2024 marked the Canadian Community Economic Development Network’s (CCEDNet) 25th anniversary. CCEDNet’s early founders rallied around the desired outcome of communities having greater capacity toward revitalization and self-reliance. Now, 25 years later, our members and staff remain steadfast in our commitment to community capacity building as our strategies evolve to respond to the challenges of today.
Between formal members and a broader list of changemakers we have worked with, CCEDNet today reaches over 500 individuals and organizations, many of which are representative groups themselves working with many more additional communities, people, and organizations. This network is active across Canada, including organizations, networks, and individuals, who use participatory, democratic, innovative, and entrepreneurial strategies that challenge the status quo and build alternatives.
Last year saw CCEDNet navigate many changes, some a result of internal decisions, others a result of external factors. It’s been an opportunity to put theory into practice, drawing from our own change management programming and further embedding our values into the way we do our work.
Leadership Transition
In advance of last year’s AGM, Michael Toye announced his departure as Executive Director after 16 years of service to the network. Michael’s humble leadership and knowledge of the sector helped CCEDNet to advance its policy agenda, to facilitate the exchange of CED knowledge and skills, and to engage a broad range of partners and sectors in CED work.
After a fulsome recruitment process, CCEDNet’s board of directors announced Celina Caesar-Chavannes as the new Executive Director. Celina started her new role in November, bringing with her fresh ideas for CCEDNet’s continued development in policy advocacy, program delivery, network weaving, thought leadership, and fundraising.
Through leadership coaching with Juniper Belshaw back in 2023, we have come to appreciate that when you lose or gain a teammate you are now dealing with a new team with different capacities, dynamics, challenges and opportunities. This is felt, perhaps most acutely when there is a change in leadership. This knowledge has allowed us to adjust with care, compassion, and collaboration.
People & Culture at CCEDNet
In the first quarter of 2024, CCEDNet wrapped up several major projects. With no new projects in the wings, this resulted in significant staffing changes leading to new and smaller teams. With tremendous gratitude we would like to recognize all staff who contributed to our work in 2024, many of whom have moved on to lend their passion, experience, and skills to other initiatives.
In the midst of all of these personnel changes, we continued to make progress on our People & Culture improvement strategy with approval of a compensation philosophy and progress on a compensation review.
Strategic Review → Transition Strategy
With the completion of several major projects, we wanted to take some time to refocus by reexamining our Theory of Change and internal strategic framework. Beginning in the Spring of 2024, a Strategic Review working group composed of board and staff participants began a deep dive, looking into our work over the past 5 years.
The working group met 8 times, reviewed 15 organizational documents, and created a network analysis to develop a shared set of learnings, observations, and insights that will inform CCEDNet’s next steps.
This Strategic Review allowed us to glean important insight from Michael Toye before his departure. As Celina Caesar-Chavannes settled in, we shifted from reviewing the past to synthesizing our insights into an immediate set of priorities. This includes streamlining our activities into three clear categories that both honour our strengths from the past and align with where we’re heading – Policy & Advocacy, Learning & Capacity-Building, and Networking & Collaboration. Taking time to clarify our purpose and engage the board and staff along the way is creating the groundwork for our next steps.
2024 Programming
Completed Programs
The Investment Readiness Program (IRP) was a $50 million federal grants and contributions program funded through Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC). The program was designed to support social purpose organizations (SPO’s) as they contribute to solving pressing social, cultural and environmental challenges across Canada.
CCEDNet’s overarching objective with the IRP was to support the growth and development of the IRP partnerships and the social economy ecosystem in Canada, to provide support to SPOs across Canada. More specifically, 3 project objectives guided a wide variety of activities:
- Provide partner convening, connecting, wayfinding, and principles-focused evaluation for the IRP partnership as a network of expertise, grounded in inclusion and equity;
- Connect and build the social economy ecosystem at both provincial and pan-Canadian levels, including ongoing and participatory development of a national ecosystem mapping project; and
- Provide relevant pan-Canadian participatory peer-learning opportunities for community-based SPOs and social economy ecosystem actors.
In addition to convening the IRP Partners regularly and once in-person, we also supported 5 Awareness Raising Partners to extend the reach of the program, and initiated efforts to center the voices of SPOs in development of social finance information and research. While funding for the IRP wrapped up on March 31, 2024, CCEDNet has remained connected to IRP partners and continues to be a leading ecosystem builder with a broad enough mandate to connect disparate fields around key concerns or opportunities.
In March 2024 we wrapped up our fifth cohort of CreateAction placements after over 3 years of funding from the Government of Canada’s Youth Employment Skills Strategy. The CreateAction program was delivered in partnership with the National Association of Friendship Centres and the Social Demonstration and Research Corporation with the purpose of helping youth overcome barriers to employment and develop a broad range of skills and knowledge to improve their labour market participation.
The project involved five cohorts (159 youth in total) and included four main project components:
- Work placements with organizations working in community economic development and social economy typically six months in length
- A peer learning program facilitated by CreateAction partners for and between youth that included community meetups, youth circles, and a Slack workspace
- An employer support program based on research, resources, and training. Activities included peer learning drop-ins, capacity building workshops, individual check-ins, and ongoing tailored support
- Youth support activities including individual check-ins and access to counselling through Inkblot Therapy
For a deeper dive into the impacts and lessons learned from the CreateAction program, check out Sharing Promising Practices from CreateAction. This resource was created for employers, community practitioners, government, funders, and other partners interested in or currently engaging, employing, and supporting youth facing barriers to employment.
ADOPTING COMMON MEASURES
Adopting Common Measures was a national three-year project that supported SPOs to measure and track their impact towards the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Adopting Common Measures was led by the Centre for Social Innovation, in partnership with CCEDNet, Social Innovation Canada, and the Common Approach to Impact Measurement. This project, which wrapped up in 2024, was funded in part by the Government of Canada’s Sustainable Development Goals.
If you’re interested in learning more, check out this profile series which showcases the impact of key SPOs across Canada and the progress they are making towards a more sustainable future for Canadians in line with Canada’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. CCEDNet also continues to offer learning programs focussed on impact measurement (learn more below).
Public Policy & Government Relations
For a second year, CCEDNet played a leading role in convening the Sustainable Finance Forum. On November 28-29, 2024, industry and community leaders, elected officials and policy makers came together to advance the vital and powerful role finance can play to grow a sustainable and inclusive economy. The Sustainable Finance Forum is a non-partisan event presented by the CCEDNet, the Institute for Sustainable Finance and the Table of Impact Investment Practitioners. This year, the Forum explored how financial markets can drive significant socio-economic and environmental progress, collaborating on industry standards and practices, and adapting public policies to accelerate change.
For a closer look at the agenda for the two-day event, quotes from presenters and participants, and messages from the presenting partners, check out the report for the Sustainable Finance Forum 2024.
Learning & Innovation
Our learning programs are intentionally designed for values-driven leaders, professionals and aspiring change makers who navigate the complexity of social impact, community resilience, and sustainability. We host learning environments that are cohort-based, modular, and designed to be applied to individual needs while being led by facilitators with aligned experiences, in a peer-to-peer environment that fosters meaningful exchange and transformative learning.
We continued to work with client organizations delivering customized versions of our two Leadership Programs: the comprehensive 6-day Impact Leadership Program (with accreditation) and the 2-day Navigating Change for Leaders. We tailor our Leadership Programs to meet organizational needs, aligning curriculum with team goals, skill sets, and strategic focus.
We also launched and delivered the pilot of our newest program Understanding Social Impact Measurement to a sold out cohort. The Program was created as a response to an identified need within our network to effectively measure social impact in support of demonstrating accountability, building partnerships, improving programming and effectively supporting social change. The pilot established a strong foundation for continued delivery into 2025, enabling CCEDNet to continue supporting those leading transformative change in their communities.
Synergia Transition and Resilience Climate Action Program (STARCAP) is a partnership between CCEDNet, Synergia Institute and Athabasca University. STARCAP supported climate action at the local level by engaging SPOs as community partners. Substantive activities for Synergia Transition and Resilience Climate Action Program (STARCAP) wrapped up late in 2024 with an official end date slated early in 2025. The program’s overall impact has been positive:
- 2,533 participants were engaged in events and activities related to building capacity for climate action
- 828 participants were involved in peer-to-peer study circles
- 36 action groups were activated that engaged 307 participants
- 51 community-based action projects were launched
Three of the participating community partners (the St. James Town Community Co-op, Eviance, and Transition Kamloops) were engaged in a developmental evaluation of STARCAP that was conducted by good futures collective. The developmental evaluation report was published early in 2024, providing insight into how the program could better centre the needs and perspectives of marginalized participants, introducing new approaches of community-led collaboration, and serving as a framework for applying developmental evaluation to community development programs.
STARCAP also delivered a Fall workshop series in 2024 that was facilitated by three community partners, Diverse Nature Collective, Break the Divide and Black Eco Bloom. The three workshops that were offered as part of this series were:
- Building Bridges: Fostering Community Partnerships for Environmental Equity
- Connecting Communities: The Break The Divide Approach to Climate Emotions
- Designing Systems That Work for Us with the Roots, Stems, Seeds and Flowers Framework
Networking & Collaboration
National Network
membership & public engagement
Given the many changes in CCEDNet’s national programming and personnel, we opted, following the 2024 AGM, to slow down our regular communications, which included pausing our national newsletter and our member communiques. We continued to share relevant updates, such as Michael Toye’s resignation announcement and a welcome to Celina Caesar-Chavannes as CCEDNet’s new Executive Director, and continued to promote our programs. We also invited members to express interest in joining our Finance Committee. We look forward to returning to regular communications once we have established a new engagement and operational strategy.
CCEDNet Manitoba
Network Weaving is at the core of CCEDNet Manitoba. We support our formal members to engage with us, each other, and the wider field to build strength, knowledge, connection, and ultimately power to advance our vision of sustainable, equitable, and inclusive economies. They come together to guide the network, passing public policy resolutions at the annual Policy Summit, and ensuring staff know what is most important. We also use the power of the network to support several coalitions advancing key areas of our local mandate.
In 2024, CCEDNet Manitoba:
- Answered 100 information brokering requests
- Delivered 21 presentations or lectures to over 400 participants
- Advocated to federal, provincial and municipal governments with 21 submission and 70 meetings with key government officials
- Convened 6 coalitions in over 55 meetings to advance issues such as social enterprise sector development, social and affordable housing, poverty elimination, coordinated capacity building and sector development for community non-profits
CCEDNet Manitoba’s Spark program matches organizations working on critical issues in Winnipeg with people wanting to donate their professional skills for social good. As one of the three programs of CCEDNet Manitoba, Spark has a wide-angle or 360 degree view of the sector. This helps us to connect new initiatives or ideas to relevant people and organizations, in order to maximize their impact and avoid duplication or dilution of existing resources and organizations.
In 2024, Spark met with 52 Winnipeg-based community development organizations to help them problem solve and build connections and power.
The Spark program made 24 pro bono matches between local organizations and skilled professionals and 58 specific referrals in 2024, including 6 social enterprise referrals.
Every year CCEDNet Manitoba’s Spark program also presents the Spark Outstanding Pro Bono Consultant Award at the Volunteer Manitoba Volunteer Awards Gala.
FLOURISH ALBERTA
Flourish Alberta amplifies courageous actions in Alberta communities for equitable prosperity.
Over 2023 and 2024, leaders in Alberta worked together to integrate the mandates of what were formerly AB Seed, ABSI Connect, and the Centre for Social Impact Technology. They launched as Flourish Alberta in July and are now working to shape the governance and resource plans for the initiative. They aim to identify and amplify common strategies at provincial and multi-regional levels as well as supporting relevant work being done at the Alberta regional level.
CCEDNet proudly serves as the administrative partner for Flourish Alberta, providing legal standing and financial management, support to the lead contractor, and strategic involvement in stewardship groups.
Find out more through this blog about the history and rationale for the merging of several entities into Flourish: https://www.ab-seed.ca/post/the-path-forward.
Moving Forward
As 2024 drew to a close, we shifted from Strategic Review and leadership transition into a process to outline priorities which will ground the staff team for the immediate future.
We retain the long-term goal from our 2020-2024 Theory of Change, that more communities across Canada are using CED approaches and strategies to strengthen sustainable, locally-controlled economies for all.
CCEDNet is poised to lead. In 2025 and beyond, we are focused on the following strategic priorities:
- Strengthening our membership network to amplify community voices nationally
- Advancing bold policy advocacy on social finance, inclusive innovation, and community wealth
- Aligning programs to emerging trends and measuring community impact rigorously
- Ensuring financial sustainability through diversified revenue streams
- Building leadership capacity and streamlining collaborative processes
- Embedding monitoring and evaluation across all activities to drive continuous improvement
We look forward to working together with our Network into 2025 and beyond!