Now What, So What, What’s Next?

By this report’s publication date (late 2020), several Shift Lab-driven prototypes will be in various stages of execution, including:

• The Anti-Racism Box, the first of which will have been received by more than 1,000 subscribers. ECF funded another 1,000 in August and so 2,000 boxes will be out in Alberta and beyond by the fall. Plans are underway for three more boxes as part of the continuous learning subscription. • The Treaty 6 awareness game, “Exploring Wahkotowin,” which will have completed an initial round of play-testing • The De-Escalators brochure, will be distributed to at least one participating Edmonton public high school in the fall • The Reflection Pool App, which will move from wireframe to development status

All four will join “Diversity Certified”, a prototype from Shift Lab 1.0, which will be in piloting stage in 2020, due to a grant from the Alberta Real Estate Foundation and a partnership with E4C, a local housing, community and social services organization in Edmonton.

Each prototype will require support (financial, organizational, promotional) from community partners to move them towards successful piloting and scaling.

Top and bottom: Core Teams presenting prototype concepts to one another

Will There Be a Shift Lab 3.0?

We have been on the Shift Lab journey for more than five years now. If there will be a Shift Lab 3.0, a number of considerations, decisions and partnerships will have to be made to answer this question.

We are holding and exploring questions like: • Is another lab with community Core Teams creating new prototypes needed at present? • Should Shift Lab leaders focus on building capacity to help organizations and communities with stewarding their own labs around complex issues? • What mechanisms, roles and systems are required to ensure there is continued support of prototypes and ability to access the required funding? • Should Shift Lab become a non-profit or a charity to be able to continue incubating prototypes? • What roles and funding is required to keep prototypes from Shift Lab 1.0 and 2.0 moving? • How can we continue to share our learning around centring Indigenous knowledge authentically in social

innovation? • Should each prototype become their own organization or should the prototypes get absorbed in other organizations with capacity to keep moving them forward? • With support, should we continue the international anti-racism speaker’s series?

We welcome ideas and support around these options, as we know from the teams testing the prototypes that they have merit for anti-racism systems change — and we all want to see them grow their impact.

Please follow us at www.edmontonshiftlab.ca and on social media — @yegshiftlab on Twitter and Instagram, and Shift Lab on Facebook. Get in touch if you know someone or an organization looking to support innovative, community based anti-racism interventions.

Core Team designing during the fourth lab sprint