By Andrew Neary, Journalism – Mass Media student

Enactus Durham College (DC) is the proud winner of this year’s RBC Future Launch Accelerator and ranked in the top 20 of all social initiatives at the Enactus Canada National Exposition. Over the past year, the DC team maintained and grew three primary initiatives, which they presented at the online Canada-wide competition.

The lead project of the year, ConnectUs 4 Community (CU4C), saw DC students and faculty volunteers create an online platform that taught young people in grades 9 to 12 how to launch social initiatives in their communities while addressing the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. Through CU4C, EnactusDC inspired more than 800 students across 15 high schools to launch 100 social projects. As a result, RBC Bank recognized CU4C’s success with its $4,000 Future Launch Accelerator prize, ranking it as the best project in Canada for supporting youth.

Alongside CU4C, EnactusDC fostered innovation through Rcycle, an app aimed at educating people about recycling properly and rewarding them with points to spend at social businesses. The app is expected to be piloted at the college later this year. The Enactus DC team also promoted tools to manage mental health with the True Grit 21 Day Wellness challenge, which offers emailed motivational messages and activities every day for 21 days.

Under Heather Brown’s leadership, Enactus DC prepared a comprehensive competition submission which included a 12-minute video presentation and a detailed annual impact report to highlight this year’s projects. After receiving positive feedback, the team faced two rounds of panel questions, judged by a table of Canadian industry leaders and executives. Their work at the National Exposition paid off when EnactusDC tied their “best-ever” result from last year’s competition.

DC congratulates the Enactus team for their success and would like to thank the faculty for providing ongoing guidance to help lead students’ entrepreneurial efforts to national success.