Position: LEDlab Project Coordinator - Buy Social Canada
Commitment: 8 months, 35 hours/week¹
Start date: September 11, 2017
End date: April 27, 2018
Compensation: $20,000, non-negotiable²

The Local Economic Development Lab (LEDlab), initiated and closely supported by Ecotrust Canada and RADIUS SFU, incubates community-driven social innovation projects for a more vibrant and inclusive local economy in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. We do this by partnering with local organizations and leaders, resourcing them with talented full-time graduate students, and working collectively with experts in a ‘Lab’ format to develop shared skills and knowledge, collaborate, and test new ideas to change the local economic system over time.

LEDlab program objectives are to build, test and scale solutions that put money in the pockets of low income residents; enhance the capacity of individuals, organizations, and networks; and shift traditional patterns of power and resource use in the community in service of a more placebased and collaborative model of economic development.

Community Partner: Buy Social Canada
Project: Social Procurement Value Proposition

Buy Social Canada brings socially driven purchasers and social enterprise suppliers together, building business relationships that generate social benefits to communities across the country.

Buy Social’s mission is to:

• Facilitate purchaser and supplier relationships and learning opportunities
• Provide advice, templates and resources to promote social purchasing policy and practice
• Offer a certification program and support for social enterprise suppliers
• Offer a certification program and support for businesses, government and nonprofits seeking to leverage a social value through their purchasing

Buy Social is currently in discussions with the City of Vancouver to become the third party intermediary to monitor and assess Community Benefit Agreements (CBAs) made between the City of Vancouver, the development project team and the community/neighbourhood the development takes place within Vancouver.

The goal of the project “Social Procurement Value Proposition” is to research and develop a business case that demonstrates to governments and anchor institutions the importance of

1. You are expected to work primarily out of the LEDlab offices in downtown Vancouver on a ~9-4 schedule, although flexibility can be given to students finishing course work.
2. Funding for this position is provided by Mitacs Canada and stipends are fixed. You must be a graduate student at a Canadian university to apply. No exceptions. This is not an employee position. Candidates are expected to have their own laptop.

creating and implementing social procurement policies, strategies and frameworks. A secondary goal of the project is to support the development of a scoring system that rates how developers meet Community Benefit Agreement requirements, which will help position Buy Social to become the third party intermediary with the City of Vancouver. There is a growing interest in social procurement locally, nationally, as well as internationally, and hence, a great opportunity to help inform the emerging policies. You will be joining an evolving, creative ‘movement’ to create a social value marketplace, using tools like social purchasing and Community Benefit Agreements to enhance and build healthy communities.

Your role will be to:

• Research and analyze the economic and community impact of social procurement practices
• Develop knowledge translation products (e.g. presentation decks, briefs reports) that demonstrate the value proposition report for social procurement to various purchaser groups (e.g. cities, large institutions, corporations)
• Research CBA models in various cities, as well as measurement tools that assess and analyze the requirements and deliverables for community benefit agreements
• Develop a locally relevant scoring system for rating how developers meet CBAs
• Continuously apply and share your skills and gain greater knowledge and practice of how multi-stakeholder engagement aligned with sound policy and effective research can contribute to a healthier community in the DTES.

Is this you?

• You’re an experienced researcher who can work independently, and are familiar with the rationale for using tools like social purchasing and Community Benefit Agreements to build healthy communities
• You’re scientific, you enjoy collecting information and doing analysis in order to develop a business case
• You’re analytical, detail oriented and have experience developing assessment systems
• You are fascinated with new economic models. You think the economy is something that should work for people, and you want to contribute your skills and talent to making that happen.

Deliverables:

1. Products, to be defined by Buy Social, that demonstrate the value proposition of social procurement, including economic and community impact analysis and governance recommendations
2. Refined scoring system for assessing how developers meet CBAs, with a summary of assumptions and methodology
3. Project Case Study and Final Outcomes Report due to LEDlab
4. A minimum of two blogs about your experience as an LEDlab Project Coordinator

How to Apply: Please visit http://ledlab.ca/201718_hiring/ for an overview and instructions on how to apply by midnight June 13th, 2017.

1. You are expected to work primarily out of the LEDlab offices in downtown Vancouver on a ~9-4 schedule, although flexibility can be given to students finishing course work.
2. Funding for this position is provided by Mitacs Canada and stipends are fixed. You must be a graduate student at a Canadian university to apply. No exceptions. This is not an employee position. Candidates are expected to have their own laptop.