Mike Bulthuis
Community Co-lead, Tools for Community-First Community Campus Partnerships Working Group
Mike Bulthuis is the community co-lead for the Tools for Community-First Community Campus Partnerships Working Group. Mike’s aim is to bring diverse sectors and partners together, working on the ground and within the broad multi-scalar systems of support, to enable individuals and communities to thrive. He’s most energized by working in spaces that bring policy, research and community practice in dialogue together.
In April, Mike became Director of the Youth Homelessness Social Innovation Lab, hosted within the Canadian Observatory on Homelessness (COH). He moved to the COH following a 3.5 year term as the Executive Director of the Alliance to End Homelessness Ottawa, a member-driven non-profit, non-partisan organization working to inspire action, to generate knowledge, and to inform a community-wide effort to build a community where everyone has a home.
Prior to working with the Alliance, Mike was employed with the federal public service (2002-2013), working initially in policy at the National Secretariat on Homelessness, at HRSDC, and then at Infrastructure Canada, where he held positions in the Cities and Communities Secretariat, Policy, and Parliamentary Relations.
During a Leave from 2006 to 2011, Mike engaged in graduate studies in social geography (following an earlier completion of an MA, Political Science), while also teaching and consulting– providing policy support on the national Vibrant Communities Initiative, with the Caledon Institute. He also worked for one year with the Ottawa Coalition of Community Health and Resource Centres as the Coordinator of the City’s Community Development Framework.
Mike has served on various local and national non-profit Boards and committees, including the Social Planning Council of Ottawa, the City of Ottawa’s Health and Social Services Advisory Committee, Citizens for Public Justice and his local community association, the Vanier Community Association. He currently serves on the Board of CSED – the Centre for Social Enterprise Development.
Areas of Interest: poverty, youth, homelessness, research, community-campus engagement, policy