Canadian Youth Business Foundation (CYBF) hosts Canada’s largest week-long celebration of entrepreneurs driving economic growth
Canadian Youth Business Foundation (CYBF) hosts Canada’s largest week-long celebration of entrepreneurs driving economic growth
Winners of national innovation challenge also announced during CYBF’s Global Entrepreneurship Week Canada celebrations
TORONTO, ON – November 12, 2011 – Today, the Canadian Youth Business Foundation (CYBF) officially marks the beginning of Global Entrepreneurship Week (GEW) Canada, November 12-18, 2012; a week committed to celebrating entrepreneurs and inspiring young people to embrace innovation, imagination and creativity from coast to coast to coast.
As the official host of GEW Canada, CYBF has mobilized dozens of partners to organize celebration events all across the country, and is pleased that Prime Minister Stephen Harper issued a statement today recognizing the important contribution entrepreneurs make to Canada’s economy and global competitiveness.
CYBF is itself contributing to the festivities by highlighting an ongoing commitment to help bolster the Canadian economy through supporting young and emerging entrepreneurs in creating new businesses and jobs; announcing the winners of its Chairman’s Awards for entrepreneurial champions; and participating in CYBF- and partner-hosted events across Canada.
“Global Entrepreneurship Week Canada is about collaborating with like-minded organizations to bring entrepreneurship to the forefront and address the entrepreneur inside of all of us,” says Terry Campbell, Chief Operating Officer, CYBF. “By displaying the success of today’s innovators through our awards program and community events, CYBF hopes to inspire a new generation of entrepreneurs who will create and sustain Canada’s long-term economic prosperity.”
One tangible way the non-profit organization is demonstrating its strong commitment to supporting entrepreneurship in Canada is by adding its voice to the Global Prince’s Youth Business International’s global initiative to start up 10,000 young entrepreneurs in business over the next 12 months, announced earlier today.
For its part, CYBF has committed to help launch close to 700 businesses across Canada and support tens of thousands more with invaluable business coaching, resources, mentors and educational initiatives this year alone. This commitment responds to the growing challenge of youth unemployment and recognizes the important contributions that young entrepreneurs can make to their communities.
As part of the celebrations, CYBF is also pleased to congratulate students from Mount Royal University in Calgary, Alberta, who have been selected as the grand prize winners of the YOU Innovate Canada Tournament. This national tournament, now in its second year, was created to demonstrate that the spark of a great business idea can simply come from looking at an ordinary thing in an extraordinary, entrepreneurial way. The challenge is for Canadians, 16 years and older, to think like entrepreneurs by creating new value out of an ordinary everyday object – an egg carton. Participants submitted videos to explain the value they created and champions were selected through online voting and an expert judging panel.
The winners, known collectively as “Team Engage”, include Barbara Adamson, Murray Roberts, Abe Bernard and Sharday Isaac, who have won a $5,000 cash prize and a trip for one to Rio De Janeiro, Brazil, to attend the 2013 Global Entrepreneurship Congress. The Team made and sold sustainable jewellery out of egg cartons, moulding the material into beads and using social media to raise awareness about the environment and reusing material. To view their video submission, visit https://yitc.myreviewroom.com/p/s/81903/.
“This creative tournament encouraged Canadians to engage with, connect to and see the value of entrepreneurship in their lives,” explains Tessa Mintz, Vice President, Volunteers and Programs, CYBF. “The champions exemplify what can be achieved with a little ingenuity. We hope that this challenge encourages more young Canadians to think like innovators and consider entrepreneurship as an exciting and rewarding career choice.”
The YOU Innovate Canada Tournament is CYBF’s flagship initiative for GEW Canada and is supported by founding sponsors: studentawards.com, Mount Royal University, ReviewRoom and ACE. Five finalists were also awarded $1,000 in cash prizes from across Canada, and an additional ten teams received honourable mention prizing, courtesy of TELUS.
For more information about Global Entrepreneurship Week Canada, visit ca.unleashingideas.org, or to view videos submitted by YOU Innovate Canada participants across Canada, visit cybf.ca/youinnovate.
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About the Canadian Youth Business Foundation – Canada’s Entrepreneur Gateway
The Canadian Youth Business Foundation (CYBF) is the ‘go to’ place for youth entrepreneurship. As a national organization, we are dedicated to growing Canada’s economy one young entrepreneur at a time. We look at character not collateral, when providing youth, age 18-39, with pre-launch coaching, business resources, start-up financing and mentoring to help them launch and sustain a successful entrepreneurial business. CYBF is the founder of the G20 Young Entrepreneur Summit (G20 YES) and founding member of the G20 Young Entrepreneurs’ Alliance (G20 YEA). www.cybf.ca.
About Global Entrepreneurship Week Canada
Between November 12-18, 2012, more than 100 countries will come together to celebrate Global Entrepreneurship Week (GEW), a movement to inspire millions of people to embrace innovation, imagination and creativity. GEW Canada 2012 is hosted by the Canadian Youth Business Foundation, a national not-for-profit organization that works to connect hundreds of organizations to champion a culture of entrepreneurship and mentoring, through local, national and global initiatives. www.gewcanada.com.
About Youth Business International
Founded in 2000 by HRH The Prince of Wales, Youth Business International (YBI) is a global network of independent non-profit initiatives helping young people start and grow their own business and create employment. YBI supports under-served young entrepreneurs with a combination of training, access to capital, mentoring, and other business development services. YBI members have helped over 100,000 young people to create their own business and generate employment. An estimated 70% of these businesses are still trading after three years, with many going on to create significant levels of employment and further benefits for their communities. www.youthbusiness.org.
For more information please contact:
Lesley Wilmot
Director, Marketing and Communications, CYBF
(416) 408-2923, ext. 2203
lwilmot@cybf.ca
