WORDS BY DANI KUEPFER; PHOTOS BY CHRIS TIESSEN
‘So what’s your role in all of this?’, I ask Julia – motioning towards the glorious open concept second-storey space in which we’re seated. On one side of us sunshine floods in through floor-to-ceiling windows – beautifully framing the front of Guelph City Hall below, where several ice skaters are gliding around the rink. On the other side, up a couple steps, shelves of LGBTQ2IA+-themed books line brightly- coloured orange and yellow walls. All around us lush green plants fill the place with vibrancy and warmth. Exposed stone walls – reminders of this building’s storied past – punctuate the place. As Julia mulls over my question, I decide to reframe it. ‘What do you do on a normal day?’, I ask.
‘I worry a lot,’ Julia tells me, and we sit for a moment pondering the weight of her remark. She laughs gently. ‘I carry the vision,’ she continues, ‘so that this talented team can implement the programs and the tangible work we do here.’ I hold that thought.
It’s a sunny morning in January and I’m at 10C Shared Space in downtown Guelph, chatting with the co-founder and executive director: the legendary, the ethereal, the humble Julia Grady. 10C is – to be absurdly reductive – a not-for-profit community hub. It’s a gathering space, a network of professionals with differing backgrounds and shared values, a small business and community project accelerator.
10C is a big idea, with a big impact. And it all began in 2008.
Back then Julia and co-founder Annie O’Donoghue decided to develop ‘a physical space for creating change.’ Julia, a designer by trade, envisioned a distinct, multifunctional space ‘that felt like it could be everyone’s.’ Their original site of activity was on a single floor of 10 Carden Street (hence the moniker 10C), now home to the uber-hip Spring Fever Tattoo and other local businesses. This original place served as a coworking and community setting until, after a few years of steady growth, Julia and Annie came to the realization that they needed more space, different types of space, and accessible space. And so they decided to look for something new.
What came next was transformational. Put simply (though these sorts of things are never simple), one day Julia walked a few doors down the street and had a conversation with Sid Acker, then owner of the Acker’s Furniture building. (You know the one. Four storeys. Lots of glass. A Royal City landmark for decades.) Their conversation led to an opportunity: to buy the building. And that opportunity led to an invitation to the community to help finance the purchase and renovation of the building, via community bonds.
The prospect of a small not-for-profit (operating in less than 3,000 sq ft of rented space) buying and, in Julia’s words, ‘rebuilding from the inside out’ an historic four-storey, fifteen thousand square-foot building in
the urban core of the city – and doing so in massive part through community funding and financing – is unfathomable. But that’s what they did.
The space they now occupy – this building in which Julia and I are chatting – has come to reflect the energy of Julia’s vision: a labyrinthian fulcrum of activity and creativity and, above all else, good work. The welcoming front entrance on the first floor features an open lobby and a gallery offering a rotation
of local art. The stairs or the elevator up to the second floor lead to the aptly named ‘sunroom’ (where we are seated now) as well as Out on the Shelf (Guelph’s queer library), a substantial boardroom, a kitchenette, and several permanent offices. Up another floor are a variety of bookable rooms, each designed and equipped for a specific purpose like brainstorming sessions or video recording, plus a pod of coworking desks. And, finally, the fourth floor features a massive event space with a moveable stage and inimitable views of Guelph landmarks like the Petrie Building – plus a shared commercial community kitchen filled with talented local food creators.
Purchasing this four-storey property became a transformative chapter in 10C’s history. The ability to grow equity and resist gentrification gave the organization something to rest on, something to leverage. And then, like a spark, something else became possible: social finance.
Through grant funding and, soon, community bonds (think GICs), 10C created the Harvest Impact Fund
in 2020, that strives to create circular economy solutions while providing ‘micro loans’ to socially- and environmentally-oriented small businesses that don’t qualify for traditionally larger business loans. Julia tells me that social finance is just one of the ‘themes of activation’ that structure 10C’s offerings. The dynamics that drive local fave Beck’s Broth, for example – an innovative line of beverages that use bone broth as their base – provide a shining example of these themes in action: placemaking, first of all (the product is prepared in 10C’s kitchen); then social finance and community engagement (the business receives funding as well as mentorship and networking). The remaining themes, such as social enterprise, sustainable food systems, and sustainable development goals, are realized in Beck’s Broth, a circular economy product that gives new life to locally-sourced beef bones and is delivered in reusable jars.
Meanwhile, the ‘what we do’ of the Harvest Impact Fund continues to evolve.
You know that exercise where you fill a jar with golf balls and call it full, then pour marbles into it, filling the gaps and making it really full, and then beans, and then sand, until you discover the jar’s true capacity? That’s sort of what Julia and the 10C team have been doing since they moved into their new home, where they offer coworking desks and rented offices, social enterprise coaching, workshops, and products from the Nourish kitchen. They engage in partnerships with projects like COIL business accelerator, The SEED, and Indigenous Food Security / Sovereignty Collective. They offer training for SDG Cities and practitioners of the circular economy. They are providers of rentable gallery and community space (notable events like Queen of Craft, Guelph Comedy Festival, and municipal election forums come to life here). They also offer competitive local investment opportunities via community bonds (and they mentor similar projects, like Habitat for Humanity’s fund). The MacDonnell side of the property is home to Chalmers Community Services Centre, and more. And more to come.
The folks at 10C never cease to find ways to make the jar fuller. And, to extend the metaphor, I’ll observe that it’s Julia Grady who minds that jar.
In 2021, 10C partnered with the City of Guelph to become the activator of the Guelph Farmers’ Market, made effective in 2022. 10C’s plans for a substantial renovation of the historic space will be underway by the time this issue goes to print. Julia’s eyes twinkle as we pour over the Market blueprints: a new entrance, permanent vendor stalls (like the ones you’ll find at St Jacobs Farmers’ Market), an outdoor patio, a brand new kitchen and café space (allowing 10C members like Kulsoom and Rodolfo’s and Clay Pot Catering to prep and sell their products under one roof). The Market will be open through the renovations (with refreshed hours: 8am ‘til 1pm) until completion late this summer. Come see this city landmark change before your eyes and watch the extraordinary thing that is 10C in action.
Julia Grady is known in these parts as a sort of spark, an igniter of possibility. ‘I love design, problem solving – I love working with people to find solutions,’ she tells me as we watch a family tie up their skates and head gingerly out onto the ice. And that’s essentially where you’ll find her: working with others, in conversation, occupying that liminal space between a problem and a possibility. With her boots solidly on the ground.
10C SHARED SPACE
42CARDEN ST, GUELPH
10carden.ca