Brantford locals have ideas to impact Brantford in a positive way
The Community Changemaker program is run out of StartUp Lab Brantford, which is located on the Laurier Brantford campus in the Market Darling Centre building. The program is led by Julie Perkins, the StartUp Lab Brantford program leader and runs each fall. The program is only open to residents of Brantford.
“It has to be something that impacts the community in a good way. It traditionally opens — the adult cohort opens in fall of every year. So, there’s just an application process that usually opens in September with the program starting sometime in October … the application’s available online on our website, but anyone can come in, if I’m in my office,” Perkins said. The Changemaker program is a six-week program to help participants work through their community impact projects and help them bring their opportunities to life.
“They do learn about some basic development talk about ideation, what makes a good idea and the research that we kept like doing market research to back up that there is a problem in the community and you have the solution. So, we do community development. We talk about project planning and development. We also teach about budgeting, grant writing, what makes up a good pitch and present presentation skills,” Perkins said.
To close out the program for 2025, each entrepreneur had to present their proposals to a panel of Brantford City staff to be considered for grant funding up to $2,000 per project.
The program began in 2016 in partnership with the City to empower residents to build something to help the community.
This year, two of Laurier’s own students, Nicolas Choo a third-year UX student and Crystelle Perez a third-year criminology student, participated in the program and received grant money for their project. After going through different ideas and possible problems to solve throughout the city, the pair landed on a water lantern festival. An event that both Choo and Perez had already been a part of outside of Brantford.
“We wanted to incorporate environmental aspects of it. Lanterns are biodegradable and we wanted to kind of showcase to residents of Brandford that you can do an event and you can promote community while being sustainable, at the same time. On top of that, the lanterns you can draw on them, so it’s sort of like a storytelling aspect and tying back to the Indigenous part where you can make your own story and have your own voice,” Choo and Perez said. Difference can be made by anyone who is willing to put their mind to it.
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