Ready to Scale-Up Impact

20
Jan

2022 – Year in Review

During the pandemic over the past three years, everyone experienced significant changes in their lives and workplaces, and we hope that you have been able to survive or even thrive through all these changes. Today, we see that leadership and leadership development continues to be of vital importance in the world. Everyone has a role to play and our best hope comes when individuals are well equipped to lead during challenging times. Our leadership programs for youth are even more relevant today that they were a decade ago.

At Mindtrust, we continued to expand our programs on-line in 2022 and hope to get back to “normal” in the coming year. By being able to deliver our program fully on-line, fully in- person or a combination of the two, we can handle whatever the future demands. It is our plan to deliver our programs in a variety of formats in the coming year to meet the evolving needs of youth and our clients. We finally resumed our quarterly Mindtrust Meetup events in October, when vaccination rates allowed us to host a capacity-limited event with a lively discussion about the future of community engagement with the CEO of the Ottawa Community Foundation (OCF).

We are committed to continued growth in 2023 so that we may benefit even more youth across the region and across the country.

Major Achievements

  • Youth Leadership Program (YLP) has now been delivered to 65 youth (16 to 29 years old). The cohorts during 2022 were delivered 100% on-line (via interactive Zoom sessions) with funding from City of Ottawa and OCF. Participant feedback continues to be very positive, and we have expanded relationships with several community partners including Youth Ottawa, St. Lawrence College, JA Ottawa, RRCRC, PQCHC, BGC Ottawa, Collége La Cite, Algonquin College, and others. Women make up 56% of the participants to date and 76% identify as BIPOC.
  • With coaching support from Innoweave, we drafted a Strategic Roadmap to move Mindtrust to an ongoing sustainable delivery model.
  • MLDP Alumni Surpassed 1,100 with the delivery of the 18th annual Mindtrust Leadership Development Program (MLDP) for 35 students from University of Ottawa and Carleton University. This program leveraged the experience and knowledge of 40 community leaders and sponsorship from seven local organizations. MLDP in 2023 also includes students from Algonquin College again.
  • The Mindtrust Board of Directors was expanded to six, adding Edward Matwawana, Thusha Agampodi and Jason Abt, who bring their vast experience and networks to Mindtrust as we broaden our reach into our targeted disadvantaged and racialized communities. Naomi Morisawa De Koven, Sonya Shorey and Jennifer Francis welcomed these great additions to the Board.

Other 2022 Highlights

  • Continued evolution of the Learning Management System (LMS) gave us a robust and scalable management solution for our leadership programs together with Credly/Acclaim on-line accreditation solution with badging and certificates.
  • The first formal Audit was completed since achieving charitable status by Welch LLP for FY2021. They also completed the Audit for FY2022 before the end of 2022.
  • Monthly accounting activities, including accounts payable, accounts receivable and reporting against the Board approved budget, are now being completed by Business Sherpa Group. This allowed for a much smoother and quicker Audit process this year.

Looking ahead to 2023, we have significant plans for Mindtrust and here are some of the highlights:

  • Program Expansion: Delivering more leadership programs to more youth, both in the region and across Canada. With the move to on-line content and real-time, interactive delivery, we are no longer restricted by geography. At the same time, YLP allows us to address the urgent need for leadership development at the Grade 11 and 12 level and we expect to expand YLP considerably in the local region by increasing the number of active community partners.
  • Team Expansion: Expanding our team with the addition of a paid part-time Marketing, Fundraising and Program Directors to handle the increased program delivery, administration and operations.
  • Board Expansion: Expanding our Board of Directors to seven members, with the Board reflecting the diversity of our program participants.
  • Networking: Continuing our quarterly Mindtrust Meetup networking events.

We hope to reconnect with you during the coming year and would appreciate your assistance in identifying people for our team including potential session leaders and board members.

Wishing you a happy, healthy and prosperous 2023.

The Mindtrust Team

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