Maximizing the Capacities of Advanced Education Institutions to Build Social Infrastructure for Canadian Communities
Building Social Infrastructure: How can we increase the impact of our institutions to better strengthen our communities?
Learn moreIn order to transition to a more just and sustainable future, we must adapt and in some cases reinvent our social infrastructure — the organizational norms and relationships that underlie society’s systems and institutions. We’ve talked about the problems of “silos” and “reinventing the wheel” long enough. To adapt and lead in today’s complex, networked world, we need relationships and structures that enable society to experiment, learn and evolve to higher levels of resilience, inclusivity, social equity and sustainability.
Social infrastructure can mean repositioning universities and their relationships with cities, through such things as social procurement policies; or promoting student wellbeing through activities like mindfulness training and community engagement.
Working with partners in all sectors, the McConnell Foundation strives to unlock and redirect institutional assets to achieve better outcomes for people and our planet.
Work on social infrastructure is guided by the need to reach the ambitious targets for planetary sustainability set out in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. It creates a consequent need to adjust evaluation methods and metrics.
Innovation around social infrastructure can take many forms:
Building Social Infrastructure: How can we increase the impact of our institutions to better strengthen our communities?
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