The Social Innovation Gathering
Strengthening Capacity for Collective Action on the Sunshine Coast: A Focus on Community Well-being
October 2 & 3, 2025
Our House of Clans
Sechelt, Sunshine Coast
Join us for two days of hands-on learning, community connection, and systems thinking as we explore what it takes to build inclusive wellbeing on the Sunshine Coast.
Hosted by The Partners in Change Society with Support from Community Futures Sunshine Coast, Facilitated by InWithForward
Why this? Why Now? This two day workshop centres a big idea that connects many of our various change-making efforts on the Sunshine Coast: inclusive wellbeing. Together we’ll ask and explore different ways of knowing, being, and learning together that underpin the transition from social safety nets to trampolines. This is important so that more people in our community can rebound from difficulty and achieve wellbeing in the ways that matter most to them and allow them to remain in this beautiful region they call home.
As your co-hosts (Partners in Change and InWithForward) we share a hypothesis about a key, shared intervention in this transition toward inclusive wellbeing in our community.
We believe that if we strengthen our individual and collective skills to listen deeply, skillfully, and thoughtfully to what matters to people on the margins, we will be much better able to identify dominant norms that hinder what people value and generate ideas and impacts with a fundamentally different approach than what currently keeps many of our social systems stuck.
By focusing on inclusive wellbeing during our time together, our aim is for participants to leave with a shared language and framework that links local efforts, leading to new and more meaningful collaborations and potential breakthroughs on social issues where progress has been difficult.
What Will We Do?
This is not a sit-and-listen conference. It’s hands-on, immersive, and action-oriented.
Learn and experience critical design ethnography* an immersive research approach that centres people most affected by local issues.
Envision what social policies and services might look like if they were designed around inclusive wellbeing.
Practice identifying levers for change at the individual, organizational, and community level.
Strengthen relationships, build shared language, and imagine new ways of working together.
*Ethnography is a research method focused on understanding culture, and how people live and make meaning in their everyday contexts. Design ethnography focuses on learning about the features of solutions that might help someone close gaps between their current reality and the future they desire. The “critical” refers to an ethical commitment to asking questions about power, agency to define what matters, and who benefits from the data.
Who Should Attend?
We welcome participants from a broad range of roles and experiences, including:
Community-based educators and action researchers
Local policy makers and planners
Indigenous-led organizations
Non-profit and social service staff, leadership, and board members
Environmental organizations
Youth with a desire to learn and get involved
People with lived or living experience of the issues we’re working to address
Social purpose business owners and leaders
We see a diversity of perspectives, roles, and lived and living experiences as a strength. All we ask is that you join with an open mind, ready to learn, and the intention to participate over both days.
Participation is by invitation only. If you have not received an invitation but would like to attend, please contact us to express your interest.
Meet the Facilitators
InWithForward is a social design studio that co-creates new models of care and connection using a blend of design, social science, and community development methods. They helped orchestrate and facilitate our 2024 local social innovation gathering at YMCA Elphinstone, and feedback made it clear — participants wanted to learn more from this team.
Focused on systems change that prioritizes connection, agency, purpose, beauty, and learning, InWithForward has worked across diverse issue areas including Indigenous child protection, youth mental health, disability, newcomer settlement, and houselessness.
This year’s gathering on October 2 and 3 will be framed around the Culture of Wellbeing framework, developed through several years of work with the City of Edmonton.