Photo: Trevor Nichols
Ken Stober had been working in the family business for well over two decades when he left it all behind.
After 26 years in the construction industry he longed for a way to make the world a better place, so he began collaborating with local not-for-profit organizations.
It wasn’t long before he realized he liked it more than his actual job. But the experience also gave him some valuable insight.
Stober realized that business entrepreneurs, when they connect with social enterprise organizations, could make a huge difference.
“These were organizations that were doing really great work, they were really great people, but sometimes they don’t see all the opportunities that are out there,” he said.
So he quit his job, took some time off, and started planning.
“I was really trying to wrap my brain around how I was going to live the second half of my life,” he explained.
In the past he’d received mentoring and counselling and had benefitted greatly from it. He wanted an easy way for others to get the same help.
That’s when he landed on the idea for Third Space, the organization he eventually helped found in 2011.
He bills the organization as a “one-stop shop” for promoting personal wellness in Kelowna – a place were “thinking people” can talk about and work through life’s problems in a “barrier-free environment.”
Third Space is a multi-headed beast, a combination of for-profit businesses and charitable work, where profits from the businesses are funnelled into the organization’s charitable arm, Third Space Life Charity.
Both Third Space Coffee and Third Space Mind are run as businesses, but all profits are given back to the charity. Third Space Mind even offers membership in a “Change Fund,” where investors give a set amount each month towards the core services.
Third Space Mind and Third Space Coffee are both not for profit organizations. Third Space Coffee donates their profits back to Third Space Life Charity, which uses them for its various life services and programs. Investors and Third tribe members are encouraged to donate monthly towards the life services and programs offered by the Life Charity.
The other head of the beast, Third Space Wellness, is a wellness centre operating as a for-profit business that will eventually contribute a portion of its profits back to the Third Space Life Charity.
With Third Space, Stober says he was able to combine his business acumen with his desire to build a better community.
“The impetus was really ‘how can I contribute to make the world a better place?’ I didn’t want there to be any kind of bait and switch, or any kind of reason for people to look at this organization and say ‘oh this is why they’re doing this.’ We are simply doing it because it’s the right thing to do,” he says.
Stober says he would like to see more businesses start focusing a little less on profits and a little more on social enterprise.
“I think it’s their social responsibility. If they’ve benefited and profited in their community there should be an element of them giving back somehow and some way,” he explained.
“Businesses that have influence and reach should be the front-liners, and they should be pulling their employees with them, saying, ‘hey, this is part of our culture, this is part of our duty.’”
Which is what he continues to do with Third Space. It’s a far cry from the construction business, but Stober has never looked back.
He loves his old life, he says, “but to me that door is closed, and I’m happy to see it closed. I just love this.”
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