With imagination as the foundation for innovation, a dedicated group of graduate students from Alberta came together in 2005 to provide opportunities to gain experience and create value for low-income communities.
ICChange Renewing the Future
With imagination as the foundation for innovation, a dedicated group of graduate students from Alberta came together in 2005 to provide opportunities to gain experience and create value for low-income communities.
Today, ICChange is a non-profit headquartered in Edmonton, Alberta with the mission of developing and empowering solutions to the world’s most complex issues of wellness, poverty, and sustainable development.
Starting with an initial trip to Latin America, this provided members insights around the importance of needs assessments and community engagement in creating change. A second trip in 2008 fueled the start of their design model that has evolved and is now dedicated to collaborative efforts with local social activists in marginalized communities, to redefine conventional notions of community development, charity, and aid.
Projects have included
· From 2008 to 2011, 140 000 East Africans supplied with access to clean, potable water
· In 2010, ICChange worked with Kenya Red Cross to build a national Trauma Care Policy and trained medical personnel
· 100 000 slum dwellers were provided with access to a cloud-based electronic medial records system in 2015
· Partnering with Slum Dwellers International of South Africa and the Kenyan Government in 2017, ICChange is co-leading an action research initiative helping activate its new SPA (Special Planning Area) program for supporting entrepreneurship driven by people in these areas
· In 2020, in response to the COVID 19 pandemic, Safe Affordable Ventilators for All was started as a Think Tank, advocacy and innovation nucleus to fuel the development of ethical medical devices, including ventilators and solar oxygen capture.
As the world is facing increasingly complex challenges, new perspectives and approaches are crucially needed. ICChange is focused on creating and implementing system level solution, embracing complexity, and leveraging collaboration and innovation for a better tomorrow.
To support their important work, On Friday, September 15, ICChange is hosting their
5th Annual Innovation Canadians for Change (ICChange) Gala Renewing the Future
