MacEwan University
IN-24: Innovation A

Roundhouse is a coworking and collaboration space. Roundhouse works hand-in-hand with the MacEwan University Social Innovation Institute to bring together community members, and MacEwan staff, students, faculty, and alumni. There are long-term rental options for initiatives that would like to be part of a shared space, as well as meeting, workshop, and event space designed for collaboration. Through programs, workshops, and events run by both Roundhouse and the Institute, students, faculty, and staff will have the opportunity to be connected across disciplines and with community members to work on real world challenges. Roundhouse is a revenue generating space that is designed to foster social enterprises, and for it to be a social enterprise itself. Roundhouse and the Institute were created to foster the success of initiatives with a social/environmental mission by addressing the main challenges that they face: affordable workspace and learning opportunities, and not having a community of like-minded people to engage with. Roundhouse and the Institute will first focus on connecting community to MacEwan to support existing initiatives with a social and/or environmental mission. Our goal is to build the capacities of all parties to move initiatives forward, and generate new ideas. An evaluation framework is being develop to measure the quantity and quality of connections made, initiatives supported, and new ideas being generated. We will also focus on attempting to measure the impact that these initiatives have on the lives of the people in our community, for example: number of jobs created, number of mouths fed, increase in feelings of belonging, etc. Some examples of focus areas of initiatives currently being supported by Roundhouse and the Institute are: renewable energy, mental health advocacy, food security, urban wellness, and affordable learning opportunities.