The Community Ideas Factory (CIF) is a community-college-private sector partnership that seeks to foster social innovation and social good. The CIF has engaged more than 50 non-profits agencies, numerous private sector actors, and countless students on projects that address issues such as affordable housing, food security, employment equity, charitable-giving, educational savings and financial empowerment.
About Us
The Community Ideas Factory (CIF) is a unique, community-college-private sector partnership that seeks to foster innovation in the Social Economy by connecting the talent, facilities, networks, resources and capabilities of the College with the needs and the efforts of the non-profit community in and around the Halton Region. Since its inception in 2016, the CIF has engaged more than 50 non-profits agencies, numerous private sector actors, and hundreds of social program stakeholders and Sheridan students in applied research projects on topics ranging from: affordable housing, food security, employment equity, wrap-around programming, education savings, and charitable giving behaviours in a time of Covid. Outcomes of our work at the CIF include: conception and design of new agency programs, policy reports, new data to drive decision-making, agency website upgrades, academic-community conference papers, and numerous academic publications.
For those on the front- lines of social justice work, the CIF is a valuable resource and ally in terms of its ability to mobilize new technologies, equipment, resources and other capabilities in support of beneficial social change efforts. For the college, affording students the opportunity to work directly on applied research projects for social change provides invaluable experiential learning opportunities that allow them to hone their technical skills
while simultaneously developing the softer aptitudes and social awareness that characterize global citizens.
