a social change expert with 25 years of experience, as our facilitator for the day!
Darcy Riddell has been working for social change for 25 years in a variety of roles – in forest campaigns and catalyzing innovative land conservation in the Great Bear Rainforest, leading philanthropic evaluation and transformative learning at McConnell Foundation, designing and facilitating multi-sector change initiatives, and founding and funding collaborative networks that centre sustainability, justice and systems change. She currently works as a consultant with RAD (Restore, Assert, Defend) Network advancing Indigenous-led conservation finance and nature-based solutions, and on other strategic engagements.
Darcy completed a transdisciplinary Ph.D. in Environment and Resources Studies at University of Waterloo, focused on transformative leadership and social impact in complex multi-scaled contexts, and has published on systems change in sustainability, social innovation, and scaling. She chairs the board of Social Innovation Canada, and is a board director at Hollyhock educational centre on Cortes Island. Darcy is a fifth generation British Columbian, living with her family in the territories of the əsəlil̓wətaʔɬ (Tsleil-Waututh), Xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), & Sḵwx̱wú7meshsi (Squamish), where she is a student of nature and the wisdom traditions of longstanding cultures.
“It takes a system to change a system.”
Over the past two years, CCWESTT has recognized the critical need to shift the dialogue away from changing women and other underrepresented folks to changing the system. As such, this year’s Policy Forum is based on learning from CCWESTT’s 2023 Gap Analysis Report.The Executive Summary can be found here.
Looking for a primer on social innovation? View the Pre-Conference Panel Discussion, which took place on April 17, featuring Evidence for Democracy, the National Association of Women and the Law, and Here For Her. View it here.
Systems Change: Modifying components or combinations of components within a system to address and remove fundamental societal, environmental, and cultural elements that prevent change.
Scaling: To grow, achieve sustainable impact, become law, become normalized.
Social Innovation: A complex process of introducing new products, processes or programs that profoundly change the basic routines, resource and authority flows, or beliefs of the social system in which the innovation occurs. Such successful social innovations have durability and broad impact (Westley & Antadze, 2010, p. 2). Social Innovation can be both destructive and catalytic, challenging the social system and social institutions where people learn, work, and reside. True social innovations involve institutional and social systems change and can contribute to overall social resilience.
Scaling Out, Scaling Up and Scaling Deep:
CCWESTT acknowledges that our greater science, engineering, trades and technology (or SETT) community is situated on the ceded and unceded traditional territories of First Nation, Inuit, and Métis peoples from coast to coast to coast in what is known as ‘Canada’. CCWESTT fervently believes SETT is enriched through collective relations and knowledge sharing and is committed to helping enhance and build these relations. Full land acknowledgement here.
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