by Al Etmanski

We have been inventing ways to help each other since the first people began living on this land. We would not have survived, let alone thrived without each generation’s creativity and resourcefulness in the face of adversity. All our small and big innovations have made us into a caring country. Not perfect but always determined to make it better.

Ashoka Canada excels at spotting people with ideas that have the potential to advance social, economic and environmental justice. Their rigorous New Fellow selection process increases the odds that individual innovations will generate large-scale, collective advances. Rhetoric and cliché are replaced with clear messages that capture the imagination. Hunches and best guesses are discarded in favour of evidence. Strategy is informed by the cultural determinants of change. A focus on short-term success is tempered with a strategy for long-term impact. The result? Canada becomes better, faster.

I know all this because it happened to me when I became one of Ashoka’s first Canadian Fellows. I’ve watched a similar discipline enhance and transform the changemaking talents of other Fellows. It’s a makeover that benefits from the accomplishments of Ashoka’s global network of social entrepreneurs.