Georgian College, YMCA help open Community Impact Lab in Huntsville

The Community Impact Lab is opening at the Huntsville Library in partnership with Georgian College and the YMCA of Simcoe/Muskoka.

Georgian College, YMCA Simcoe Muskoka and Huntsville teamed up to open a new Community Impact Lab in the town’s library, a space that they hope will spark rural innovation and sustainability for years to come.

Community leaders filled Huntsville Public Library to celebrate the lab’s ribbon-cutting and to get a first look at the decorated problem-solving roadmap.

“This is about an accessible location for all those to come to innovate, to collaborate, to try and solve those challenges in our communities,” said Kevin Weaver, Georgian College President and CEO.

Just like similar ‘labs’ across Barrie and Innisfil, Huntsville’s new Community Impact Lab outlines a step-by-step process for students, residents and organizations to tackle the region’s biggest issues.

It was made possible by the college and its partnership with the library and YMCA.

“We’re acting together to stimulate solutions to create a thriving community,” said Jill Tettmann, YMCA of Simcoe/Muskoka president and CEO.

“We have the local Chamber and BIA just to name a few who do come to use this space for meetings,” said David Tremblay, Huntsville Public Library CEO and chief librarian. “It really just adds value to further help them in their own initiatives.”

The lab’s four steps are exploring, framing, shifting and reflecting. Its main focuses are promoting engagement, providing necessary resources and fostering belonging and inclusivity.

“(It gives) you a selection of tools, what we call canvasses, where you can work together, have dialogue and co-create sort of that future state around the common issue,” explained Nicole Norris, Georgian College director of social innovation. “All of these tools handle the complexity of both our social and economic space that we are dealing with right now. What we have really done is we have adapted them so they can handle the complexity of our communities.”

According to Jeff Lehman, District Municipality of Muskoka chair and economist, structure is a must when discussing issues of health care, climate and housing.

“We’ve all been to meetings where there’s lots of good ideas but maybe not a lot of structure and then that follow-up doesn’t happen and you have to say, ‘Did that really work too well?’,” said Lehman. “Georgian’s got the tools that make these conversations work well.”

And although the college is set to close two of its campuses, Weaver says this initiative shows that they are not going anywhere.

“This is a primary example of how we’re going to show up,” said Weaver. “We’re just going to do things a little differently, so we’re really excited about what this innovation lab means to the community.”

The lab is now officially open to the public and community members are invited to come check it out and make the most of it as a resource for developing solutions to local challenges.