Title:
Founder, Remarkable Future
Organization’s Mission:
Create products that support collaboration that, in turn, supports the creation of neighbourhoods where more people can thrive.
Recent Project:
Under the Imagine Cities brand, Jaicarran built a search engine providing insights into how to build more thriving neighbourhoods.
Vision for Calgary:
“A city where neighbourhoods are not simply seen as a collection of streets that lead to a destination. The quality of neighbourhood design holds the fundamental building blocks to enable human flourishing.”
For Ron Jaicarran, the importance of building neighbourhoods where people can thrive isn’t theoretical. He has seen it in his own life.
“I grew up in a neighbourhood in Toronto which I have since realized didn’t have a lot of opportunity,” Jaicarran says. “When I moved away and I lived in other neighbourhoods, I just felt different. One of the big things that was different was the neighbourhood [I grew up in] lacked a lot of opportunities and economic development.”
Jaicarran has a master’s degree in communication and, in university, he focused on the use of data for cities’ decision making. He thought deeply about social and economic systems and how improvements in cities are usually built on the strife and dedication of previous generations.
“I often think about the immense amount of sacrifice people put forward so we wouldn’t go back to the system that once existed,” he says. “This work has now become my recognition of how grateful I am for all they have done.”
Jaicarran leads Remarkable Future, a venture studio with several brands under its umbrella, including the non-profit Imagine Cities. Launched in 2018, Imagine Cities provides digital tools that empower neighbourhood leaders and connects them to partners such as post-secondary institutions and private companies to help them engage, learn, plan and access support to build thriving neighbourhoods.
Jaicaarran is driven to solve the problems that impact cities by creating change at what he calls the “most fundamental level” — by providing community leaders with the resources to help their neighbourhoods and neighbours thrive.
“After launching the platform, we’ve spent most of our time listening and learning from neighbourhood organizations and the challenges they face,” Jaicarran says. “The best city-building happens when we listen first, especially to voices that have historically been left out.”
This feedback inspired the Imagine Cities team to create the Neighbourhood Project Facilitator. The pilot initiative helps leaders who have an idea turn it into a project proposal. Those projects can then be submitted to Imagine Cities’ Creative Neighbourhood Lab for further development support.
“If we want resilient cities, we have to invest in residents’ imaginations,” says Jaicarran. “There are many people living in neighbourhoods who have applicable skill sets and their capability and creativity should be capitalized on. Building resilient cities can’t happen behind closed doors. Cities are living systems, and it’s time we act like it.”
