Celebrating Success and Building Solutions Together with Hopeful Economics

April 20 -22, 2017, SFU Certificate Program for Community Economic Development and the City of Vancouver co-hosted Hopeful Economics: Leadership & Innovation Summit.

Hopeful Economics: Leadership & Innovation Summit featured two full days of workshops, speakers and panel discussions, as well as a scocial innovation challenge where social entrepreneurs pitched social impact ideas. Over 30 speakers and panelists explored themes of economic reconciliation, social enterprise, community benefit agreements and local impact investing.

We organized Hopeful Economics to create an opportunity for our alumni and others who work in the broad field of community economic development to share innovative ways different communities are tackling social inequity, and to do some big picture thinking together. The goals included increased connections between people working in their communities, raising up leaders in the field of community economic development, and providing an opportunity for people to move forward on key policies in their communities.

We are thrilled to say, with thanks to our sponsors, the organizers, volunteers, speakers, workshop leaders, and all the attendees, we achieved all this and more!

To find out more about events and programs organized by SFU Community Economic Development, sign up for our newsletter.