In the third quarter of 2004, Vancouver Native Health Society (VNHS) held a number of strategic planning sessions regarding the formation of the Vancouver Aboriginal Social Enterprise (VASE) to create an ongoing revenue stream for the Society.

A social enterprise is defined as a profit seeking venture that uses the profits of its market activities for social good.

Recognizing that there is a need for Aboriginal centric Early Childhood Development (ECD) materials and resources for young Aboriginal parents living in the Vancouver region (and beyond), it was determined that there was an opportunity to transform the need itself into a social enterprise – a self-sustaining revenue generating venture for VNHS.

The Internet and new media production technologies have reduced the cost of entry into publishing and distribution by orders of magnitude, such that it is now possible for a small publishing enterprise to compete in the larger marketplace. One of the key concepts is that the VASE will create its own brand:

The brand will be marketed through a community and Internet based marketing and distribution system founded upon the concept of Social Marketing, where the lion’s share of the proceeds goes to help the good works of the Society and its partners. This unique concept combines celeb- rity branding, world-class product development and social philanthropy with 21st century marketing and communications strategies.

The Vancouver Aboriginal Social Enterprise eliminates a number of steps in the distribution channel and simply re-directs those funds to the social activities of the enterprise and its partners creating a community profit center as well as local employment and opportunity.

VASE will create a series of world class ECD Readers,videos/DVDs and other educational and training materials that will be freely distributed (Value: $160,000.00) within the region as part of a capacity building initiative while forming the initial product offerings for the social enterprise and its community partners.