Paul Latour

Paul is leading a movement that reframes neglected charity infrastructure as valuable community spaces and enables local citizens to lead in their revitalization. Recognizing that the critical frontline charity sector has been significantly under-resourced, Paul is creating unique opportunities for citizens and neighborhoods to connect with, mobilize, and support their local charities through critical infrastructure renovations and dramatic facility upgrades.

Paul is improving charity infrastructure by leveraging ‘Radical Renovations’ to connect neighborhoods, industries, and volunteers to the well-being of vulnerable people. Done at a fraction of the cost, his innovation allows partner charities to deliver high-quality services in a physical space that is adequate for both service providers and beneficiaries. Not only do these renovations improve the partner charity profile in the community. They also empower local citizens and businesses to deepen their understanding of the charity’s mission, services, and target demographic.

Charity infrastructure is vital to serve vulnerable populations yet are often written off as “overhead.” Paul uses these revitalization projects as a starting point to change this conversation. First, he transforms the way charities view their own buildings and facilities by helping them see how the state and design of their physical spaces can nurture innovation and the delivery of more effective social services. Second, the renovation events empower local citizens and businesses where they build a deeper understanding and connection with the local charities and the vulnerable communities that they serve. This provides a scalable model to help create more empathetic societies and better local community infrastructure. Paul does this by bringing together a unique combination of actors to support community mobilization while reaching the individual charity’s goals. On the face of it, he provides construction services to charity partners. These services are provided either pro bono by trade and non-trade volunteers; by donation of local small businesses; or are paid for at cost or with discounts. Paul mobilizes to secure these contributions through powerful storytelling, highlighting individual charities, raising their profiles, and sharing their roles and impact in the community. He then brings these stakeholders together through a creative event experience called Radical Renovations. The events enable all participants to build long-lasting connection with the charity and its mission. Paul offers participating community members a powerful and tangible memory of the experience, to reinforce this connection and commitment to their local community institutions.

To date, HeroWork’s projects have helped transform the infrastructure of charitable organizations across Victoria, British Columbia, the services of which reach approximately 25,000 individuals every year. With the internal organizational mechanisms already in place, Paul is looking at scaling his idea in different geographies across Canada. Simultaneously, Paul is advocating for governments to re-think the way they support charity infrastructure.

The charity sector has long been recognized as an important lever for social service delivery, providing essential services including housing, mental health support and food security for vulnerable populations. Often central to a charity’s ability to deliver high-quality services is the state of its infrastructure. This is what enables the connection of industries, neighborhoods, and volunteers to the well-being of vulnerable people.

While Canadian communities have embraced charitable giving, an Imagine Canada report assessing giving behavior over thirty years reported that, overall, the donor base for charities delivering social services is getting even smaller, with 40% of donations going to religious organizations, 13% going to health-related initiatives, and about 12% to social services. The reduced giving to charities has been attributed to reduced trust in charities and a skepticism that charities are unable to explain how funds are used and allocated. While a majority of donations continue to come from older adults who are most likely to express this skepticism, younger donors are willing to give more, but are not being effectively engaged.

In the meantime, funding for infrastructure improvements for charities is usually limited to the bare necessities. This is driven by the perception in both government and philanthropic communities that, unlike in health and education, social service facilities are less valuable and improvements to infrastructure are considered as administrative costs. Moreover, the federal government does not recognize charity infrastructure as ‘social infrastructure’ except for housing and some day-care. This is compounded by a lack of effective collaboration between the charitable sector, the real estate sector, funders and donors, construction companies, governments, and the financial sector. Charity leaders find themselves limited in their capacity and know-how to plan long-term strategic infrastructure systems, and indeed, to even complete short-term infrastructure improvements. This results in charity infrastructure being run-down and neglected. HeroWork conducted a three-part study between 2017-19 in the Capital Regional District (southern tip of Vancouver Island) on 87 non-profit organizations. The study concluded that a high proportion of charity buildings needed renewal: 46% of non-profits’ buildings are over 70 years of age, 36% urgently require renovations; and 32% had never undergone any major renovations or repairs. A majority (55%) of surveyed organizations believed that a renovation would increase their ability to deliver services effectively. These charities include shelters, food banks, counselling centers, and community halls, spaces which house and serve the most disenfranchised communities. A similar study from 2022 in the Lower Mainland of British Columbia highlighted similar results.

Considering that a majority of a charity’s infrastructure budget depends on individual giving, charities are seeing further reductions in their revenues to manage their needs. The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated the problem, with charities being called upon to serve increasingly larger populations (food bank use climbed 20% during the pandemic across Canada), while experiencing a shrinking revenue base for charities, and reduced opportunities for communities to directly engage with each other. As charities continuously fail to upgrade their facilities, they reinforce the perception that those who receive social services are less deserving. The fissures between communities and charities and their beneficiaries have never been as wide as they are today.

Paul’s strategy helps mend these fissures by uniting community energy and directing it to power the renewal of infrastructure for their local charities. He does this by curating unique and attractive renovation events that pull together a range of stakeholders in the community – including small business owners, construction companies, community members, charities, and their clients.

Paul starts by identifying a charity that is serving a vulnerable population, is seeking to increase its impact, and needs improved infrastructure. The criteria he uses to select charities for renovation include being not too small or not too big in size and having a leadership team with a long-term vision. Paul and his team consult with the charity to align planned renovations and designs with its long-term vision, and to ensure that the improvements can enable the charity to achieve long-lasting, innovative results.

In the meantime, Paul has set up partnerships with local businesses to supply much of the needed construction services, hospitality, and raw materials. He then mobilizes volunteers from the local community – trade and non-trade – to participate in large-scale community events, where the renovations are completed at 38% of the total costs.

Paul is able to do this by utilizing a clever approach that adheres to a set of core principles and creates tangible value for every participant. Each renovation and the accompanying activities highlight the mission and vision of the charity partner and the needs of the populations they serve. Paul works closely with the charity partner to ensure that this messaging is authentic and allows for all participants to directly engage and connect with the social change needed for residents in their communities. He then ensures that every participant has a clear role in the event itself, that whether trade or non-trade, and whether a resident, a small business, a construction worker, or a charity client – everyone plays their part in achieving the renovation. Understanding that this work is tiring and can involve tedious work, Paul engages and mobilizes local artists to share their music, art, and work with the volunteers. From design to completion, each build can take up to 8 to 10 weeks.

This simple 4Cs formula - change, connection, cohesion, and creativity - has allowed Paul to mobilize on average 300 - 600 volunteers per renovation and has engaged over 100 companies per project. Renovations have included transforming dilapidated refugee housing, where the charity was on the verge of donating the buildings for $1 and ceasing operations. Other renovations remodeled food banks where traditionally clients would line up for handouts, to one where they could ‘shop’ like at a grocery, and transitional housing facilities that went from being a youth detention facility to one that feels more homelike and welcoming. In each build, the design and renovation focused on creating dignified experiences for clients, following best practices from across the world.

More importantly, for the volunteers and the community, the opportunity to create and renovate together offers a tangible point of connection. Paul has proven that if this experience is well-curated, it could transcend the boundaries of the event and trigger longer-lasting relationships. This is evidenced by an over 95% satisfaction level from volunteers and participants. While Paul has anecdotal evidence of volunteers who form longer-term relationships with the charities, he recently completed a study of past projects to measure the social and economic impacts of his intervention on volunteers, clients, and neighborhoods.

For partner charities, Paul anticipates that infrastructure upgrades will dramatically improve their ability to mobilize clients, deliver effective services and reduce their isolation from the community. He makes infrastructure improvements possible and accessible to charities using an enabling business model, a combination of revenue sharing between the charity (35-38%), local sponsorships and fundraising (18%), pro bono services and crowdsourcing (typically HeroWork raises close to $1 million in in-kind goods and labor). Charities might use a combination of mortgage loans (if they anticipate revenue) or traditional fundraising if they don’t already have the funds in reserve. The partner charity’s contribution is untied revenue for HeroWork, which mostly supports HeroWork’s operational expenses.

Paul anticipates that as he builds critical mass in local communities, like he has in Victoria, British Columbia, he will be able to appropriately channel local resources and talent to the charities that need it most. He is now able to map out for communities the extent of charity-driven service provision, helping community members identify and align with local community services. He is also advocating for government officials to recognize and act on the importance of charity infrastructure.

Recognizing that market size is bigger than what he can currently serve, Paul is now piloting a chapter model, with Victoria the first and lower mainland Vancouver the second. He sees each chapter completing two, to a maximum of three, builds per year to ensure that they are able to channel more resources to more charities in a shorter period of time. Going forward, Paul plans to pilot an open-source and academy model for smaller towns and rural communities that may not have enough charity institutions to necessitate a chapter. He is also developing guidelines for smaller charities to renew their infrastructure using a do-it-yourself approach.

Between 2010 and 2022, HeroWork completed 17 major projects with the retail value of close to $7 million for organizations whose services have reached approximately 25,000 individuals and families every year, using more than 35,000 volunteer hours cumulatively. With internal organization already in place, Paul is starting the expansion of HeroWork in different geographies in Canada with the primary focus on British-Columbia’s South Coast region. By 2030, his goal is to have ten chapters reaching 75 charities that serve tens of thousands of people across the country. By doing this, Paul anticipates increased movement in social capital across sectors, increased recognition and acceptance of charity facilities, and a shift in attitudes towards economically disadvantaged populations that will now have inclusive and dignified spaces in which to grow and thrive.

For much of his career, Paul pursued art, sculpture and writing while working long-term in the hospitality industry as a server. He decided after working on his first book to take a few weeks off from writing to help his friend, a passionate community activist and volunteer, who had multiple sclerosis and could no longer take care of her garden. Paul started by giving his services for a few hours on occasional weekends but realized quickly that the garden needed a significant overhaul. His initial idea was to throw a garden-working pizza party for friends. But after watching an Extreme Home Makeover video, he thought, “Why not do a mini extreme makeover?” The next day he planned, and then brought this plan to a friend, who immediately got involved. Less than a week later, they were a team of 6 friends. Seven weeks later, Paul mobilized 27 companies, 65 volunteers, 10 rotating musical acts, and 5 videographers, and in the space of a single day completed a $25K renovation with only $380. With so many volunteers, the scope of the project grew beyond his friend’s backyard, extending to sprucing up six other neighbors’ yards. He was hugged by volunteer after volunteer at day’s end, with each of them sharing a similar sentiment, “Thank you so much for giving me the opportunity to make a difference.”

Paul’s experience in the hospitality industry had shown him the importance of ensuring that clients and participants have a streamlined experience. His skills as a storyteller were critical to bringing and connecting a diverse range of people together. After the work in his friend’s garden, he was approached by a local refugee charity to transform housing facilities for refugee families. Paul understood the potential of this approach to have a larger impact if it could be channeled through institutions rather than for individuals alone. It became his “test” project. Paul soon recognized that he needed to develop certain core skills for this venture to be successful, so he embarked on an 18-month self-development period to learn a wide range of skills - from speech craft and videography to marketing and website development. In his next build in 2013, he was able to show proof of concept and went on to register HeroWork as a non-profit organization the following year.