LEAP | Pecaut Centre for Social Impact’s Board of Directors is pleased to announce that Dr. Lorna Read will be the organization’s new Managing Director, effective January 11, 2021.

Meaningful change is in store for public health. LEAP | Pecaut Centre for Social Impact announced today the 11 social ventures selected for Healthy Futures, an accelerator designed to scale initiatives that help Canadians to move more, sit less, eat better, and stop smoking. The aim is to prevent unhealthy behaviours contributing to chronic diseases impacting Canadians, a concerning trend that has been magnified by the COVID-19 pandemic. Over the next five years, LEAP will partner with the ventures to improve the lives of over two million Canadians annually.

LEAP | Pecaut Centre for Social Impact today launched a new accelerator to scale initiatives that will help Canadians move more, sit less, eat better, and stop smoking. Called Healthy Futures, the accelerator will support innovative solutions that help to prevent the unhealthy behaviours contributing to chronic diseases affecting Canadians. This work is even more urgent now due to COVID-19. Applications for Healthy Futures can be made today at: www.leap-pecautcentre.ca/healthyfutures

COVID-19 has exacerbated social issues and created an imperative for non-profit leaders to think out of the box. It will take creativity, courage, and compassion to ensure no Canadian is left behind as this crisis unfolds.

Over the past 12 months, we’ve seen up close that Canadian non-profits can do tremendous things when they are given not only the tools, but also the room to fail and the freedom to spend capital where they most need it in order to meet their bigger goals. The lessons we have learned together over the past year are applicable far and wide.

At one and the same time, the late David Pecaut exemplified the power of one person to make positive change, and the unique power of teamwork in moving mountains. Weeks before his death, Pecaut wrote that “The potential of Toronto lies not so much within its architectural or economic or social possibilities as in what it could represent to the world as a place where amazing things get done.”

Stop Now And Plan (SNAP), Canada’s leading mental health program for children with behavioural problems, has been selected by the Centre.