The Grand Valley Educational Society is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to the prosperity of our communities through enhanced post-secondary education and training.

We are:  Champions of post-secondary education in Brantford, Brant and Six Nations.

Our vision:  Brantford, Brant and Six Nations becomes a regional Centre of Educational Excellence.

If there ever was a project or initiative that should be benchmarked as setting a new standard for what a community can achieve...the growth of post secondary education would be it!

In 1996, the City of Brantford had completed a strategic plan to identify projects, initiatives and ideas to make Brantford a better place to live, learn and invest. One of the initiatives identified was to expand post secondary education in the community to include a university.

As a financial supporter of the strategic plan, Brant Community Futures Development Corporation (now Enterprise Brant) commissioned 3 professors to complete a business plan designed to develop a university for Brantford. The submission of the business plan resulted in the formation of an Education Committee which gradually evolved into the Grand Valley Educational Society.

As a community-owned, charitable organization incorporated in 1996, the initial objective identified by the GVES was to promote and raise funds to secure a private university. Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo expressed an interest, and on June 29th, 1998, signed a Declaration of Intent (along with GVES and the City of Brantford) to establish a satellite university in downtown Brantford by the fall of 1999.

Through persistence, drive, determination and vision, a "high performance team" was formed which consisted of the City of Brantford, the Grand Valley Educational Society and Wilfrid Laurier University. The Grand Valley Educational Society was the catalyst that actively sourced community support and secured $2 million to transform the old library on George Street (donated by the City) to house the initial campus of the Laurier Brantford University.

Today, the GVES is a non-partisan advocate for advocate for more competency-based training to support employer requirements and demands, improved public transportation, and community-wide collaborations to improve our economic vitality.