 It's 6 a.m. and Ken is on the job. He's a binner, a dumpster driver. The year is 1995 and Ken Loche didn't realize it then, but he was about to become a BC pioneer in a movement that is thriving today across the Western world. Social Enterprise What do we mean by social enterprise? Well, essentially it's a business, but its purpose is not to generate a profit, but rather to create community, to strengthen support networks, and to help provide the services that we all need. And Vancouver and British Columbia are among the leaders in Canada in social innovation. Ken's idea was to create the first freestanding recycling depot on the downtown Eastside. He started with a small donation and built United We Can. Today, 700 binners a day bring in their bottles and cans, and the operation pays for itself, grossing two and a half million dollars a year and employing 150. It's about relationships between people that change us, so those social connections in United We Can build the community of people working together, and while there's a fast flow going across the counter, there are a thousand and one other little interconnections that are happening every minute as we're talking here. I like it all. It's busy and doing the people and doing the public, and that is fun. So, employment for at-risk individuals, a social structure to provide support, and a business that is sustainable. That is Social Enterprise. Just a few steps down Hastings Street from United We Can is the newest example of social innovation. It's save on meats and diner, newly renovated, very trendy, and yet here you can still buy a nutritious sandwich for only $1.50. Thank you. Have a look. Food security is a daily challenge on the downtown Eastside. Successful entrepreneur Mark Brand wanted to answer that need. He hires from the neighborhood and trains them, but it's not charity, it's a business with a social purpose. We're business people, but we're trying to innovate how people do business in this neighborhood in particular with the hope that it'll influence and spread further. So what are we doing here? We have affordable food for community people, and then food that people in the upscale condo is a block away one. It's not a charity-based anything. What it's trying to do is encourage people to help themselves as well. Brand launched his business with a half-million-dollar investment from Van City, a BC financial institution that's a world leader in social enterprise. We think that it's not only the right thing for our members in our community, it's the right thing for our business, and so that's why we're investing in it. I think our vision is that we really do believe that the more people come together, whether it's government, whether it's not for profits, whether it's business, that we can create not only more wealth, but more wealth in a sustainable way. This acre of concrete doesn't appear to be a wise investment, but now a vegetable garden is flourishing here. It's soul food, a social enterprise started by Grand Money that expects to be economically sustainable by next year. In our first season, in four and a half months, we produced 10,000 pounds of food, and this year we've produced over 40,000 pounds of food. Soul food garden is providing a lot more than nourishing vegetables. For the people who work here, it's a road back to a life that is healthy and meaningful. I look forward to coming to work, and I'm happy when I get here, you know, and so, you know, it's physical exercise and it's therapeutic. If I didn't have this place, the fall might have been a little bit greater. Now I'm pretty sure of that, right? This has been like, exacted like a gyroscope for me, right? You know, when I start to lose a little bit of my equilibrium, coming down here and working, you know, putting in a couple of days, you know, allows me to regain my footing. Soul food veggies can be found in some of Vancouver's top kitchens, like here at Bishop's Restaurant. At the YWCA Hotel, rooms start at $65 a night. It's money that ultimately supports numerous services for the Y, such as daycares. As their CEO Janet Austin explains, we all have to work together. We can't continue to be reliant on governments at all levels or philanthropic donors to solve the problems of the community. Yes, those are part of the solution, but they're only part. So the activities that really have made the YWCA strong, you know, quite frankly, has been the social enterprise activity that we've engaged in over the years. And that's a perfect example of why we need to do more of it, why we as a society need to create the conditions where other organizations can build and develop the kind of entrepreneurial activity that has been successful for us. You know, one of the things that I think we all regret as Canadians is that we see government increasingly as doing things to us. And we need to start seeing government as being something that we do for each other. And that's what the non-profit partnerships idea is all about, is how we start seeing ourselves really connected into our own government. And that as the vehicle to support each other in a society where we care. So there will be some real thought leaders from around the world at the summit who will be talking about everything that they've learned and kind of pushing us forward with new ideas, getting us thinking about what we could do differently. You know, it's the kind of thing that if we can be successful at it, we can really change the way government operates in British Columbia and really give citizens a sense that our government really belongs to them.