Who are you?
Hello, I’m Jessica. I’m still working on figuring that question out, but so far I’m a hopeful optimist, and an aspiring social entrepreneur volunteering to make cool community centric ideas into social profit ventures. Professionally, I am an aboriginal-industry engagement consultant that helps companies become more responsive to the communities in which they operate.
What do you do for fun?
I’m a big outdoor, food, eco, people, sport, and random encounters enthusiast. So throw any of those into the equation and I generally have a good time.
What is your favourite community? Why?
I’m super lucky that my work, study, friends, and volunteer work expose me to so many interesting and dynamic communities in this city. The more I see the types of social organization here, the more I love this city.
This may sound nerdy but one of my favourite communities I’ve found is what’s been formed around the “social enterprise” movement. This emerging community attracts socially and environmentally minded entrepreneurs who use business tools to create positive change in some aspect. People are supportive of other’s business efforts and often offer their experience to help build yours. That’s so cool!
What is your superpower?
If I love something, I benevolently coerce you into loving it too.
How do you use it to build community?
I love healthy communities. I think that the number and type of connections you have with your social and physical environment ultimately determines your health and overall happiness. So, all of my professional and volunteer efforts have been geared towards creating positive connections between people and their environments. I started a non-profit called Eco Trek Tours with the intent to connect people to innovative environmental initiatives in their own back yards through fun, informative and affordable tours. With my professional work, I’ve learned that financial independence is critical for First Nation self-determination and nation building, and so I use my role to help empower First Nations from the benefits of sensible resource development by building bridges between opportunity and need in responsible and collaborative ways.
My Three Favourite Things About Jessica Are…
1. The Power of WOO. The art of Winning Others Over can be used to achieve nefarious ends (never paying for anything, world domination, convincing others to do the wrong thing, etc.), so I’m pretty darn happy that Jessica uses her superpower – mindful passion that is convincingly contagious – to achieve positive, healthy and community-driven projects. Her “nerdy” love of the social enterprise community makes sense, too, as it takes both entrepreneurial spirit and the ability to persuade a diverse audience (investors, community-members, collaborators) to build and execute a common vision. And, well, when it all comes together its a beautiful thing!
2. Hardworking Team Spirit. I got to know Jessica on the football soccer field, where she is a force to be reckoned with. Jess brings the same kind of energy to sport as she does to work, and the team can always count on her to make plays and spark positive chatter with her hustle and willingness to throw herself into tough situations. And, when it comes to post-game-reflection, Jess is always well equipped with one or two timely, um, quips that reflect the kind of social intelligence that allows a person to speak with anyone, anywhere about anything. This is probably what makes Jessica such a great random encounters enthusiast.
3. She’s a Stylish Changemaker! Full disclosure: the “style” comment comes from my obversation that Jess can pull off colourful, possibly-Hawaiian, shorts on the soccer field and an argyle sweater vest during post-season-celebrations with unique aplomb. As for the changemaking, well, she lives it every day by engaging with First Nations communities for some of the most difficult and important conversations in this part of the world as well as, in her volunteer/”free” time, building community-minded enterprises that not only make a difference but, ideally, also an organization-sustaining profit. How she has the energy to play sports once a week is a superpower all on its own!