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Civic Tech Fredericton is a social innovation initiative that connects nonprofits with volunteers from the IT sector. They work together to address community needs through technology and data. The program has had a significant impact on the community, with projects like the Riverwatch mobile app and a meal planning tool for a local food center. Civic Tech also provides data analysis for nonprofits and has become an employment accelerator for newcomers to Canada. The program measures success through community engagement, delivering solutions to nonprofits, and creating a sense of community among volunteers. Welcome to the Leadership for Social Innovation podcast, where we delve into the world of social innovation and explore how impactful initiatives are changing our communities for the better. I'm your host, Hilary Russell, a Leadership Studies student at the University of New Brunswick, and today we have a very special guest joining us. We have Sandy McKinnon, the Executive Director of Greater Fredericton Social Innovation, who will be sharing her insights on the impact of one of their flagship programs, Civic Tech Fredericton, and how it ensures its success. Welcome, Sandy. Thank you, Hilary. I'm glad to be here. Let's start a bit with your role at GFSI and how Civic Tech came to be. Can you tell us a bit about what you do and what drew you to work in this sector? Well, I have a background in marketing in the corporate world, and I wanted to do a job that would have more value. I feel like I've learned a lot through my work experience over the years, and then I wanted to take that experience and see how I can help my community. So nine years ago, I became the Executive Director of Greater Fredericton Social Innovation, and we meet unmet needs in our community through collaboration with our nonprofit sector. We often bring the nonprofits together to find out what needs they are trying to address, what supports they need, and then GFSI tries to fill in those gaps with innovative projects. And one of the gaps that was identified through one of these engagements with our nonprofit sector was the need for technical expertise, access to technical expertise, advice, maybe application building. You know, they just had no funds or access to the changing world of technology and data. So that's when we started Civic Tech. Awesome. So the national Civic Tech movement has a long and storied history. How has this mission over the years evolved to address contemporary social issues? Well, Civic Tech is a movement right across Canada. And in a nutshell, our volunteers from our IT sector get together every Tuesday night, and nonprofits come in and pitch ideas and projects, and the team decides whether they want to work on them or not. We were the first in Atlantic Canada. We began in 2018 with five dedicated volunteers every Tuesday night. Now we average around 50 people every single Tuesday night. Everything we develop is free and open source and available to all other Civic Techs across Canada. Most of our volunteers are new Canadians who have come here on the skilled workers program. So they have, you know, these mad technical skills with the most amazing backgrounds and experiences that somebody born and raised in Fredericton may not have ever experienced. You know, we have one of our Civic Tech volunteers from Egypt was telling me that, you know, he's used to working on 40 million, you know, data points and data sets. And actually, he even told me that his apartment block where he lived in Cairo was the population of New Brunswick. So, you know, the breadth and scope of the work and expertise that newcomers bring to the table is unprecedented, really. Absolutely. I'm wondering a little bit about understanding the impact of Civic Tech. So how does Civic Tech define impact when it comes to social innovation? Right. So there's many different lanes that we can look at. So we define impact by the creation of community. So people, you know, they're working alongside others in their tech sector. They volunteers from our tech sector. They want to give back to community. They want to use their skills. You know, they're not – they don't want to sell raffle tickets or work a registration booth. You know, they want to use their skills. And so they learn from each other. They learn different methods of programming and technology and applications. So that's one way we measure success. We also measure success by what we deliver to the non-profit sector and the impact it has on their particular organization and delivering on their message and mission, whether it be, you know, through data analysis or just technical advice or path forwards for them with regards to cybersecurity. You know, there's a lot of different ways to measure that. And also by the engagement of our volunteers and how they're connecting with each other. So, you know, we do a lot of informal type of events. We have, you know, potluck every winter, big family barbecue every summer to really create a sense of community. We also look out for each other quite a bit. You know, we had one gentleman show up from Africa in February and he had deck shoes on and Civic Tech bought him a pair of winter boots and we've helped people move into places. They share kids' toys and information and so there's so many different ways that Civic Tech has become quite successful. Wow. I need a better response to that part before I go into my next part. I didn't realize that you guys, I'm not going to put that in, I didn't realize that you guys did so much to help the newcomers. Oh yeah. I'm going to say something like, it sounds like the community in Fredericton has been really positively impacted by the creation of Civic Tech Fredericton. Yeah. Okay. Wow. It sounds like the community in Fredericton has been really positively impacted by the creation of Civic Tech Fredericton. Can you share some specific examples of programs or initiatives at Civic Tech that have played significant impact on the community? Sure. Well, I can talk specifically about some of the programs and projects that we've worked on. So, our very first project that we worked on was using open data from the province of New Brunswick, and it was in late November 2017, early 2018, where we launched the Riverwatch mobile application. So it was, at the time, the province's first mobile-friendly application that they had, and it was developed by a bunch of volunteers. So, you know, we have flooding concerns in our area, and now, you know, that there's a Riverwatch mobile application, and it was done by a bunch of volunteers, and the province just really embraced it, and we've updated it for them over the years, and so that's one of our, was our very first tool that we worked on. Another one that we just finished version two of was a meal planning tool for Greener Village. So, this helps their clients, that's our local food centre, and that help, the meal planning application helps their clients choose healthier meals and be able to shop more efficiently, and you know, gives an idea, the concept is to basically, you know, instead of just buying that chicken breast, if you buy a whole chicken, you know, you can cook this meal, this meal, how do you make things last, and so Greener Village has a dietician and a chef, Chef Eve in the working kitchen, and so what they needed was some kind of a tool, so where their clients can come in and actually prepare a meal plan, whether it be for a month, two months, what have you, and the cost of the goods are connected to grocery store database, so it gives an idea of what each meal will cost, so we've, that's an ongoing project with Civic Tech, we launched version two in 2022 in September, and we just, sorry, version one in 2022, and we just launched version two, so we're constantly coming, they're constantly coming back with feature updates, and hey, can we do this, and one of the other things that the team's really proud of is the Willis-Degue Language and Cultural Centre website, so this website is a teaching resource, so it was built in partnership with Elders Dave and Imelda Purley, so it's designed around teaching materials for the preservation of the Willis-Degue language and culture, and has really fabulous materials there for teachers, so we're pretty proud of that program that we worked on, and also data analysis, you know, we do a lot of data analysis for our non-profits to help them with their funding and granting applications, and one of the fun things that we have been doing is we enter data competitions every year at UNB, data visualization competitions, so this really helps fund, because we're usually, you know, somewhere in the winnings, and this helps fund, you know, things like our website and that kind of stuff. So, more recently, we have just launched data analysis on the 12 different wards in Fredericton, looking at the data from 2016 right up to 2023, looking at how each ward in Fredericton has, the demographics have changed over those years, and what people are spending on food, transportation, clothing, health, and what the makeup of that ward is, and this is really important information for city councillors. We have an election coming up in 2026, so, you know, this is important information for our city to know, and for the city councillors to know how many people in their ward are living below the poverty line, how many are renting versus owning, you know, a real deep dive into the makeup of the ward. So, just last week, on our website, we launched the ward data, showing a comparison of the two years from 2016 to 2023, and that's just giving an example of some of the projects. You know, we do everything from building full-blown applications to really helping with a complex Excel spreadsheet, whatever the nonprofit sector needs. No, that's incredible. It sounds like the reach of Civic Tech is far and wide, and probably much further than you could possibly imagine. I'm wondering if you can provide me with a specific example of a successful Civic Tech initiative, and explain how you determined that Civic Tech's efforts were the primary driver of the success, or have there been any unexpected outcomes from Civic Tech initiatives? Yes. So, there's a number of them, but the biggest one is that how we organically became this employment accelerator. So, we did not expect this ever, and it's not happening in any other Civic Tech across the country, but new Canadians are finding us, and, you know, they're here, they're looking for full-time employment. This province has spent a lot of money engaging, you know, IT sector professionals from all over the world to come here, but they're not easily finding employment because so many employers are looking for that Canadian experience. So, Civic Tech is providing that Canadian experience. So, over the past, I don't know, three years, we've had dozens of our volunteers find employment, and I have been their Canadian reference for the work and the volunteer work they're doing. So, that has been super successful. And 18 months ago, the province and the COA approached Civic Tech and said, hey, can we formalize what you're doing? We really notice you're making waves and becoming an employment accelerator. And I was concerned about, okay, what does that mean to formalize it? And I said, well, what if we could enable you to hire people for up to 16 weeks and giving them really deep dive full-time employment for 16 weeks to really work on projects? Well, that was a game-changer for us. So, for the past 18 months, we've been able to hire up to six people for 16 weeks and just been moving, rotating Civic Tech volunteers. Most are new Canadians, not all, but the majority of them are new Canadians. And we've found, you know, dozens of people in, you know, successful employment within their profession. So, yeah, that's been a really unexpected outcome that we would become this fabulous employment accelerator. And also, you know, the sense of community. I think that I can't speak highly enough about how our team is really connected and looks out for each other. So, that's something I wasn't expecting to happen. Wow. I would say this might be an example of successful leadership, Sandy. Well, thank you. I'm wondering, actually, looking back at you, based on your personal insights, based on your experience, what do you believe are key factors that enable a social innovation to be successful? Well, you know, right off the bat, if it's innovative, it has to be something new and it has to be something real. And, you know, people are talking about innovation all the time and they'll innovate and create something that really nobody wants. I see this happening all the time. And so, without collaboration and connection and actually a defined need that is unmet in the community, you are just wasting your time and energy. So, GFSI really does focus on collaboration and getting, you know, our partnerships and reaching out to community and saying, you know, what are you struggling with? How can we step in and help? And then we'll talk to others and then they're suffering from the same concerns and issues. And so, that's where we bring people together to solve the issue. So, real innovation starts with collaboration. You know, there's an old saying that if you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go with others. And so, we always bring people together to collaborate and ensure that, you know, everybody's looking forward in the same direction and that we actually have a real defined need that we're addressing. Sorry, I was not prepared for that to end and I was listening so hard. Okay. Is that a good answer? Is that all right? It is. You're so right. I was thinking about leadership and then my brain was going to like, I read this quote once that was like, don't call people out, call people in. And anyway, you just, you had my brain completely turning and I was so like caught up with whatever you're saying, but I was not being a good host. That's okay. Anyway, I was like, yeah, I was totally, totally into that one. Absolutely. I think those are all valid points to understand what makes social innovation successful and I think it's what makes an effective team successful as well at the end of the day. I'm wondering, is there anything else that you'd like to share on the impact of civic tech, maybe that we haven't covered? I really don't think that there's anything else that we, I don't think there's anything that we've missed. I'm quite proud of this project. You know, GFSI focuses a lot in working with community on poverty reduction and how we can help. And there are so many organizations and there are so many organizations at all and all different levels working in the same realm addressing this issue. And civic tech is new and innovative and it's GFSI. It is a specific project that we've started, we created, we own. You know, we work in housing and food security and a number of other initiatives, but that's with so many other nonprofits who are in that sector, but civic tech is GFSI. It is us. And that has been really great for our organization because we've been able to leverage the breadth and the depth and the power and the impact of civic tech in order to grow GFSI. So, that's been kind of interesting and I'm really proud of this project. It is, you know, or this program, it is my favorite. And yeah. Yeah, civic tech sounds like an incredible program to be a part of. I'm wondering, how can our listeners learn more about Civic Tech Fredericton's work or get involved? Right. So, that's really easy. We have a pretty robust website with, you know, a list of our projects and reasons why our volunteers, you know, come every week to civic tech. We've got great photos. You can really get the vibe of how great civic tech is. So, just go to civictechfredericton.com and or follow us on socials, but you will see that our website is a great place. And if people fill out the contact form, it comes directly to me and I respond within 24 hours. Perfect. Thank you so much. That's my pleasure. Thank you so much, Hillary, for your interest in GFSI and in this awesome civic tech project. Awesome. Have a great day. Judy, how was that? Perfect. I was going to eat that right up. Okay. I was thinking that too. Yeah. Thank you. You actually, you had me so thinking there. And maybe it's just because it's like first thing in the morning, but I was like, this is such a great example of leadership. Like, I could use it. Well, I know that my class is like leadership for social innovation. So, we are technically supposed to be thinking about ways to, like, employ leadership skills in social innovation. It is literally the purpose of it. But I don't think that I've, like, thought about it that hard. Yeah. Well, you'll, at some point, you're going to have to figure it out. It's hard for me to sit around and talk about leadership and social innovation because it feels so self-promoting, you know. But at the end of the day, Hillary, I know my value. Yeah. And I know what I'm capable of. And the reason why GFSI and civic tech is successful is because I am an excellent leader. Yes, absolutely. And I totally understand. I think that, like, yes, yes, it is self-promoting to talk about leadership. But sometimes, like, leadership isn't always about, like, promoting yourself. It's about promoting the fact that you turned other people also into leaders on your team. And that's kind of like, at the end of the day, that's what you have done is you've taken people that are too afraid to step forward and said, no, no, you have leadership skills in you, too, and brought that out. And so, you don't have to carry everything. Instead, you're having a team where you're not the only leader there. Like, everyone is actually contributing and everyone is taking care of each other. It's not like one, like, overseer that manages everything. Like, that's management, not leadership. And, like, at the end of the day, successful leadership, in my eyes, does require you to influence other people to, like, hone into their own leadership skills. And so, at the end of the day, like, it is sure you're sure. It's like being like, I'm a great leader, but you've made other great leaders. And so, it's not just you, also, that you talk about when you talk. No, you're, yeah, you're absolutely right, because that's exactly what we've done. So, every, you know, look at Kate Walsh, man, I'd be dead in the water without her. And now Ellie's stepping in. And any, you know, we had Ashwant, who's my absolute favorite. He's been with us for like a year and a half, and he did his co-op placement. He's a really shy guy from India, shy. And one of his personal goals was to, you know, speak out more. And he's brilliant. And now, you should see him. He's totally changed his confidence level. You know, that's another thing that's really important about civic tech is people's confidence levels, especially young people, because they do lead projects and programs. Anyway, my backsplash guys are here. Okay. Well, best of luck with the backsplash. Thank you so much for taking the time out of your busy schedule. I'm actually in my brand new apartment in Fredericton, I'll have you know. I just don't have a car here. Good for you, girl. Yay. I'm like day two moved in. So, I'm so happy to be back. Back and better than ever. Yeah, I'm not a girl. Communicate those smarts tomorrow with your board. I'm going back to painting for my mom's concert, but I will be back the next day on Friday. And I also don't have a car right now, but. Oh, good. I will. I definitely will be around. Definitely for the end of August and the beginning of September. I'll be here. Okay, great. Because I have to lock myself in to do all my assignments. I have a ton. Yeah, technically. So, not technically, because it was the best hour of my life, but. Technically, that's why I have myself locked in my apartment to punish myself. Here we are. Well, have a great day. Okay. Thanks, Hilary. Bye. Bye.