Demine Robotics, a former Grebel Peace Incubator start-up stationed in both Cambodia and Canada, has left its mark around the world. With the goal of accelerating the clearance of landmine-infested land, Richard Yim, CEO & co-founder, Jared Baribeau, CTO & co-founder, have safeguarded 100,000 m2 (25 acres) of land containing explosive weapons in Cambodia.
The last four University of Waterloo Global Impact Reports have featured at least one story on a Kindred Credit Union Centre for Peace Advancement participant. The journey of Cassie Myers, Founder and CEO of Grebel Peace Incubator participant Lunaria Solutions, was highlighted in 2022 issue for her team’s work on using data to advance diversity, equity and inclusion.
As part of a thriving innovation ecosystem, the Grebel Peace Incubator at the Kindred Credit Union Centre for Peace Advancement provides students with opportunities to apply their knowledge beyond academia. Access to Mitacs funding and a diverse, collaborative network of innovators allows participants like Majid Mirza, Sean Campbell, and Brendan Wylie-Toal to pursue entrepreneurship and education at the same time, helping them bring their initiatives to market more efficiently and effectively.
The University of Waterloo recently put a spotlight on former Kindred Credit Union Centre for Peace Advancement Communications Assistant Kirsten Mosey. Mosey was selected earlier this year, out of over 6,500 applicants, to be one of ten UN Youth Champions for Disarmament.
The newest members of the Kindred Credit Union Centre for Peace Advancement Epp Peace Incubator (From top left, clockwise): Anam Rahman, Maison Verte; Divya Sarin, Maison Verte; Majid Mirza, ESG Tree; Brendan Wylie-Toal, BWT Consulting.
For the past five years, the Epp Peace Incubator at Kindred Credit Union Centre for Peace Advancement has helped more than a dozen ventures leverage supports available in the Waterloo Region innovation ecosystem. With a unique focus on peace entrepreneurship, the Centre’s Incubator program provides support and mentorship to ventures seeking to advance peace locally and globally.
The Centre welcomed three new ventures to its Incubator program this September, all of whom are dedicated to applying creative solutions to real, complex social problems.
Positive messages on bridges to assist in suicide prevention. A conference to develop affirming churches. Youth workshops to improve mental health literacy. These are the kinds of lasting impacts that come about through the Peace Innovators Scholarship and Mentoring Program.
How do we prevent nuclear war? Ban autonomous weapons? Champion climate action, or effectively regulate the effects of technology and warfare? Sometimes hard questions are best left alone, and sometimes we need to dig in.
Project Ploughshares is addressing these concerns by choosing dialogue as a method for understanding through cross-country policy labs. To conduct these conversations, Ploughshares is leveraging its passion, perspective and position to create space for Canadians to voice their concerns.
On Monday, December 9, the Centre for Peace Advancement helped kick off Kindred Credit Union’s 12 Days 4 Good social media campaign for 2019. 12 Days 4 Good is engaging partners across Waterloo Region by having each of them to designate a day for an act of good that aligns with one of the central themes of this year’s campaign: affordable housing, climate action, or food security.
As a PeaceTech Peer Leader, I am excited to share what I have learned about inclusion and diversity in the last few weeks.
For those of us who work and study in universities, there are distinct rhythms to each semester, and right now we are entering a time of endings. Classes are wrapping up, major projects are coming due, and exams are looming. Meetings and publication deadlines that some of us have managed to put off are starting to pile up. And, right on cue, the University of Waterloo is providing a dizzying array of opportunities for aspiring entrepreneurs to test and showcase their efforts.