Together, We Can Make The World Better

Every year, Sparx hosts our internal purpose-driven event, Make The World Better Day, where we set aside our usual workflows to focus on a day dedicated to doing good. And 2023’s MTWB Day was one for the books!

We had an X-traordinary time gathering together in-person and virtually to enjoy meaningful team building over delicious food and our shared mission to make the world better.

Read on to find out what we did and what we learned, including our impact-focused keynote presentation, the action we took together toward reconciliation in honour of National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, our hackathon, and a Sparx-hosted shoreline cleanup.

An Impact-Focused Keynote

We kicked off the day with a keynote presentation that included a Make The World Better Magazine impact report and a look at the progress we made toward our 2022–2023 goals.

Our impact report covered how many changemakers we’ve featured since launching the magazine in 2021 (forty-three!), along with insights into the magazine, such as reads and impressions, social media performance, and testimonials and feedback, to validate the work we’re doing and help us improve the magazine for readers in the future.

We also took an in-depth look at impact beyond the pages of the magazine, including the Make The World Better Panel at the Canadian Securities Exchange’s Summit On Responsible Investment, our purpose-driven event participation, third-party validations, and community-building activities. 

As well, since we’ve now completed the United Way British Columbia’s Social Purpose Innovators Program, our social purpose statement was unveiled to the team. Stay tuned for our public reveal, which is coming soon!

Following this, we discussed our goals for the rest of 2023 and 2024. Spoiler alert: they revolve around the power of community! We then closed off the presentation with an inspiring speech from Sparx’s Founder and President, Hamish Khamisa.

Taking Action Toward Reconciliation

Driven to make progress on our reconciliation journey, the Sparx team joined the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation’s (NCTR) Taking Action Towards Reconciliation webinar, hosted by Brenda Gunn, Academic and Research Director at NCTR, with special guests Jimmy Durocher, Chairperson of the Île-à-la-Crosse Residential School Committee, Veteran of the Royal Canadian Air Force, Board Member of the Gabriel Dumont Institute, and former President of the Métis Nation of Saskatchewan, and current President of the Métis local in Île-à-la-Crosse; and Dale LeClair, Director of Indigenous and Northern Affairs at Canada Post.

The webinar stressed how important it is that all Canadians learn the truth about residential schools and how they’ve impacted both the country and communities at the local level, that reconciliation will be meaningless if we don’t have the conviction to do something about it, and to really listen to Survivors, have communication with Indigenous communities, and teach our children about what happened.

It was surprising and frustrating to learn that many residential, boarding, and day schools are unrecognized, including Île-à-la-Crosse Residential School in Île-à-la-Crosse, Saskatchewan, which Jimmy Durocher is working hard to get legally recognized. The fact that there are unrecognized schools shows that we all have to do our part to educate ourselves and those around us.

As an example of how to educate others and take action towards reconciliation, Canada Post’s annual Truth and Reconciliation stamp series was spotlighted. This year’s series features archival photographs of residential schools in different parts of Canada, with the hope of raising awareness and sparking conversations and collaborations. The stamps are made in collaboration with Survivors.

Jimmy Durocher reminded us that all Survivors handle their experiences of abuse differently. Some may not be ready to tell their stories and some may never be. As Brenda Gunn said, we all need to share the information about what happened, but Survivor’s stories are personal. If a Survivor shares their story with us, it doesn’t mean we have the right to tell it to someone else. And, if you invite a Survivor to come tell their story, you need health supports in place before, during, and after.

At the end of the day, it’s all about being human, being kind to one another, understanding each other, apologizing, and building positive relationships. It’s about telling the truth of what happened and becoming part of the story that needs to be told.  

To wrap up the webinar, NCTR shared resources, including “Six Actions of ReconciliACTION,” which you can find here. 

Building a New Resource

After the webinar, the Sparx team joined forces for an impact-driven hackathon. We divided up tasks and got to work on two projects: our upcoming impact report and a brand new purpose-driven resource.

Putting our heads down, we made tremendous progress in just two hours. While our new resource (hint: a website you’ll want to check on regularly!) is not up and running just yet, we were able to lay the bricks and build a solid foundation.

We look forward to getting our projects up and running soon. Our guiding principle for our purpose-driven resource was to create something we’d use for ourselves that meets our needs. That’s why we’re certain it’ll be a useful tool for the whole community.

More news on our impact report and our new resource will be forthcoming, so keep your eyes on the Sparx site and get ready for them to ignite! 

Cleaning up the Shoreline

To wrap up Make The World Better Day, we put away our laptops and got out our trash grabbers. Sparx headed to False Creek to help clean up Vancouver’s shoreline. 

Our team was joined by five external volunteers to dedicate an hour to protectinging our planet. Together, we travelled down four blocks and prevented five large-garbage-bags-worth of trash from entering our oceans. In total, we picked up 312 pieces of trash, including 143 cigarette butts, 48 pieces of paper, 43 candy wrappers, and 31 pieces of plastic.

Thanks to the purpose-driven champions who joined us! With your help, we made a real difference in our community. We hope to host more meet-ups like this one in the future!

Together, We Can Make The World Better

Every year, the Sparx team gets excited for Make The World Better Day, and each year, we strive to make a greater impact. Your purpose-driven organization can unite internally or externally to help make an impact too. We hope you’ll create your own events that help make the world better, and if you do, we’d love to hear about it! 

If you’re a purpose-driven organization with a story to share or initiatives changemakers can get behind, reach out to Sparx for a free consultation. We’d love to help amplify your impact.