What is the name of your organization?
Lighthouse Energy
What is the name of your solution?
Unity Tool Kit
Provide a one-line summary or tagline for your solution.
Building Ai-driven tools and standards to supercharge community development.
In what city, town, or region is your solution team headquartered?
Toronto, ON, Canada
In what country is your solution team headquartered?
Canada
What type of organization is your solution team?
Hybrid of for-profit and nonprofit
Film your elevator pitch.
What specific problem are you solving?
Administrative processes (Ex. economic development) are severely inefficient within Indigenous communities across Canada. These processes are outdated, slow, cumbersome, and waste limited human resources. Due to never-ending demands and limited capacity for optimization, departments become stuck using suboptimal methods, creating significant barriers to long-term community development and economic growth.
Additionally, process and inefficiencies vary significantly across different First Nation communities, complicating collaboration and joint economic initiatives. This fragmented landscape of processes impedes coordinated development.
What is your solution?
The Unity-Tool-Kit is an open-source software toolkit designed specifically by and for Indigenous communities across Canada (Turtle Island). We identify and standardize best practices directly from these communities, embedding their lived experiences and knowledge into accessible, community-driven software tools.
Tool #1: Economic Development - Stage: MVP
This first tool is targeted towards economic development teams in First Nations communities. The goal is to significantly simplify their workflow and speed-up the collaboration processes. This software tool automates the intake and review of external proposals, ensuring a good & quick experience for both applicants and community reviewers.
Applicants submit project details via a straightforward form embedded into the community’s existing website (through a button). Community teams then quickly evaluate these submissions in a centralized platform, with assistance from AI-powered filtering technology, based on criteria they themselves set.
If there’s shared interest from all members of the economic development team, the proposal moves forward and meetings can be booked and tracked directly within the platform. The end goal is a lite, easy-to-use system for managing the onboarding of new projects into a First Nation’s business portfolio.
Who does your solution serve, and in what ways will the solution impact their lives?
With our first tool, the unity toolkit serves economic development officers, administrators, and Sr. leadership teams in First Nations communities. Essentially any individuals who are responsible for managing and responding to countless external proposals with limited staff and resources.
Right now, their workflow is scattered and inefficient. Conversations start through emails to different individuals (Chiefs, council, staff) and slowly get passed down to the right person. Every new opportunity requires hours of research: vetting companies, checking individuals, running corporate searches through legal teams. It’s one of the most time-consuming parts of their job.
Our solution streamlines this entire process. We create a simple intake form that asks all the critical questions up front, paired with an AI-powered filter trained on FN-led vetting practices. It cuts out surface-level research and helps teams focus only on serious, high-value opportunities.
By saving time, reducing stress, and boosting capacity, we empower these economic development teams to move faster, go deeper, and secure better outcomes for their communities. And when they win, the whole community benefits, from more opportunities, better partnerships, to stronger local economies.
