interview with kalen taylor, purpose construction

This week we begin a series of interviews with enterprise managers who follow principles consistent with Social and Ecological Thought. All interviews were conducted by Savanna Vagianos for a research project at the University of Manitoba. We are grateful for this research, the permission of all parties to post these recordings, and for Jonathan and Paul Dyck who provided audio editing and background music, respectively. Again, these interviews were originally for a research project, so the sound quality is not ideal. However, we believe these are still worth sharing. 

The first interview is with Kalen Taylor, the Executive Director of Purpose Construction. Purpose is a construction company in Winnipeg that hires people facing multiple barriers to employment. It was initially started to hire people who had finished a 6-month training program called BUILD Inc, an acronym that stands for "Building Urban Industries for Local Development." Today 60 percent of Purpose Construction’s employees are refugees and newcomers to the country. 

---