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ShiftUnlimited
Shift Unlimited


Title and Organization:		Founding Member, Shift Unlimited
Gender and Age:		Male, 21
Location:		Toronto, Ontario
Country of Residence:		Canada
Country of Birth:		Canada
Languages:		English



Website:		http://www.ShiftUnltd.com
Instant Messaging:		To protect the privacy of members, Instant Messaging information is only available to logged in members of TakingITGlobal. Login or Sign up now, it's free!

About Me

I am an eighteen year old from the Toronto area. After graduating high school last year I decided to take a gap year to focus full-time on starting an organization (yes, ANOTHER ONE!) called Shift Unlimited...

Shift Unlimited is based on the idea of broadening high school students understanding of social change, as well as social change centered careers. Shift will make the concept of social change appeal to a more diverse audience by challenging the typical notions of “social work” and “charity” as the primary outlets for social change. Shift will push boundaries by promoting the idea that virtually every individuals’ skills, interests, and career aspirations can be applied in service of a social cause in a way that is empowering and relevant to them personally. For instance, someone interested in marketing can assist the communications strategy of a social service agency, while someone with a skill for engineering can design eco-friendly products, as just two of an unlimited number of possible examples. This broadened notion of social change is what we refer to as “social innovation”.

The Semesters for Social Innovation program is based on harnessing the traditional high school co-op education system to create new opportunities for high school students within socially innovative organizations. To date we have created 55 meaningful opportunities for high school students within sustainable business and innovative social and environmenal organizations, in fields including renewable energy, independent media, social investment, social marketing, social policy development, environmental design, etc. Through this program participating students will contribute fifteen hours per week from March until June towards a social-mission organization that matches their skills and interests. In addition to a tremendous learning experience, and a head start on their careers, they will earn two academic credits for their efforts.