What a Year!

Mindtrust – 2020 Year in Review

In 2020, 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. The past year underscored that leadership and leadership development has continued importance in the world today. There was a broad range of leadership behavior around the world and it is clear that our civilization benefits when everyone demonstrates strong leadership, whether in government, organizations or within our community. Everyone has a role to play and our best hope comes when individuals are well equipped to lead during challenging times.

At Mindtrust, we had some setbacks including having to suspend our quarterly Leadership Drinks and cancelling the launch of our Leadership Forum, planned for June. However, we are pleased to report that the changed environment enabled acceleration of video conferencing and on-line delivery of learning programs. This has allowed us to launch our programs with fully on-line delivery, at least a year ahead of our original plans.

Major Achievements

• New Youth Leadership Program (YLP) pilot was delivered to 15 youth (17 to 29 years old) prior to the pandemic with funding from CSED and OCF. Participant feedback was very positive, and this new program helped us forge new relationships with community partners Youth Ottawa, St. Lawrence College and OCDSB. YLP will be delivered multiple times in 2021 in collaboration with a number of community partners.
• On-line delivery of leadership programs made possible with fundingfrom City of Ottawa and Red Cross.
• Charitable status achieved for Mindtrust with CRA, allowing funding directly from other charitable organizations and foundations as we grow our footprint across the region and country.

Other 2020 Highlights

• MLDP Alumni Hits 1,000 with the delivery of the 16th annual Mindtrust Leadership Development Program (MLDP) for 75 students from University of Ottawa, Carleton University and Algonquin College. This program leveraged the experience and knowledge of 40 community leaders and sponsorship from eight local organizations.
• Board of Directors expanded, adding two new Board members, Jennifer Francis and Sonya Shorey, bringing their energy and vision to Mindtrust as the difficult year unfolded. Naomi Morisawa De Koven, Manu Sharma and Claude Haw welcomed the many new skills and wisdom to the Board.
• Learning Management System (LMS) implementation started for a robust and scalable management solution for our leadership programs.
• Credly/Acclaim, the leading on-line accreditation solution with badging and certificates, was implemented.

Looking ahead to 2021, we have significant plans for Mindtrust, 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.
• Team Expansion: Expanding our team with the addition of a paid part-time Executive Director / Vice President to handle the increased administration and program operations. We also plan to add a part-time Marketing person to our team. See the Mindtrust website for a detailed posting for these positions and feel free to recommend your friends and colleagues.
• Board Expansion: Expanding our Board of Directors to ensure that we have everything in place for our new charitable status.
• MLDP: Delivering MLDP for the first time with on-line content and Zoom sessions, adding College La Cite students this year as well.
• Networking: Assuming the successful deployment of vaccines across the region, restart our quarterly Leadership Drinks later in the year. 

We hope to reconnect with you during 2021 and would appreciate your assistance in identifying potential staff and board members.

Wishing you a happy, healthy and prosperous 2021.

The Mindtrust Team