An article written by three York University community members that examines the University’s successful social procurement program was selected by the Coalition of Urban & Metropolitan Universities – a leading international organization – to be published in the latest issue of its journal, Metropolitan Universities.
Titled “Intersecting Assets: How Successful Community Engagement Built a Leading Social Procurement Program at York University,” the article was written by Brent Brodie, senior procurement analyst and project lead from Strategic Procurement Services; Shawna Teper, chief of government and community relations and protocol; Lorna Schwartzentruber, associate director of access, programs and community engagement; and Byron Gray, manager of the Community Engagement Centre.
Using the formation and development of York’s social procurement program as test case, the article – available for all to read – lays out the journey and outcomes of this initiative.
For the uninitiated, social procurement is a process that considers how buying goods and services can positively impact the social well-being of communities and assist in reducing poverty, promoting economic and social inclusion, and supporting local economic development and social enterprises.
It is something York has prioritized since it launched a social procurement policy in 2020, one of the first of its kind among Canadian institutions. The policy’s purpose is to increase the number of employment, apprenticeship and training opportunities for people from the University’s local neighbourhoods and other equity-seeking communities, and for Indigenous Peoples, and to broaden York’s supply chain by providing diverse vendors with equitable access to tender opportunities to foster inclusive economic growth.
Since the launch of York’s efforts, key community partnerships have led to successful program outcomes – which, to date, have amounted to over $8 million spent on diverse suppliers, 63 apprenticeship opportunities created and several awards received.
That success has been driven, too, by memorandums of understanding with other universities, as well as the creation of a social procurement vendor portal – developed as an open-source tool – to better facilitate diverse-owner business and enterprise to register with York.
The article highlights these efforts, and puts a particular emphasis on – as the authors write – “how strategic community partnerships form the bedrock of successful institutional community engagement activities,” and how York pursuing those partnerships has led to successful outcomes.
It concludes that, “By listening to community stakeholders’ voices in shaping the outcomes, the institution can concentrate on designing a successful program to satisfy those ends.” In the process, the authors hope that York’s efforts – and how they’re highlighted in the article – can help encourage other institutional practitioners to adopt similar efforts focused on promoting truly effective community economic development.