Algonquin College Launches Project In-Kind: Campus Edition
Posted on Tuesday, November 17th, 2020
OTTAWA (November 17, 2020) — Kind Village Inc. and Algonquin College are pleased to announce their partnership and the launch of Project In-Kind: Campus Edition in support of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs) and local communities experiencing the impacts of COVID-19.
Together, the partners will activate 20,000+ students, staff, and faculty across Algonquin College’s campuses and support over 500 charities and non-profit organizations in an experiential learning and community support effort. This effort will see participants give time, skills, goods, and other non-cash resources in an effort to help meet the needs of local charities and non-profits, expand awareness for the UN SDGs, and demonstrate a world-class impact education program for other Canadian and global campuses to join.
Project In-Kind demonstrates how to turn a campus into an engine for good. Through an ambassador program, virtual events, learning resources, and social media templates, this ground-breaking initiative will educate, inspire, and engage the post-secondary population to take part in the critical Decade of Action to achieve the UN SDGs by 2030 and build long-lasting resiliency in local communities around the world.
“In this time of rapid and complex global change, as the global community finds itself in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, we need to connect locally with individuals who want to make a difference and support charities and non-profit organizations in need,” said Tanya Woods, Chief Philanthropist for Project In-Kind. “This program offers the first truly open global toolkit that demonstrates the value of in-kind giving and translates the UN SDGs into real-world examples and tangible student credit. We recognize just how impactful and important students and campuses are to our communities and we are excited to support them and celebrate this meaningful contribution and movement.”
For the post-secondary community of students wanting to give back, in-kind giving is an ideal mechanism to make a difference while learning about the power of social impact action and the UN SDGs. The Project In-Kind movement inspires and enables individuals to take action on local needs through donations of skills, services, time, and goods. The online in-kind donation and tracking technology platform makes it easy for everyone to find opportunities to help and give to community organizations in need of resources and support. By providing tools to support, empower, and encourage individuals to help those in most need right now, everyone can play a part in building a stronger, more resilient community fabric both now and for future challenges.
The College’s Social Innovation Lab has played an important role as a catalyst for this collaboration. Founded in 2018, the Lab became involved with Project In-Kind to engage the Algonquin community with the aims of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. By providing opportunities for our learners to make use of their unique skills and perspectives, the Lab advances its founding principles of helping contribute to critically important social betterment projects in the local community.
“Algonquin College’s Social Innovation Lab was built on the foundation that everyone needs to contribute to the UN Global Goals for 2030,” said Kevin Holmes, Managing Director, Social Innovation Lab. “With a decade left to take action on the global goals, Project In-Kind offers a compelling approach for educational institutions to activate their community, as we all strive to build a better world.”
The AC Hub’s Volunteer Centre also had a vital role in bringing together this partnership. Volunteerism is at the heart of the AC Hub and they have adopted the UN SDG framework when building volunteer opportunities. The goal of the AC Hub is to make the UN SDGs more visible and to make a conscious effort to collectively create positive change.
“The goals of Project In-Kind dovetail perfectly with the themes of building resiliency and paying it forward that we continue to live by as a College community – particularly as the world faces the challenges of COVID-19,” said Claude Brulé, Algonquin College President and Chief Executive Officer. “Our partnership with Kind Village Inc. is another example of Algonquin College, joining with the broader education community, to share resources and the skills of employees and learners to make a positive difference in people’s lives.”
-30-
Project In-Kind
Project In-Kind is the world’s first global impact movement focused on in-kind giving, with a goal to measure one billion in-kind actions by 2030 to support local communities and to track these impacts on the 17 UN SDGs. To learn more, visit projectinkind.org.
Algonquin College
The mission of Algonquin College of Applied Arts and Technology is to transform hopes and dreams into lifelong success. Algonquin College, an Ontario public sector community college, does this by offering hands-on, digitally connected, experiential learning in more than 340 programs. Based in the Ottawa Valley, Algonquin College is the largest polytechnic institute in Eastern Ontario.
Media Contacts:
Project In-Kind
Ariel Vered
Chris Lackner
Communications Officer
Algonquin College
Office: 613-727-4723 ext. 2091
lacknec@algonquincollege.com
Bruce Hickey
Communications Officer
Algonquin College
hickeyb@algonquincollege.com
- Posted in
- News