Students base social enterprise around transit strike

Social entrepreneurship raises money and community awareness

NSCC student Cortlain Whynot makes buttons to raise awareness about the Metro Transit strike (Photo: Amy Crofts)

One hundred fifty students hit the streets Saturday to put their social enterprise plans into action.

Social Enterprise for a Day was a two-day event that started on Feb. 3 at Mount Saint Vincent University.

Students from Dalhousie, MSVU, Nova Scotia Community College and Halifax Regional Municipality high schools teamed up with entrepreneurial agencies to create a social enterprise business.

Peter Mombourquette, associate professor and management department chair at MSVU, was one of the co-ordinators of the event. He says "a social entrepreneur looks to create value and evaluates success not only on financial results but also on impact on the community."

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The #iloveHalifax team asked market goers why they love Halifax (Photo: Amy Crofts)

Social entrepreneurs, like regular entrepreneurs, create a business plan, market a product and generate profit. With social enterprise businesses, these funds are usually donated to a local charity.

Students that participated in the event as an extra-curricular activity, were split into six teams with approximately 20 members each.

Creating and implementing a business plan was all up to them.

Transit Strike

"One person thought we were protesting the strike and when they learned we weren't, they walked away," said NSCC international business student Cortlain Whynot.

Whynot's team called themselves Commuter-ty. Playing off the words commuter and community, the team sold buttons along Spring Garden Road to raise awareness about the Metro Transit strike.

Although there are obvious consequences to the strike for commuters, Whynot says one of the benefits is "turning commuters into more of a community" through carpooling and ride-shares.

"With social enterprise, what you're trying to do is fix something that you think is wrong," said Whynot, 21. "You're basically trying to make the money and support something at the same time. It doesn't always have to be raising funds; it can also create value."

Team Commuter-ty accepted donations for a local non-profit organization providing alternative modes of transportation, but the value Whynot was referring to was the value of knowing why the strike is happening.

"I don't know if you heard about the person who ran into two Metro Transit workers that were on strike the other day," said Whynot. "It creates concern for the safety of the drivers because they're just trying to get what they think they deserve to be getting for the job that they're doing."

Commuter-ty wasn't the only team that incorporated the transit strike into their business.

"Our social enterprise business is focused on raising awareness about people's alternatives [to transportation] because of the Metro Transit strike," said John Hartling, a youth social worker at the Centre for Entrepreneurship Education and Development.

"We're looking at options that anybody can access without user fees or high cost," he said.

The team handed out green ribbons at the Seaport Farmers' Market and collected donations for Bike Again, a bicycle lending and maintenance program.

#iloveHalifax

Although many groups decided to base their social enterprise businesses around transportation, one team took to the Twitter-verse for ideas.

"Our team talked about a lot of big ideas, things that would help the environment. But all of them were too big to do in one day," said NSCC business student Patrick Henry.

"We started off with the Twitter idea, and having people post on Twitter how they feel about their family, why they love their lives, and that led us into the idea of why people love Halifax," he said.

Henry's group broke up into teams to get their message out.

One team went to local businesses, where for a $20 donation to the Empathy Factory, they would get a chalk drawing on their sidewalks with the hashtag #iloveHalifax.

The other team, based out of the farmers' market, charged $2 for individuals to write on a piece of paper why they love Halifax. The picture would be tweeted with the same hashtag.

What individuals wrote took Henry by surprise.

"A lot of people are writing that they love the people, the ocean, the fun city. We thought it would be more I love certain stores, restaurants or pubs, but there hasn't been much of that," he said.

Funds for Charity

Students took their social enterprise businesses everywhere from Dartmouth Crossing to Park Lane Mall Saturday afternoon.

It only took a matter of hours for them to raise more than $2,200 for their respective charities.

"The feedback from the students was outstanding," said event co-ordinator Mombourquette. "They discovered they could accomplish more than they thought and they loved the feeling and sense of pride in giving back."

Although judging of the social enterprise businesses was on the agenda, there was a unanimous decision to have the prizes meant for the students donated to charity.

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