Ivan Touko
Ivan Touko
CEO & Co-Founder of La Connexional
3
Location
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
Bio

Ivan Touko (He/Him) is one of Alberta’s Top 30 under 30 and a community builder that is passionate about bringing people together, organizing grassroots initiatives and uplifting underserved communities through collaborations and resources-sharing. Originally from Cameroon, West Africa, Ivan moved to Edmonton about 8 years ago. Through his work with La Connexional, a social enterprise founded in 2017 and based in Edmonton, that strives to empower & promote African, Black, Caribbean and Latinx (ABCL) cultures in Alberta & beyond; and the Black-Owned Market (BOM) of Edmonton (YEG), a volunteer collective that creates online and physical spaces that empowers & promotes Black-owned businesses and entrepreneurs; Ivan truly Understand what it takes to intentionally engage, bring together, and build with vibrant and resilient communities.

WIth his passion for bringing people together, to date, Ivan has now organized, hosted and/or been actively part of over 100+ experiences in Alberta.

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Communications Operations Project management Product or service launch Hospitality, tourism & culinary arts

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Recent projects

La Connexional
La Connexional
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

Marketing Internship for Indoor Waterpark Event for a Social Enterprise

The primary focus for the student will be to work on our upcoming Marketing Strategy and Execution for an indoor event at a Waterpark between the periods of June 21st and August 31st. The event will take place on October 29, 2022: Conduct an assessment; identify opportunities and threats facing our event; assess where and how to improve our brand's presence and differentiate from our competitors. Recommend changes, if needed, to advertising and PR materials Investigate our competitive landscape; perform market segmentation to identify the ideal target market. Evaluate our current customer base and make recommendations; review our prospect messaging, make improvement recommendations, and create new outreach content. Develop and implement an SEO strategy; provide content suggestions and recommendations to increase search visibility. Conduct an audit of our current social media presence and/or other current communication channel(s).

Matches 1
Category Social media marketing + 4
Closed
La Connexional
La Connexional
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

Volunteer Program Launch for a BIPOC-focused social enterprise

La Connexional is a community focused social enterprise that is run by a team of dedicated individuals on a part-time basis. We have steadily grown over 4 years, from inaugurating Alberta's only Afro-Latin Festival to building a robust and resilient community through innovative events and workshops. We're currently formalizing our processes and developing new revenue streams in light of the COVID-19 pandemic with the goal of scaling La Connexional nationally and creating impactful employment opportunities. We are currently trying to develop a volunteer program to help execute more community-focused initiatives while providing people with professional development opportunities. Manually and individually executing onboarding tasks with each new volunteer is an inefficient use of our already scarce resources. We want to develop an online course that will introduce volunteers to their new roles, an overview of the company and our initiatives, and provide our HR personnel with standardized feedback and data about volunteers progress. We currently already have access to a few online training platforms we've used in the past such as: Krademy LMS, Spayee and GuruCan and would ideally like to use the same platforms since our team has a good idea of the later. This project can focus on: Creating a clear and concise La Connexional Volunteer Job Description Volunteer Program Outline and principles Volunteer program signup forms Gathering relevant course design and content information . Screening new volunteers. Creating onboarding system for volunteers We would like to automate our onboarding process for this high-turnover department and reduce the time spent by our small team on repetitive onboarding tasks. If this is completed within the time allotted, then further tasks may include, but are not limited to: Assisting in creating HR processes within the company that incorporate DEI principles Assisting in organising existing company resources and transferring them to Notion

Matches 2
Category Training & development + 4
Closed
La Connexional
La Connexional
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

Communications & Grant Writing for BIPOC & Community focused Social Enterprise

La Connexional is a community focused social enterprise that is run by a team of dedicated individuals on a part-time basis. We have steadily grown over 4 years, from inaugurating Alberta's only Afro-Latin Festival to building a robust and resilient community through innovative events and workshops. We're currently formalizing our processes and developing new revenue streams in light of the COVID-19 pandemic with the goal of scaling La Connexional nationally and creating impactful employment opportunities. The sponsorship & grant writer intern will support sponsorship & grant research and application for La Connexional, allowing our social enterprise to tap into unused resources and grow our start-up. This full-time position will focus on developing relationships with new sponsors, and for managing existing relationships. The position will also be responsible for researching and evaluating suitable granting and funding opportunities, and for compiling the information needed to apply for such grants and funds. We are looking for assistance in finding and completing grant applications that support our mission and vision statement. We believe this project will include: Assist with defining a company-identified community problem and defining the scope of a corresponding project. Develop a needs statement that characterizes the community problem and justifies the need for our project and funding. Develop initiatives to recruit new sponsors. Draft sponsorship packages and grant applications for a variety of La Connexional events, venues and programs Maintain a suitable database of all sponsorship activity such as progress timelines and contract values Writing reports and assisting with writing grant applications in terms of conceptualization and articulation. Identify grant agencies and networks with potential to fund La Connexional initiatives and venues Identify potential sponsors and funding opportunities that are a good fit for our organization and project. Interpret a request for proposal (RFP). Research, plan, write, edit, and revise a persuasive proposal narrative. Improve the clarity and persuasiveness of our company's grant proposal writing. Research into other grant opportunities to support our cause We would also provide access to a number of different online & proposal tools (such as canva, freshproposals, etc...) and we are very open to acquiring new ones to help the chose intern achieve their goals. Our handle is @laconnexional across all socials. Give us a follow ! If you like the signts and sound of our culture, and are ready to tackle this challenge with us, then we'd love to hear from you. A student or team with excellent writing, would be the ideal candidate for this project. We encourage people from all walks of life and backgrounds to apply.

Matches 1
Category Grant writing + 4
Closed
La Connexional
La Connexional
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

Venture for Canada Intrapreneurship Project - LaTandao

PROJECT DESCRIPTION/DESCRIPTION DU PROJET: La Connexional is a community focused social enterprise, recently turned creative consulting agency that is run by a team of dedicated individuals and volunteers. We have steadily grown over 4 years, from inaugurating Alberta's only Afro x Latin Festival which grew from 150 guests to over 800 in 3 years; to connecting cross-country, and international networks of creatives, all the while building resilient physical and virtual communities through innovative initiatives, events, and workshops such as LaTandao . Through La Connexional, we have collectively donated over 25,000+ hours; hosted, collaborated on and/or been part of over 60+ community events; worked with and/or featured 150+ creatives and entrepreneurs; welcomed over 3000+ guests both in-person and virtually; established partnerships and lasting relationships with over 100+ businesses and organizations with a reach across Alberta and Canada. Throughout the years, we estimate that we’ve been honored to have contributed (directly and indirectly) to reinvesting over $60K in the African, Black, Caribbean and Latin communities. At La Connexional, we are passionate about doing our part to build capacity within our communities while ensuring we prioritize care, empathy, as well as the personal and professional wellness of the amazing folks that are part of our team. We use Nifty for our project management While the MVP for our LaTandao mobile app is being built, tested, and validated, we are looking to build a user-friendly online directory for African, Black, Caribbean and Latine ( ABCL ) owned businesses in Alberta using a third-party platform that does not require any hard skills in order to start generating exposure about our mobile application while providing a temporary resource to connect our community. The software we invested in does not required any prior software/development skills to build since the tool takes care of all the heavy lifting and the bulk of the work goes into designin g the platform. KEY PROJECT ACTIVITIES/TÂCHES ASSOCIÉES AU PROJET: Learn how to efficiently use the Directory Platform through self-learning videos Build and Design the Directory Create a video tutorial to show business how to register their busines on the platform Create presentations and pitch deck for the Alberta LaTandao Directory Raise awareness (media, press, social media) about the directory and reach out to ABCL businesses Manage the directory Publish media content related to their experience building the directory (blog, interview, podcast) IDEAL ROLES/RESPONSIBILITIES/RÔLES/RESPONSABILITÉS:* Project coordinator Public relations and outreach coordinator Communications outreach Social Media Coordinator FINAL PROJECT DELIVERABLES/LIVRABLES DU PROJET: Launch the online directory within the first 4 weeks Reach out to at least 50 ACBL owned businesses Reach out to at least 10 media outlets Present the LaTandao pitch deck to the La Connexional team Publish a media piece WHAT IS THE MAXIMUM NUMBER OF STUDENTS YOUR PROJECT COULD ACCOMMODATE?/QUEL EST LE NOMBRE MAXIMUM D'ÉTUDIANTS QUE VOTRE PROJET PEUT ACCUEILLIR? * Please note we cannot guarantee this number of students for your project, but we will do our best to accommodate this request/Veuillez noter que nous ne pouvons garantir ce nombre d'étudiants pour votre projet; nous ferons de notre mieux pour répondre à votre requête. 4 students maximum

Matches 2
Category Product or service launch + 4
Closed
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