Work at CSI for the day with our new Lounge Pass!

If you want to change the world, you’ve found your home at CSI

How many people have you talked to today? For most people in Canada, that number is smaller than they’d like it to be. Across the country, a lot of us are feeling pretty lonely. A quick scan of recent news shines a light on the severity of the situation:

  • “Extreme personal isolation” is reported by those who work from home. (source)
  • 62% of Canadians would like their friends/family to spend more time with them. (source)
  • Being lonely can be more harmful than smoking 15 cigarettes a day. (source)

The antidote to isolation is community. And at the Centre for Social Innovation we have built one of the best that there is. Since 2004, we have become the home-base for thousands of smart, warm, and principled people. Do you want to work with others to put people and planet first? We’d love to meet you!

We’ve created a handful of ways to make that happen:

  1. Come to work in one of our spaces. In all four of our locations, on any given day and you’ll see things like members sharing marketing tips while making coffee, posters everywhere alerting us to upcoming shared meals, and people greeting each other’s dogs by name. Whether you want a designated office space or just a few hours a month to work somewhere, we have a membership package for you.
  2. Join our Desk Exchange Community Animator program. If renting from us is outside of your budget, we’ve still got you covered. You can get access to our spaces and networks in exchange a weekly eight-hour shift staffing one of our welcome desks. Past and present DECA’s say the experience has been life changing. Want to find out what being a DECA can do for you? Applications are open until the end of July.
  3. Sign up for our Online Community Membership. Maybe you have already created the home office of your dreams. Maybe you work on your own projects during downtime at your day job. Maybe you have your laptop with you as you bounce around the country (or the planet). Maybe you live in a city other than Toronto! You can still get the benefits of being part of CSI by becoming an Online Community Member. (Want to meet some of our existing Online Community Members? Click here!)
  4. Attend one of our events. Whether you want to learn about the Tiny House movement, participate in a discussion about food security, or attend a clothing swap, there are incredible things happening in our spaces all the time! Coming to a CSI event is a great way to get a feel for our spaces, and meet some of the people who make CSI so special.  Check what’s coming up, and RSVP for something great!

In addition to fantastic community, members also get special rates on meeting and event spaces, promotional opportunities, free consultations with experts, access to capital, and much more. If you want to change the world, you’ve found your home. Want to learn more? Take a tour now!

 

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CSI Spadina in the ground floor kitchen, looking out towards the lounge and meeting rooms. In the foreground is a kitchen counter, with waffles, toppings, and glasses of coffees and teas. In the background, CSI CEO Tonya Surman is speaking into a microphone on the left. In the middle and on the right, a variety of people stand and sit, listening to her speak.
One of the keys to CSI's magic is our Community Animator Program (CAP) and, specifically, the Community Animators themselves! Through this program, we've worked with more than 1,000 exceptional individuals who have each brought a little something different, and a little sparkle, to our spaces. And we're so glad to have had them in our community, because we've learned that each and every one of them has some exceptional talents, skills, and experiences to offer the world!  
Third floor lounge of CSI Spadina. In the foreground is a light blue loveseat sofa. In the background, we see two people working separately at coworking desks and tables. On the ceiling is a chandelier; to the right, a progress Pride flag.
The CSI staff team includes Pride veterans, newcomers, and everywhere in between! This year, as we celebrated Pride in our spaces and with our member community, we turned to our staff team to learn what Pride means to them. Some experienced it for the first time this year and were awash in the joy; others delighted in the fact that Pride remains such a fun celebration decades later. Others noted the increasing corporatization, which draws our attention away from the central premise of Pride - a protest.
whai header
CSI is many things - a coworking space, a non-profit organization, and a launchpad - but, first and foremost, we are a community. A community of innovators, of changemakers, of neighbours, of people putting people and planet first. And the awesome work that our members do, each and every day, never ceases to amaze us! So of course, we do our best to highlight our members whenever possible. Recently, we had the pleasure of sitting down with Molly Bannerman, Director of Women HIV/Aids Initiative (WHAI), a community-based response to HIV and AIDS among cis and trans women in Ontario. Below is an edited summary of our chat, where we discussed the work of WHAI and their latest Collective Action Community Change report.
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