We are thrilled to announce that the Vancouver Foundation recently approved three years of funding for the RADIUS Fellowship in Radical Doing. The support – totalling $105,000 – is a critical step towards continuing to offer this impactful program to a diverse set of emerging social economy leaders at an accessible cost.
The RADIUS Fellowship in Radical Doing launched in 2015 as a response to a confluence of trends affecting the millennial generation as they try to engage in meaningful work within the Metro Vancouver region: an increasing sense of isolation and loneliness; precarious short-term employment; a substantial increase in the complexity and severity of many social and environmental issues; and higher education which often does not adequately prepare individuals to thrive within these conditions.
Read more about the origin story of the Fellowship here, in a recent blog by Jennifer McRae.
The Fellowship responds to these challenges by curating a cohort of 20 social economy leaders for a 4-month developmental program. Fellows are the best and brightest ‘radical doers’ improving the systems upon which we all depend. The Fellowship is structured to support Fellows’ personal, project, and network development.
The program structure and outcomes from the most recent Fellowship can be found within our 2016 Outcomes Report.
We would like to take this opportunity to express our deepest gratitude towards the Vancouver Foundation, who joins our other key funders – The J.W. McConnell Family Foundation’s RECODE Initiative, SFU Innovates, and the SFU Sustainability Office – in helping to make the Fellowship Program possible. The program costs $5000 per participant to deliver, but with the generous support of our funders we are able to offer a sliding scale model to generate the remaining revenue required to fully fund the program. This financial flexibility allows us to prioritize accessibility, and ensure great diversity in our cohort, as explained in our recent blog.
Fellows have this to say, to all of our valued Funders:
Applications for Fellows cohort #3 are OPEN NOW and will remain open until November 26, 2016, with the program launching at the end of January. If you belong in our next cohort or know someone who does, apply now or visit the Fellowship page of our website for more information. We’re looking forward to hearing more about you!
