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 back of the room after all!)
Dave had this to say when accepting the award.
“I’m incredibly grateful for this award and the opportunity it affords for greater awareness of CMNGD. Honestly, many days, we don’t feel like we’re succeeding. While we’ve been able to move 6 people out of the homeless shelters into their own home, we’ve lost touch with many others. While we’ve been able to employ over 16,000 hours at a living wage to people facing poverty based barriers to employment – many have fallen back into our broken systems.
Here’s what we’ve learned – it’s all about mental health. Our success and ability to get up everyday is so intrinsically tied to our own current mental state and ability to navigate life’s hurdles. The more we check in and take care of our people’s mental health – the more success we have. The more I check in with myself and take care of my mental health – the more success we see. Mental Health is the biggest barrier we see now.
We are so grateful for this award, but it also belongs to our investors, our partners and clients and most of all our incredible employees who deserve recognition for being brave and tough enough to keep getting up.
I hope we can all take better care of each other and keep making good more common.”
