A year of growth
Dear Venture for Canada Supporters and Stakeholders,
2022 marked the end of most COVID-19 restrictions in Canada. After two years of largely operating virtually, Venture for Canada focused on convening community members by launching a number of inaugural events, including the Venture for Canada Fellow Alumni Summit, the All Things People Conference, and The Next Steps Summit.
A ten year strategic vision
Venture for Canada’s Board of Directors approved VFC’s ten-year strategic vision in May 2022. This document specifies VFC’s three impact areas: entrepreneurial skills development, network building, and championing equity, diversity, and inclusion. The vision also clarifies VFC’s pathway to achieving impact as well as our core metrics for assessing success.
VFC’s Strategic Vision is intentionally not a Strategic Plan. Our external environment is changing at such a rapid pace, making long-term planning often a futile exercise. The Strategic Vision is intended to provide clarity on what are VFC’s general areas of focus so we can direct our attention on the highest value activities and avoid mission drift.
Our community is Growing
This past year saw a significant increase in the number of young people participating in VFC’s programs, with the numbers increasing from 1851 in 2021 to 2283 in 2022. We also saw continued high satisfaction with work placement opportunities, entrepreneurial skill enhancement, and event experience.
Fostering entrepreneurial networks is critical to building a more prosperous and equitable Canada. In 2022, VFC invested in convening our community, with 293 folks attending our all inaugural All Things People conference and 60 folks attending our inaugural VFC Fellow Alumni Summit.
In terms of championing equity, diversity, and inclusion, VFC continued to disproportionately serve individuals from communities under-represented in entrepreneurial ecosystems. 71% of our participants identified as a visible minority, 52% as female, 9% as LGBT+, and 5% as people with disabilities.
building on our foundations
As we look to the future, we are excited to celebrate VFC’s ten-year anniversary in 2023. VFC has laid strong foundations over the past decade and we are excited to build on these over the coming ten years.
In a world that is increasingly volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous, Canada needs people with entrepreneurial skills more than ever.
If our areas of focus resonate with you, please reach out and join us on this journey to build a more inclusive and entrepreneurial Canada.
Onwards!