Community Solutions
Dan Hendry is more than just a social innovator
He is a facilitator, mentor, and communicator, Dan has focused his energy and efforts on making Kingston a sustainable, livable, and smart city. He works to educate young people, giving them the skills necessary to make informed choices about living sustainably in a changing world. With over 15 years of experience in entrepreneurship, sustainability and social innovation, Dan’s work is community-based and serves the purpose of changing systems to a sustainable model.
Youth Transit Programming
A decade ago, Dan helped lead the charge and developed a simple but powerful model to transform public transportation, that has changed the transportation model in the City of Kingston. In his role with the Limestone District School Board, alongside the City of Kingston (Kingston Transit) we created the Kingston Transit High School Bus Pass Program back in 2012, offering high school students in the City, free bus passes.
On-bus orientation and free passes have increased high school ridership from 28,000 to close to 600,000 (pre-COVID) annually in Kingston, Ontario. The underlying philosophy in developing this project is that with encouragement, mastery of transit tools, authentic life experience and a bus pass in hand, students will gain independence and confidence.
The “Kingston Model” for youth transit programming is a game changer model for combating climate change and increasing youth independence and confidence.
“Kingston Transit High School Bus Pass created. Free bus passes for Grade 9 students. Youth ridership increases to 28,000 annually.”
“First year that all high school students (Grade 9 – 12) can ride the bus for free. Youth ridership increases to 600,000 annually.”
“Kingston Transit eliminated fares for ages 0-14 to encourage young families to use transit.”
“Kingston Transit Field Trip Pass Program was developed”
“The Federation of Canadian Municipalities’ “Sustainable Communities Conference” Inaugural Inspire Award, for the project that best demonstrates creativity and innovation. ”
“The Federation of Canadian Municipalities’ “Sustainable Communities Conference” Transportation Award”
“TEDx Ottawa at the National Arts Centre, delivering a talk in front of an audience of 800 titled, ”Throwing Our Car Culture Under the Bus””
“The Federation of Canadian Municipalities partnered with the program to create a guidebook for using city–school partnership to inspire youth to choose sustainable transportation. Guidebook available in French and English.”
“Participated in the Queen’s University’s DDQIC Summer Initiative with Jadon Hook and Jega Rajendran and conceptualized a social enterprise that uses learning from the success of the proven “Kingston Model” of youth transit programming to help build long-term transit ridership post-COVID-19 across mid-sized North American communities.”
“Partnered with the Small Change Fund to seek collaborative opportunities to scale youth transit programming to other communities”
“Represented Climate Reality Canada in the global 24 Hours of Reality Project hosted by Al Gore. Featured in the “Expanding zero-emission vehicles and transportation” presentation.”
The “Kingston Model” Youth Transit Programming Resources
TEDx Ottawa
Master’s Thesis
City of Kingston — Council Reports
June 16, 2013 – Council Report: Kingston Transit – Grade 9 Transit Pass Pilot Program
June 17, 2014 – Council Report: Kingston Transit – Grade 9 & 10 Transit Pass Extended Pilot Program
June 16, 2015 – Council Report: Kingston Transit – Secondary School Complimentary Transit Pilot
August 9, 2022 – Council Report: Kingston Transit - High School Transit Pass Program
Additional Resources
“The free bus pass allowed me to develop independence since I was no longer reliant on my parents for rides, and improved my social life dramatically since I could travel across town reliably without charge.”
– Saige Clark, Frontenac Secondary School Alumna
Social Innovation
Dan with the St. Lawrence Enactus team at Enactus Canada Nationals Exposition in 2019.
Dan has a passion for innovation in all sectors. He had the pleasure of working with the St. Lawrence College Enactus Team from 2014-2021. This team consisted of students from various backgrounds working together to tackle social issues and create community projects. As the lead Faculty Advisor, he not only mentored the team, but provided advice and guidance regarding project development, coached presentation teams, and attended the Enactus Regional and National Exposition competitions.
In 2016, Dan was inducted into the John Dobson Fellowship.
In 2017, he mentored and supported three St. Lawrence College students to second place at the Queen’s International Innovation Challenge finale in Toronto out of 75 groups and over 200 students. That year’s challenge goal was to improve global food security. The students put their analytics skills to the test as they identified and solved a problem relating to global agriculture, nutrition, and sustainability.
In 2023, Dan guest lectured on social impact and his personal experiences for the new Advanced Leadership for Social Impact Fellowship program at Queen’s University.
Experience
St. Lawrence College (Enactus) – Faculty Advisor, 2014-2021
Enactus Canada – John Dobson Fellow, 2016
Innovation Hub (St. Lawrence College) – Manager, Community-Based Learning & Innovation, 2017-2020
Purppl – Entrepreneur in Residence, 2020
Dunin-Deshpande Queen's Innovation Centre – Spread Innovation Challenge Intern, 2020
Queen’s University (ALSI) Guest Lecturer, 2023
“A novel solution to a social problem that is more effective, efficient, sustainable, or just than existing solutions and for which the value created accrues primarily to society as a whole rather than private individuals.”
— Stanford Social Innovation Review
Fostering Partnerships
Dan has a keen understanding of how fostering strong connections is at the core of every community-based project that requires engagement. Dan has fostered community connections and engagement in a variety of roles including his work as a Community Producer & Host for YourTV Kingston where he has wrote and produced over 40 segments to raise awareness on sustainability, including the documentary, “A World Without Trash: Designing the Circular Economy.”
From 2010 - 2016, Dan worked for the City of Kingston as a Public Education and Promotions Coordinator garnering new community partners for the Sustainable Kingston Plan, mentored and judged student competitions, and sought out public engagement during the development of the Kingston Climate Action Plan.
Since 2020, Dan has worked with Loyalist Township as a Climate Action Coordinator helping build and execute community engagement strategies per the ResiLienT Loyalist Township Climate Action Plan including the installation of a Butterflyway Project pollinator garden, and public consultation session organization for various projects including dog park development, water pressure discussions, and more.
Experience
City of Kingston – Public Education and Promotions Coordinator, 2010 - 2016
YourTV Kingston – Community Producer & Host, 2010 - Present
Loyalist Township – Climate Action Coordinator, 2020 - Present
Climate Action
Driven by his interest in sustainability, Dan travelled to Karlskrona, Sweden, to study strategic sustainable development under Dr. Karl-Henrik Robert at Blekinge Tekniska Hogskola. Dan’s thesis, Communicating Sustainability through Design within Retail Environments, can be viewed here.
Dan’s career in sustainability has included milestone projects such as the development of Kingston’s Climate Action Plan.
In 2018, Dan was awarded the “Sustainability Champion” award by Sustainable Kingston. Dan also works alongside the Limestone District School Board as a Sustainable Initiatives Coordinator to assist with various youth engagement and sustainability projects including community gardens, co-authoring their “Landscape and Student Development – A Design Guide for Outdoor Play and Learning Environments”, managing school yard naturalization, and much more.
Experience
Masters of Science, Strategic Leadership Towards Sustainability — Blekinge Tekniska Hogskola, 2006 - 2007
Limestone District School Board — Sustainable Initiatives Coordinator, 2010 - Present
Awarded the “Sustainability Champion” by Sustainable Kingston in 2018
Al Gore training 2019