Transform the Sector aims to convene a series of rich conversations that will help chart the course for the emergence of a data-informed social sector in Canada. To be successful, this event will need to assemble leaders from across diverse communities and disciplines.
This represents a challenge: generally speaking, participation in events of this kind is heavily skewed towards groups whose perspectives are already over-represented in public discourse. In partnership with the Carold Institute and Stanford’s Digital Civil Society Lab, we’re taking the following steps to include a broader range of voices in our conversations:
Investing in targeted outreach to recruit conference participants who work and/or identify with communities that are typically marginalized from events like this one, and awarding bursaries to a selected group of Conference Fellows
Supporting Fellows before and during the conference, helping them leverage this experience to enhance their own work and strengthen their communities
Convening a half-day working session on February 24th, building on the prior day’s conference to reflect more deeply on the exciting potential - as well as the challenges - of applying digital data in transformational change work with marginalized communities and social justice movements
Documenting our process as we confront this challenge, in collaboration with Fellows and other stakeholders, to synthesize and share learnings from our successes and failures in this work
We are excited to announce the first milestone in this process: the selection of 22 Transform the Sector Conference Fellows, drawn from a pool of more than 50 outstanding applicants. These individuals are using digital data in a wide range of creative ways to strengthen their work within marginalized communities across Ontario, Québec, Western Canada, Atlantic Canada, and the Prairies. Some are established experts within their fields, and others are emerging leaders. Their perspectives and contributions will be invaluable additions to this conference, and we’re grateful to each of them for joining us!