Startup Stories: Featuring HOPE
This week we are excited to be featuring Vivian Lee, Finance and Human Resources Officer of The HOPE Initiative Foundation, otherwise known as HOPE.
HOPE exists to instill passion within youth and community members to take action towards critical issues in society through solutions that are global in concept, local in execution, and limitless in their ability to create and inspire change.
With their program, HOPE for Community, the foundation enrolls youth in a 12-month curriculum teaching them leadership skills such as team management and public speaking.
We met Vivian last February through our partnership with S.U.C.C.E.S.S. BC. As part of this partnership, we co-hosted a S.U.C.C.E.S.S. & Volition Alumni Showcase Pitch & Connect, where Vivian earned Top Pitch!
Without further ado, we are honoured to introduce you to Vivian Lee.
Let’s start with where we met. You pitched as an alumni of the S.U.C.C.E.S.S. SET program. Can you tell us more about the program and what it was like to pitch in front of a virtual audience?
Even though I have a business degree, I realized that entrepreneurship wasn’t really taught and a lot of the concepts I learned were really textbook, but in the real world it doesn’t work like that and you have to do a lot of market research, and I didn’t know where to start at all.
HOPE for Community is like a startup, where we have to build off things from scratch, so I decided to join the S.U.C.C.E.S.S. SET program to gain more entrepreneurship skills.
I really enjoyed the program, it has a foundational base and is quite inclusive to youth who are trying to build a new business, and you can really go anywhere from that. I also liked the support I received, in terms of advising and guidance.
The shocase was my first time pitching to a larger online audience, and at first I was quite nervous, but Isabel (Volition’s Community and Events Coordinator) was really great in keeping everything organized and that really calmed my nerves.
We’re glad to hear that it was a valuable experience for you. Aside from earning Top Pitch, what are some recent company highlights or wins that we can share?
One of our company highlights is our new HOPE for Community program that champions the value of mutual aid by connecting passionate students with local non-profit organizations (NPOs), charities, and companies who are in need of volunteers.
We help students who participate in our program identify their personal strengths and career interests. With these insights in mind, we match students with community organizations that work in their field of interest. This allows organizations to fulfill their administrative and/or service needs, while students gain tangible skills and connections in the domains they are passionate about.
We take this one step further by helping equip them with the skills they need to initiate their own purpose-driven projects with their matched community organization.
Over the past year, we’ve designed a 12 month curriculum with a number of skills-based workshops for participants which allows students to put these skills to use in their own projects.
We’ve hosted several workshops and a networking event so far!
So, what has been your greatest challenge as an entrepreneur?
One of the challenges of building a startup is the limited resources and lack of predictability.
With the goal of launching our HOPE for Community program within a timeframe of a few months and only 3 members on the initial team, we found that it was necessary for each individual to wear many hats.
While we each bring our unique skills and experiences to the table, we recognized that we needed to increase our capacity in regards to talent and expertise in order to accelerate further. We hired over 10 new team members who add value in various areas and bring new synergies within our growing team.
Given all of this, what is one piece of advice you would give to someone just beginning their startup journey?
Starting a new journey while uncertainties lay ahead may be scary!
The trick is to build a strong mission, vision, and list of core values for your startup that aligns with yourself and to ensure that your team is aligned.
When you face obstacles, reflecting back on why you’re doing what you’re doing becomes your motivation to continue moving forward.
Great tips! As you may know, we define Volition as ‘the will to do what you want and to get it done’. What is your volition?
We work with youth to empower local and global communities.
We believe that youth can be doing much more as humanitarians, so we create spaces and systems that facilitate this. With our past programs, we’ve seen first hand the positive impact we have on students and our community. This is our motivation to continue and make our new program a success.
Our aim is to build and foster a sustainable network of organizational partners, where all parties collaborate to create meaningful change in the community.
This is such a great answer! So–what is your ask today? How can the Volition community support your vision?
At HOPE, we have an adaptable mindset and culture of continuous learning – we are always open to new ideas for collaborations or projects. We look forward to engaging individuals and/or organizations that align with our values of youth empowerment and community building.
In addition to HOPE for Community, we plan to expand our services in mentorship and assist students with their transition to graduate and/or professional schools.
We invite you to join as a mentor to share your expertise and help us meet our objectives of matching 100 youth to 20 organizations by the end of this year.
If you are a community organization, we welcome you to partner with us, so we can grow our community impact together.
If you are a youth or know of any youth who are looking for volunteering opportunities or new community experiences, we welcome you to get in touch with us as well!
Is there anything else that you would like to share before we sign off?
I would highly recommend everyone to join a Volition event. It felt like a safe space to be able to pitch and getting the feedback was very valuable. Paul Brassard really helped me with his advice on how to structure a pitch.
It’s also great to be able to get connections, you never know who is going to attend the event.
Thank you! We appreciate your support. So, how can people best connect with you?
To stay connected, find us on our website at https://thehopeinitiative.ca and on LinkedIn at linkedin.com/company/thehopeinitiativefoundation.
Please feel free to reach out to us at admin@thehopeinitiative.ca.
