TELUS STORYHIVE + CMNGD PRESENTs

2021 CMNGD Documentary

Breaking barriers

creating radical connections through trauma-informed + community centred care.

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The Band Aid Approach

Homelessness. Mental Illness. Addiction.

For years we have been treating these problems with band aid solutions like homeless shelters and rehabilitation centres.

Worldwide, homeless shelters have a 5% success rate of moving people into permanent housing and drug rehabilitation centres only have a 20% success rate.

So why do we keep investing in solutions that are clearly not effective?

Our most vulnerable are on the margins

What is the root of the problem?

Addiction, mental illness and homelessness are symptoms of a deeper problem. The stigma that all these things have happened to people because they simply made bad choices is heartbreaking. People who show these symptoms have gone through repeated trauma, whether physical, emotional, or sexual abuse, which led them into a downward spiral, leaving them disconnected from society and any resources. 

Abuse
 

Neglect
 

Household Dysfunction

“We need to stand in AWE and COMPASSION for what people with trauma have had to carry rather than in judgement on how they carried it.”

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The opposite to addiction is not sobriety, it's connection.

-Johann Hari - TED TALK
creating radical connections

the dream

Rooted in community is where connection lives. We want to make good more common in business, with a community of social enterprises that are growing their businesses on their own terms. this includes radical actions in: 

  • Deconstructing hierarchal business structures
  • Decolonizing the business model
  • Creating a community profit sharing model
 
The reality of COVID is that the inequities only get bigger.  People living in shelters are at high risk, and would be put at further risk if employed, typically in low paying frontline jobs. 

The rich are getting richer, the poorer are getting poorer. We want to work with systems changemakers that understand the complexities and want to work on new models and mindsets outside the current systems; taking thoughtful iterative action, in a heart forward approach. 

“There’s no downside, absolutely no downside to switching to COMMONGOOD. The experience is better, it’s easier and it’s local.”

- CMNGD's first social enterprise -

COMMONGOOD LAUNDRY

CLEAN AND SIMPLE BILLING

BI-WEEKLY DELIVERIES

WASH ONLY SERVICES

LOCAL & FAMILY
OWNED

COMMUNITY IMPACT

CUSTOM
APPAREL

- Making Good more common in business -

THE COMMONGOOD DIFFERENCE

HOSPITALITY | HEALTH & WELLNESS | VETS | FUNERAL HOMES | UNIFORMS

LINEN
SERVICES

BATHROOM
SUPPLIES

CLEANING
PRODUCTS

COMMUNITY
IMPACt

When CMNGD (COMMONGOOD) started in 2016, we scaled out of the basement of the local homeless shelter.  Over the years we have tested different ways for the model to work, then COVID hit and we lost 95% of our clients (restaurants) in the first week.  It became clear it was time to iterate again. 

Here are our impact numbers from 2016 to March 2020.

$ 0 M
IMPACT IN 3 YEARS

Homelessness is not free – it costs our systems around $50,000 per person, per year to be homeless in Canada; with 50% being spent on health, then the rest on legal, housing and food. Every time CMNGD employed someone who was facing poverty barriers, we were putting impact dollars back into the community.

0 K+
HOURS OF IMPACT EMPLOYMENT

Our former employees have become active members of the community; paying taxes, shopping local, attending school and volunteering.  We provided on the job training, mentorship and worked with local social service agencies to remove barriers to obtaining their ID, bank account and education.

$ 0
FOR EVERY DOLLAR INVESTED

For every $1 invested into CMNGD, $2.48 of value was created in impact.  CMNGD would not exist without the private investment and non-traditional funding like the Social Enterprise Fund in Alberta, SheEO and ATB BoostR. Our employees were paying taxes, shopping locally + engaging more.

Currently we are partnered with a locally owned + operated laundry in Calgary, proceeds from every sale that comes through CMNGD, goes to the trauma-informed + community centred mentorship we are currently exploring + embarking on with local shelters. 

- Some of Our -

Partner Stories

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CMNGD NEWS

Oprah Magazine Feature

Exactly one week after attending the Global Summit, Cree joined an emergency “all-call,” a global zoom meeting of SheEO investors and the owners of the companies they finance to discuss how the pandemic was impacting them.

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Creating Community with Social Hiring

There are many stories as to why CMNGD (COMMONGOOD) started. People’s stories are woven into the fabric of what we do. We scaled our model out of the basement of a homeless shelter. There, we met Dan. He lived in the homeless shelter and worked in their laundry, volunteering every day. Now he was going to work for us –

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Calgary Chamber of Commerce

Award: Social Entrepreneurship 2018

Small Business Week is a big deal in Calgary and this year, it was even a bigger deal for CMNGD (COMMONGOOD). Dave & Hannah Cree, Co-founders and Co-CEOs were surprised and honoured to receive the 2018 Social Entrepreneurship Award from the Calgary Chamber of Commerce. (They were pretty sure they didn’t receive the award, they were seated at the very

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