It’s 1am on a Friday and I’m on a makeshift dance floor at the home of Joel and Dana Solomon on Cortes Island, British Columbia, 100 miles north of Vancouver. A lovely house that caresses both forest and ocean, it’s a perfect spot for a party.

The guy to my left is a life/business coach and investor. He’s come to the Social Venture Institute (SVI) Hollyhock to see, learn, listen. And, apparently, to dance. The chatty dude to my right was the CEO of a renowned Vancouver nonprofit and has now started his own organization. He talks to me about the ever-growing landscape for social enterprise, his visionary cadence in sync with the boom boom boom of the 80s playlist. The rest of the gang are spread out across the house or sitting by the open fire pit in the front yard, the meta-chatter around social change a distinct harmonizing accompaniment to the evening.

After eight years of planning, development, hoping and dreaming, this month the W2 Community Media Arts Centre finally opened its doors. This ambitious project aims to serve the working class community of Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside—Canada’s poorest postal code, and a neighbourhood made notorious by drug abuse, slumlords and heartbreak.

It doesn’t seem that long ago that everything you bought was “Made in Taiwan” or “Made in Japan”. It was the era of All in the Family, Big Yellow Taxi and The Female Eunuch. Social taboos went mainstream, environmental consciousness came out of the shadows, and traditional institutions began to lose influence. Our mothers drove us to weekend activities in smoke-filled cars, dads liberally sprayed pesticides on the yards where we played, and they both let us roam the neighbourhood on bikes – unsupervised – and without helmets, no less. Seems almost radical now. But not as radical as what’s taking place in Asia.

This month, on the 8th of March, Canada joins many other countries around the world to celebrate International Women's Day. Originally called International Working Women’s Day, it was first celebrated on the 19th of March, 1911 in Germany after a declaration from the Socialist Party of America broadcast on the radio. Today, the celebration’s focus ranges from one of respect, appreciation and love toward women, to a celebration of women's economic, political and social achievements in parts of the world where there is place for improvement regarding women’s quality of life and rights.