“Community for me is the people – it’s how we choose to live, work, play, and interact with one another.”

Brief history of your expertise and background

Matt is an energetic, passionate, and highly adaptable professional with close to 20 years experience in the Social Profit, Manufacturing, Oil and Gas, Hospitality, and High Tech sectors, and is a past Chair and Founder of TEDxFortMcMurray. Matt currently sits on the board for CommunityMediation.ca, a nonprofit that offer free mediation and conflict assistance to neighbours in dispute, and is a dedicated volunteer with both the Basic Income Calgary and Basic Income Alberta teams.

In 2017 Matt founded Human Elements to provide top-quality Strategic Planning, Facilitation, Mediation, and Human Resources support to social profit organizations in Canada, and enjoys working with small, powerful teams, helping them be better tomorrow than they are today. He named the company after the most powerful piece to any organization - the human beings, who with passion and dedication, make their dents in the universe.

Matt has a handful of educational papers on his office wall, and has held a CHRP/CPHR designation since 2010. He is married to an extremely supportive wife, and is fearful that one day their two rescue cats might learn to work a can opener and cut out the middleman.

What drew you to this role?

In my role as a consultant for nonprofits I often talk about how I love that the work I do helps to strengthen community – but this time it’s my actual community I get to make an impact in, even though the one block walking commute is a challenge during rush hour.

What’s your favourite part about the Hillhurst Sunnyside Community?

When my wife and I decided to move to Calgary and we purchased our Hillhurst home in late 2014, a huge draw for us was the community – it has almost everything we wanted: close to downtown, beautiful streets with character to walk down, great local shops, and we could walk to get our groceries or jump on the CTrain - all things we couldn’t do from our previous home in a suburb.

What does community mean to you?

Community for me is the people – it’s how we choose to live, work, play, and interact with one another. I love when the diversity of our backgrounds and of how we think all come together to create pluralistic society - where we get to live in a peaceful, coexistent community made up of different values, interests, and lifestyles.

What are some of your favorite spots/walks/eats/hangouts in the neighbourhood?

You can quite often find myself and my wife walking through and around Riley Park (have you seen the new drinking fountain yet?), or up and down the streets of Hillhurst or Sunnyside. We do love to walk over to Sunnyside and spend time walking along the top of McHugh Bluff.
Now coffee can be a very personal thing, but for me, my two favourite coffee spots are Good Trade Company, and The Roasterie. I’m a decaf drinker (sorry!), but these are my go-to spots and I always have some Good Trade “Last Train” decaf in my cupboard.
We’re very lucky to have so many ramen shops in the area, but for me, when I’m in the mood for noodles, it’s tough to pass up the Spicy Tonkontsu Ramen at Menyatai Japanese Noodles.
Not-So-Hidden gem: Poppy Plaza along the Bow River near Memorial and 10st – a sunny day, a coffee or tea… and for those with better knees, perhaps a skateboard.