12-week cohort-based program
12-15 ventures per cohort (1-2 participants from each venture, must include the Founder)
Targeted mentorship and collaborations via partnerships with creatives and tech partners
Weekly in-person Peer Circles
Office hours with mentors, advisors, etc.
Garrick is the Program Lead for KITE Creates, an initiative at the University Health Network’s KITE Research Institute that is building bridges between healthcare, creative technology, media, education and design innovators to unlock novel, more human-centred approaches to caring for people with increasingly complex accessibility needs. From inclusive media to accessible communities and fashion technology, KITE Creates offers pathways for emerging and established creative industry professionals to collaborate with healthcare researchers and ventures. Garrick has a background in impact storytelling, arts management and sustainability – having served diverse mandates in non-profit arts management, corporate sustainability and strategy and communications consulting. Garrick is a mentor in the social entrepreneurship community and has served as a graduate-level instructor for several major Canadian universities. He holds an MBA in Business & Sustainability from the Schulich School of Business.
Helen is a Research Associate for KITE Creates and the Fabric Based Research Platform. FIBRE is the first-of-its-kind academic research platform in the field of textile-based wearable technologies. Its mission is to make care accessible to people through technology by designing, introducing, and integrating smart textiles across the healthcare system. Helen is a specialist in textiles and fashion technology, with considerable experience in both the Toronto and London (UK) cultural sectors. An experienced operations and project design/delivery professional, she has taught within, and consulted for, universities in the UK and Canada, providing textile specific knowledge. Committed to inclusive education, she fosters partnership, collaboration and shared knowledge, driving solutions for design challenges. She holds MA’s in Textiles and Arts Administration and Policy Management from the University of London (UK), as well as an Industrial Textile Design degree from Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh (UK) and has been a practicing artist for over twenty years.
Anthony is the Director of Partnerships and Strategic Initiatives at KITE at the University Health Network (UHN), where he leads initiatives across a complete spectrum of business development and outreach activities. Outcomes at KITE include the creation of new diagnostic/treatment methods, the development/commercialization of innovative products/devices, and policy changes.
Chryssa is a social entrepreneur, facilitator, coach with a 20-year career in the non-profit/charitable sector. She has worked with some of Canada’s most recognizable non-profits, including the University of Toronto, Sick Kids Hospital, The Heart and Stroke Foundation, and the Artists' Health Centre Foundation. As founding Executive Director she helped bring a small group of artists together with hospital executives in an unconventional partnership to launch the first alternative health clinic for artists at Toronto Western Hospital. Chryssa has also served as Managing Director of the School for Social Entrepreneurs (SSE) Canada, where she has helped hundreds of social entrepreneurs build and scale their ventures. Additionally, Chryssa coaches executives and entrepreneurs to help them get unstuck through action learning and unlearning and is a community activator for the BMW Foundation. She holds an MBA from the Schulich School of Business.
