The collaborative – or “sharing” – economy is impacting communities in a variety of ways. Our team at The Potentiality is exploring this fascinating and important trend with stories of people winning within this fast-evolving space. From our perspective, “winning” means leveraging unique ideas and cool tools in order to create circumstances for everybody to win. Here’s a story about how Wuchild is winning the sharing economy.
They are inclusive
Wuchild co-founders Yvette Hild and Bernice Paul know that moms are multi-talented badass goddesses. Unfortunately, maternity leave can be a bit lonely – or exclusively child-focused – and returning to work can be overwhelming, which means that many moms aren’t given opportunities to realize their full potential. As an “evolving mom collective,” Wuchild welcomes the creativity and energy of new moms. Their intention is to connect and empower moms to develop new skills, sell goods and products, and/or build positive relationships that might create shared value in peoples’ work and life. Everyone is welcome (even dads!) and their enterprise is an awesome example of the sharing economy at its best.
Yvette and Bernice
They have local roots and global perspective
If you’re a parent in Vancouver then you probably understand what #parklife means. Here’s what it means to Yvette and Bernice:
It’s that place they discovered grass for the first time. And had their first swing ride.
That place we dash to, oh, any time between sunrise and sunset when they are getting a little crazy and nothing at home will do.
That place we gather for impromptu play dates as soon as the weather clears.
That place with the bigger kids who showed them how to climb, just put one foot up like this, now pull yourself up!
That place with the piano that saved my life many times over and kept me going when it all felt too hard.
I love the locality and simplicity of the #parklife movement and seeing kids in my neighbourhood messin’ up their sweatshirts with play makes my heart smile.
Wuchild thinks globally, too. Another cool product that I can’t wait for my son to wear is the “Feminist” sweatshirt. According to Yvette, the shirt is “all about getting conversations started; taking the word off the edge and bringing it into the mainstream consciousness. It’s time to reclaim the F-Word!” Around the world, empowering young women to realize their creative potential is one of the most important things that communities can do to ensure a positive, healthy future.
They are collaborative
Sharing space, time, ideas, and resources are just some examples of how Wuchild is bringing their “evolving mom collective” concept to life. What really inspires me about this innovative social enterprise is how Yvette and Bernice are helping moms find, share and spend time. If time is the new money – (Richard Branson said it is so it must be true) – then Wuchild is flush with cash! By collaborating in ways that help time-strapped moms sell goods in person because they haven’t set up a website or tested ideas with a focus group of new moms, Wuchild is bringing people together in new, exciting and authentic ways.
They are awesome!
Check out this recent presentation Yvette and Bernice recently delivered at the Sauder School of Business’s “Power of Creative Thinking” event. You can’t watch this and not want to hang out with these two superstars of social innovation and you’ll probably want to collaborate with them, too.
