Print-shop training program makes an impression

By JAMIE KOMARNICKI (Globe and Mail)

TORONTO, June 25, 2008 – Andrew Macdonald doesn't claim he was born with ink flowing through his veins.

But he does have ideas - lots of them - coursing through him.

Where others see crisp business cards and bright pamphlets, Mr. Macdonald saw a way to teach homeless and at-risk youth a trade that can launch them into self-sustaining careers.

Today, the 35-year-old social-enterprise innovator - and recipient of a Vital People grant from the Toronto Community Foundation - pumps his passion into the Phoenix Print Shop, a business he helped start seven years ago.

Once an empty room in an old firehall near Strachan Avenue and King Street West, today the fully operational print shop churns out about $400,000 a year in products for commercial customers.

The real results, though, are the newly trained young people, said Mr. Macdonald, eyes crinkling as his grin spread wide.

They graduate eight at a time from the three-month graphics training course that operates alongside the press shop tucked away in a corner of the Eva's Phoenix transitional housing and training facility.

The smell of ink hangs heavy in the air inside the 800-square-foot classroom/shop where the trainees learn the basics of computer graphics programming and the mechanics of the business - such as how to run a cutter, folder and shrink-wrapping machine.

"It's not sexy stuff, but it's where employers need help," Mr. Macdonald said. "We're a very practical program."

A graduate of Upper Canada College, Mr. MacDonald, who grew up in the Mount Pleasant Road-St. Clair Avenue area, said he wrestled with becoming absorbed in a comfortable lifestyle. He spent his last semester of high school in Guyana on an exchange program and began casting about for ways to make a difference.

"I'm not sure exactly where it came from. A desire to help, a desire in a tiny way to make this planet more livable."

Eight years ago, fresh from building health clinics and schools in rural Central and South America with a Canadian volunteer agency, he returned to try his hand at community development in his hometown.

Right away he was drawn to Eva's Phoenix, with its innovative urban-warehouse shelter for about 50 people between the ages of 15 and 30.

What's more, he saw a way to delve into the up-and-coming social-enterprise field, a commercial hybrid in which a community group operates an independent business. That's when he began tossing around the idea for the print shop.

"I think it's a little bit magnetic, but I seem to be drawn to things that are just starting."

His work was celebrated yesterday along with that of 28 other people and organizations awarded grants by the Toronto Community Foundation for their work tackling social challenges. The recipients are those who put together innovative programs that dovetail with the city's most pressing needs, said foundation president and CEO Rahul Bhardwaj.

Recipients of the $9.6-million in grants were varied. Among them were: human-rights lawyer Paola Gomez; pedestrian activist Kelsey Carriere; a mental-health centre serving lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transsexual/transgendered youth (Central Toronto Youth Services' Gender Play program); and a youth-run organization that uses arts and projects to make learning accessible (Schools Without Borders).

Mr. Macdonald used his $3,500 grant to further his education with a business course at York University's Schulich School of Business.

Though he didn't have a background in graphic design - he earned a bachelor's degree in international development from McGill University in Montreal and a master's in environmental science from York University - he saw that while the market was saturated with graphic illustrators, there was a demand for people to carry out the mechanical aspects of the trade.

The shop, which uses vegetable-based ink and eco-conscious Bullfrog power, has about 140 paying customers that help generate revenue for the social side of the enterprise. It runs as a school from 7:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., while the commercial side operates in the same room during normal business hours.

About 75 students staying in the transitional shelter have completed the training course, Mr. Macdonald said. But the number on which he is most keen is 51: the graduates who have held down a job in the industry for at least six months.