I have come to realize that the term social entrepreneur may not be widely understood just yet. Our Education for sustainability and entrepreneurship course has allowed us to create a deeper understanding of entrepreneurship education but that process takes time. I used the term social entrepreneur in a recent discussion with colleagues and some wanted to know exactly what social entrepreneurship is. This was also the case when I spoke with my interviewee. Well then how, you might ask, did you come to interview this social entrepreneur……

The W.R.E.N.C.H

The Wrench is the Winnipeg Repair Education and Cycling Hub and it has been around since 2010.

To simplify, their focus is to empower people of all ages to use cycling as a method of transport and to offer a space for everyone to learn the skills needed to fix their own bikes. This includes providing education and resources, supporting the use of bicycles and promoting other community programs that do the same. They also promote bicycle recycling. I first heard about the wrench through my brother-in-law who was looking to learn how to start his own bike program at his school. The Wrench provided a list of tools that would be needed and gave him a tour of their facility. They are now working with a group of students from his school over the next 8 weeks to learn how to build their own bikes. After a few family discussions, I thought about learning more as it seemed like the work they did fit rather perfectly with social entrepreneurship.

Would this social entrepreneur’s efforts contribute to social, economic, cultural, or environmental health and well-being? Absolutely!

I had the pleasure of speaking with Benita Kliewer at the Wrench who started with a bit of history. I was surprised to learn that there are several volunteer run bike building and repair shops in Winnipeg. They have a collaborative and supportive relationship with one another. One of them is The Bike Dump which is a volunteer run community bicycle education space. The Bike Dump wasn’t able to keep up with the need in the community and created a volunteer board which helped to create new community bicycle education programs such as the Wrench.

When I asked Benita about being a social entrepreneur, she asked for some clarification on what that might mean. I provided some examples and she said that the Wrench and the work they do hits a number of points related to social entrepreneurship. The Wrench is her full-time job and they are a very busy place. Because they offer a number of services we decided to focus on the youth education piece.

Below is their vision and mission with a link to the site:

Their Vision

We envision a world where all people are empowered to use bicycles as transportation and have access to the space to learn bike repair skills regardless of their gender, age, income, ability, ethnicity, or geographic location.

Their Mission

The WRENCH is a non-profit charity that creates stronger, healthier communities by removing barriers to building, repairing and maintaining bicycles with a focus on educating youth. We make bikes accessible to the public by:

•   Providing programming, education and resources for community members, groups and organizations.

•   Supporting emerging and existing school and community bike shops.

•   Promoting bike use and culture within our city & beyond.

http://thewrench.ca/wordpress/who/#vision 

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So, what exactly do they do in terms of educating youth about bikes and cycling? They have an earn-a-bike program with schools and community organizations where kids are empowered to build/fix their own bikes over 8 weeks. They provide the tools, the skills and in the end kids earn a bike, a helmet, a lock and a light, all with minimal cost to the school. If time permits they may also learn bike safety.

Benita explained that they help kids learn a new skill set by getting hands-on experience building a bike. They offer this opportunity to kids from a variety of different socio-economic backgrounds. She pointed out that many kids who don’t have an easy time in the traditional classroom gain confidence and often come back to the shop as a volunteer. She is proud of the fact that their work grows out into the community as youth will often give back by helping someone else learn new skills to build or repair a bike. She talked about kids feeling proud of being the teacher for a change and learning some independence which is maybe something they have never felt before. These thoughts were already sounding much like the kinds of skills we might seek to have kids learn in a project based entrepreneurial and sustainable classroom environment.

I asked Benita if she enjoyed her work? Was she passionate about it and what kinds of barriers did she have to overcome? I must admit her answer surprised me a bit but makes total sense. She has been fixing bikes for a long time. Now her role is somewhat administrative. Her response was, “some days I love it, but other days not so much.” She mentioned that this is likely how most people respond when they talk about work and she’s right. I think that it’s easy to build up in one’s mind that social entrepreneurship will be a constant reward but the funding for innovative non-profit programming similar to what the wrench offers does not always come easily. She talked about the challenges of “sitting at a computer writing grants” and the additional challenges of “chasing money year to year”. This administrative piece is obviously very important but not necessarily what one loves to do.

My final question to Benita was, “how do we inspire creativity and innovation in the community and beyond?” She talked about offering diverse opportunities to youth like art programming, vocational programming and hands-on learning. She also talked about connecting with other organizations and reaching out to the community for after school programming or to have someone come in to work with kids. Her response connects quite perfectly with many of the guiding documents on entrepreneurship education.

The idea of a collaborative community cycling hub that is innovative, sustainable and that empowers and encourages kids to gain new skills and then to get outside and ride their bikes seems like an excellent example of social entrepreneurship at work in Winnipeg.

Visit the W.R.E.N.C.H! There is so much more to learn.

http://thewrench.ca/wordpress/what/#education