community Innovation Hub was founded by Carla Leon and Peter Miller in 2017 to support social innovators and social enterprises through unused space in communities of faith. Carla asked Peter to become involved in a Social Innovation Challenge in Toronto where over individuals pitched an idea.
The first location, Markham Community Innovation Hub, opened in a United Church in Markham, Ontario, with significant support from the church’s minister and the directors.
The new approach to creating community hubs is to expand from physical to digital, building virtual spaces where communities (individuals and organizations) create hubs as Social Franchises. The ultimate goal is to create a global community of social innovators who support the giveback economy.
How can changemakers work together to build and support a society that prioritizes sharing, giving back, partnering and coming together cooperatively and commonly, motivated by something deeper than profit – community?
We know that complacency is not a solution for poverty, hunger, disease, environmental issues and inequality. We know that we hold in common enough knowledge, resources, time and talent to go from scarcity to abundance.
For example, statistics tell us that we produce enough food globally to feed everyone. But 70% of the food we produce goes to waste because:
- Logistical errors happen on our part
- Food doesn’t look the way we think it ‘should.’
- We let our food go bad in our refrigerators.
- We leave our food uneaten on our plates.
If we all worked together, no one would have go hungry. We must stand up and make a difference!
The Community Innovation Hub is all about acting locally to make change globally. We are a rallying place, a nurturing place and a place for change to start. We are a place grounded in relationship, social innovation and impact. We are a place to make a difference.
Community Innovation Hubs are places where changemakers gather and support each other in the important work of making a difference in society, flesh out their ideas, and connect with other like-minded individuals and form relationships of trust, accountability, learning and support.
Here, local changemakers:
- Learn from local experts –> Topics might include fundraising, design thinking, governance, and branding
- Join in peer-to-peer coaching –> Sharing challenges and celebrations in an atmosphere of support.
- Share personal experiences –> Sharing wisdom for the shared good of social change is a powerful experience
- Build the local eco-system of changemakers –> Create a network that can be counted on!
Won’t you join us on this journey? We’d love to have you!
The Community Innovation Hub’s vision is to ignite the creation and growth of social franchise community innovation hubs helping idea generators, social innovators, social enterprises and supporters in the Giveback Economy.
Staff
Founder, Peter Miller
Peter Miller is a former commercial banker, college professor, serial entrepreneur, social innovator and social enterprise coach and is the co-founder of the Community Innovation Hub. He is passionate about social innovation, social enterprise and corporate social responsibility, as demonstrated in the Giveback Economy, whivch he co-wrote with Carla Leon. All royalties go to the GiveBack Fund to support development and growth of Community Hubs, Community Innovation Hubs, Agrihoods, Coworking Spaces and Makerspaces across Canada.
Coordinator, Sarah Levis
Sarah Levis is a freelance writer/editor, a member of the team at The United Church of Canada’s EDGE: Network for Ministry Development and an internationally-known disability rights activist with a social work background. Read more of her work at Girl With The Cane. She is thrilled to join the team at Community Innovation Hub.
Advisory Board Members
Section Under Construction! Please check back.