Digital Opportunity Trust

Digital Opportunity Trust (DOT) is a Canadian charitable organization[1] and social enterprise that provides technology, entrepreneurship and leadership training programs for young people in East Africa, the Middle East, Latin America, and Canada.[2] The organization's headquarters are in Ottawa, Ontario, with local operations around the globe. Since the organization was founded in 2001, DOT has directly affected more than 6,000 young people worldwide,[3] who have gone on to reach over 1 million of their fellow community members.[4] More than 90% of alumni go on to either secure employment or start their own businesses within six months of completing DOT programming.[5]

For the United States federal trust, see Digital Opportunity Investment Trust.

DOT’s stated mission is "to create a youth-led movement of daring social innovators who have the tools, knowledge and networks to create opportunities and transform their own communities".[6]

The DOT model

DOT operates under a youth-leading-youth model. Each of its economic, education and leadership programs are facilitated by recent graduates from the local area.[7] Those team members are called DOT Interns. Interns go through a month-long training process where they learn writing, collaboration, facilitation and coaching skills.[3] They then offer DOT's signature programs at partner organizations across their country. Each DOT Intern is projected to affect 200 of their peers.[8]

DOT's programs include:[9]

  • ReachUp! - an economic program that trains university and college graduates to deliver technology, business, and workforce readiness skills
  • StartUp! - an entrepreneurship program that addresses the business and technology skills needed to scale already existing businesses and to create sustainable, customer-centric small and medium-sized enterprises
  • TeachUp! - an information and communications technology program that places young university graduates in schools to guide and assist teachers with integrating technology into their classrooms. TeachUp! is offered in Lebanon and Mexico
  • IBM's Corporate Service Corps program - Since 2008, DOT has been working with IBM to implement its employee leadership and global citizenship program. IBM Corporate Service Corps deploys IBM employees to countries around the world to help solve local challenges and build leadership skills of the employees and the community members.[10] As one of four international partners, DOT co-ordinates IBM employees assigned to 11 countries around the world,[11] including China, Turkey, Egypt and Kenya.[12]

Leadership

DOT's president and CEO is Janet Longmore, who has been recognized as a leading social entrepreneur. In 2013, she was named a Social Entrepreneur of the Year by the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship,[13] becoming only the second Canadian to win the award.[14] She has also been named a senior fellow with Ashoka Canada for her leadership at DOT.[15] Longmore is a member of the World Economic Forum.[16]

David Johnston, a former Governor General of Canada, was DOT's first chair of the board of directors,[17] a role he held during his time as the president of the University of Waterloo. The current chairman of the board is Patrick Gossage, who served as press secretary to former Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau.[18]

Expansion

Indigenous Canada
In fall 2014, DOT launched ReachUp! North, its first program in Canada targeted at Indigenous youth.[19] The program adapts DOT's international ReachUp! program to meet the unique needs of First Nations, Métis and Inuit youth in Ottawa, and adds a cultural component to the workplace and digital skills training.[20] The program is meant to help counter higher-than-average rates of unemployment[21] among Aboriginal youth in Canada.

Ethiopia
During 2023 funding from the Government of Canada was in support of youth employment programming in urban Ethiopia.[22] The $10 million contribution aims to build the entrepreneurship and business skills of 75,000 young people in the country by 2018. The grant will also help DOT Ethiopia establish a series of business development service centers in Addis Ababa, Hawassa and Mekele.[23][24]

Youth-Led Enterprise and Development Program
The Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development Canada has also supported DOT through its Youth-Led Enterprise and Development Program. The current $6.9 million contribution is projected to help 88,000 young African women and men in Kenya, Rwanda, Ethiopia, Tanzania and Uganda.[25]

West Africa
In October 2014, DOT received a grant from The Rockefeller Foundation in order to determine the feasibility of its model "to address digital skills development and job placement for high potential, disadvantaged youth in Ghana".[26] The grant is part of The Rockefeller Foundation’s Digital Jobs Africa Initiative.[27]

References
  1. "Digital Opportunity Trust - Quick View". Canada Revenue Agency. Retrieved 13 March 2019.
  2. "Digital Opportunity Trust (DOT)". Canada Helps. Retrieved 13 March 2019.
  3. Herman, Dan (24 October 2014). "Solutions to Youth Unemployment - An Excerpt". deepcentre. Retrieved 27 January 2015.
  4. Ashoka (27 October 2014). "Africa: 3 Tech Innovations that are Solving Youth Unemployment in Africa". allAfrica. Retrieved 27 January 2015.
  5. "Three More Leading Social Entrepreneurs Elected Ashoka Fellows in Canada". canada.ashoka.org. Ashoka Canada. Retrieved 27 January 2015.
  6. "About Digital Opportunity Trust". Digital Opportunity Trust. Retrieved 13 March 2019.
  7. "Our Impact". Digital Opportunity Trust. Retrieved 13 March 2019.
  8. "Digital Opportunity Trust 2013 Annual Report". Digital Opportunity Trust. Retrieved 27 January 2015.
  9. "Program Overview". Digital Opportunity Trust. Retrieved 27 January 2015.
  10. "Corporate Service Corps". IBM. Retrieved 28 January 2015.
  11. "Our Impact". Digital Opportunity Trust. Retrieved 13 March 2019.
  12. "Corporate Service Corps - Icons of Progress". IBM. 7 March 2012. Retrieved 28 January 2015.
  13. "Janet Longmore". Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship.
  14. Geddes, John (15 February 2013). "Entrepreneurs against poverty: a Canadian wins a prize". Maclean's. Retrieved 27 January 2015.
  15. "Three More Leading Social Entrepreneurs Elected Ashoka Canada Fellows". Ashoka Canada.
  16. "Janet Longmore". World Economic Forum. Retrieved 27 January 2015.
  17. Pleiter, Shelley (Summer 2013). "Making Waves". Smith Magazine. Queen’s University. Archived from the original on 5 October 2017.
  18. "Strategic Partners". Media Profile. Retrieved 27 January 2015.
  19. Vollmershausen, Amanda (16 October 2014). "Carleton students help bring new aboriginal skills program to Canada". The Charlatan. Retrieved 27 January 2015.
  20. Mabie, Elizabeth (5 November 2014). "Indigenous program reaches out to promote entrepreneurship". Algonquin Times. Retrieved 27 January 2015.
  21. "3". YOUTH EMPLOYMENT IN CANADA: CHALLENGES AND POTENTIAL SOLUTIONS. Parliament of Canada. June 2014. Retrieved 21 September 2022.
  22. "Project profile: Entrepreneurship and Business Growth for Youth". Retrieved 27 January 2015.
  23. "DOT Ethiopia launches five-year entrepreneurship and business growth initiative". Digital Opportunity Trust. Archived from the original on 17 August 2014. Retrieved 27 January 2015.
  24. Torres-Rahman, Zahid (2023-03-02). "Refugee Employment Through Remote Work: How Na'amal is Creating Change". Business Fights Poverty. Retrieved 2023-03-13.
  25. "Project profile: Youth-Led Enterprise and Development". Retrieved 28 January 2015.
  26. "Digital Opportunity Trust". The Rockefeller Foundation. Retrieved 27 January 2015.
  27. "Digital Jobs Africa".
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