Three St. Paul’s GreenHouse innovators received Social Impact Fund grants totaling $5,000 at the most recent GreenHouse Social Impact Showcase event, which highlights the progress of various social innovators every term.
Alumna Rachel Thompson, founder of Marlena Books, also spoke about making an impact through social entrepreneurship. Her social venture, which is producing specialized reading material for older adults with dementia, has been successful in winning support from long-term care homes and funding from several organizations.
The Social Impact Fund recipients, who pitched their ideas to a panel of reviewers, were:
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Michael Wideman (Eggplantr): $2,500 Michael’s venture will make it easier to grow food gardens using a digital tool to generate and print permaculture planting layouts on biodegradable weed barriers. He will be using the funding to incorporate his business and build and test his prototype. |
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Bailey Jacobs, (Green2Green): $1,500 Bailey is developing a platform to make it easy for home renovation contractors to access government incentives for environmental retrofits. She will be hiring UWaterloo students to design and build a wireframe for her application with this funding. |
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Pragya Dawadi (The Dialogue Xchange): $1,000 Pragya’s work fosters engaging dialogue on pertinent social issues, such as gender equity and mental health. She will use the funds to pilot Dialogue Xchange events in Guelph, Waterloo and Ottawa. |
Thank you to everyone who made the event a great success!