United Way has partnered with local strategic design firm J5 to develop The Social Impact Lab, a physical and digital space where United Way agency partners, government, donors, businesses, community members, and corporate volunteers can come together to solve—rather than serve—complex social issues in new and innovative ways.
Located in the heart of downtown Calgary, The Lab is a platform to research, create, and test new services and business models, while creating capacity for our partners to deliver supports and services in our community.
Everyone’s voice can be heard at The Social Impact Lab.
What we do in the Lab
Find opportunities:
Identify innovative and disruptive projects that form the basis of strategic funding opportunities and have the potential to transform our community.
Connect community:
Bring together a variety of stakeholders to facilitate multi-partner collaboration between agencies, corporations, and citizens in digital and in-person spaces.
Open innovation:
Provide open access to participation in ideation, experimentation, and implementation of new solutions.
Build capacity:
Promote and teach a systemic approach to social innovation, research, and design thinking.
Current projects
Children and Youth Mental Health
With the goal of improving mental health and wellness for children and youth ages 0-24, we are experimenting with solutions to increase access and awareness of mental health supports.
e-mental Health Solutions
Working with Alberta Health Services, we are facilitating a process to test and implement e-mental health solutions for youth ages 14-24 in the province of Alberta.
Inspire
This service model design program supports non-profit organizations to accelerate impact and improve services.
Virtual Reality
Using virtual reality, we are exploring innovative methods to experiment in building citizen engagement, connection, empathy, and giving.