Publications & Thought Leadership

May 2020

Post-secondary’s Social Impact Achievements 2017 – 2020

Posted in Implementation and Integration

Universities and colleges are increasingly harnessing all of their assets to improve societal conditions. In 2017 the influential White Paper on Maximizing the Capacities of Advanced Education Institutions to Build Social Infrastructure for Canadian Communities was released to mobilize the post-secondary sector to leverage all its assets, capacities and tools to benefit society and communities. This led to a proliferation of experiments and pilot projects across Canada, through innovation clusters and sector associations to accelerate the social impact of higher education.

Three years later this milestone report was commissioned to chronicle and assess progress in the Canadian post-secondary sector in furthering the embedment of social impact into institutional roles, assets and instruments. Post-secondary’s Social Impact Achievements 2017 – 2020 summarizes a number of collaborative initiatives catalyzed by the White Paper and a University Presidents’ meeting in 2017.

The Milestone Report on Post-secondary’s Social Impact Achievements 2017 – 2020 includes social impact initiatives launched and scaled by the following organizations and initiatives:

  • Universities Canada
  • Colleges and Institutes Canada
  • Canadian Association of University Business Officers
  • Social Infrastructure Strategic Planning Guidelines for Post-Secondary Institutions
  • The British Columbia Collaborative for Social Infrastructure
  • Carnegie Foundation Community Engagement Classification: Canadian Pilot Cohort
  • Ashoka Canada

These efforts are assessed for their impacts, lessons learned and next steps.

The report on Post-secondary’s Social Impact Achievements 2017 – 2020 identifies a rubric which associations are following to help their members become social impact leaders and contribute to a sustainable future for Canadians. Read this report on Post-secondary’s Social Impact Achievements 2017 – 2020 to pick up insights into strategies to embed social impact into your association or institution.

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