Source Code Academy Canada

Disrupting Poverty with Innovation and Entrepreneurship Centres. Recognized by 2023 Forbes Top 30 under 30 for impact in education. We are a futurist academy and non-profit social enterprise known as Source Code Academy Canada. Rather than traditional education, we are a community-based and youth-led academy that teaches underestimated and disenfranchised youth from k-12 cross-disciplinary learning in STEAM education (Science, Tech, Engineering, Arts, Math), financial literacy, and entrepreneurship with a holistic focus on creative arts, mental health, literacy, fitness, and food security, socio-emotional learning, and social justice. We believe that democratizing access to technology, resources and opportunities could eliminate urban poverty, but marginalized communities lack exposure and access to quality digital, STEAM, and entrepreneurship education, even though developed countries have an abundance of technology, resources, and opportunities. We run innovation and entrepreneurship classes and workshops in underestimated urban high-priority public schools and impoverished communities with used and refurbished technology and equipment. In 2022, as a minimum viable Impact product, our nonprofit social enterprise led events and workshops with 20 primary and secondary schools virtually and in person across GTA and Canada to reach 10,000 students. Our next step is to secure a permanent physical location to establish an innovation and entrepreneurship hub in Scarborough that will support each satellite centre we co-create with high-priority neighbourhoods to support K-12 schools and community-based organizations across Toronto. At that time, when equipped, we will scale the hub and satellite model to other urban centres across Canada and beyond that are tailor-made for each community and will be spearheaded in partnership with local grassroots community-based organizations and public schools that will lead each satellite.