Thrive Calgary introduces new learning community in January

If more people have access to community economic development learning opportunities, more community economic development action will emerge in Calgary.

That’s the bet, if you will, that Thrive Calgary, the city’s community economic development network, is making as it prepares to launch a new learning community early in the new year.

It’s a big and exciting shift for the network, though Thrive has always sought to be a relevant, effective force for ushering in Calgary’s new economy.

In the past, however, the work has centred on collaborating to put community economic development on the local policy map. In the last few years, that goal has largely been achieved.

Thanks to Thrive and others, community economic development is now a part of the city’s new Enough for All poverty reduction strategy as well as the economic development strategy hosted by the conventional economic developmental agency, Calgary Economic Development.

Now Thrive is sharpening its focus in 2015: Community economic development leadership and learning is its refreshed mandate.

The shift builds on a number of education achievements Thrive has already spearheaded. As an example, in 2014, a big focus was bringing the Simon Fraser University Community Economic Development certificate program to Calgary for the first time.

The 21 graduates of this program are now acting to improve the local community in many concrete ways. For instance, one graduate is preparing to launch a co-operative housing project in Ogden. The idea is to make it easy for seniors to establish income suites in their basements so they can live longer in their homes.

Another graduate led the development of the Calgary EATS! Strategy which was just approved by city council. This strategy for a local, sustainable food system includes community economic development as a core principle.

A third graduate works at the Calgary Regional Partnership, where community economic development is emerging as an important focus area for the region. This means that community economic development could become part of the fabric of how the 11 municipalities in the region interact.

Thrive has determined to make learning its official strategic focus following a series of community consultations and discussions with various partner organizations over the past several months.

Shaping this new effort is a belief that the most effective learning both builds human capital and creates a frame for political empowerment.

“It’s one thing to move people through a curriculum and learn what’s on the page,” says Barb Davies, Thrive’s community economic development co-ordinator, who over the past few months has done some great work herself building community economic development capacity in the community. She has taught introductory community economic development workshops to18 students at the faculty of social work and 23 community members through the Ethnocultural Council of Calgary. She aso co-hosted Calgary’s first Social Impact Failure Wake, a celebration of community economic development projects that didn’t work out as expected.

“We’re really trying to inspire people to question the frame we live in in the first place and really seed a broad, diverse community of leaders who are ready to take action in their own communities,” Barb says.

Thrive’s learning community will offer a balance of opportunities for people to learn from those who hold new knowledge, as well as to create their own knowledge as peer learners.

Again, this is an approach it’s taken in the past. In 2014, for instance, Thrive provided Calgarians the opportunity to learn from well-recognized community economic development thought leaders such as Charles Eisenstein, Michael Shuman, and Anne Docherty. The graduates of the Simon Fraser University Community Economic Development certificate program now support each other with implementing community economic development strategy and ideas.

“We want to create the most permeable membrane between a learning environment, action environment and community as we can,” says Barb, noting a key inspiration for the effort is the Storytellers’ Foundation in Hazelton, BC.

The shaping of this learning community comes as Calgary moves into the next phase of actualizing its Enough for All strategy – a bold plan to reduce poverty in the city by half within the next 10 years.

Momentum’s community relations director, Carolyn Davis, sees the learning community as one strong path to realizing that goal.

“I really believe that we’re not going to be able to do that unless there is a sea change in the way that we think,” she says. Her sincere hope is that through the learning community people are empowered and inspired to take the kind of action that generates a shift in systems and root causes leading to significant change for people.

The time is also ripe for an effort of this sort as local energy grows around new economy concepts and action, thanks to people and groups such as REAP Business Association actively bringing them into the mainstream.

Thrive wades into this new effort with a collection of robust assets, including an engaged and committed network as well as steering committee that brings a rich diversity of perspectives on community economic development. Thrive’s parent organization Momentum, which has both a sturdy reputation and significant support from the community as well as a great team, is also a solid asset.

Thrive also counts itself blessed to have the funders it does — Family and Community Support Services of Calgary and the United Way of Calgary and Area. Both put forward visionary leadership in understanding that reducing poverty ultimately comes down to creating an economy that works better for more people.

Looking ahead, the opportunity and challenge is to present the intent and possibilities in this learning community in a way that reveals it as a real and concrete force for good, Carolyn says.

“One way this has worked so far is through partnership with post-secondary institutions and community organizations,” she adds. “In the last six weeks of 2014 Thrive reached over 120 people through learning events and workshops. This gives me energy as Barb and I develop the learning calendar for 2015.”

Committed to walking the new economy talk with respect to how it ensures the sustainability of this effort, Thrive is moving to a revenue model that includes both funders and participation from those who join its programs and events. In this way, it is striving to create a balance between ensuring a level playing field and accessibility.

This article was originally posted by New Scoop on January 7, 2015 and appears here with permission.

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Michelle Strutzenberger brings more than 10 years of experience in writing, social media, curation and digital distribution. Subject areas of interest include creating abundant or deep communities, social-mission business, education that strengthens kids’ sense of hope and possibility and journalism that helps society create its preferred future. She is currently supporting the development of Axiom News podcasts. Contact Michelle at michelle at axiomnews.com.

One of the challenges of trying to keep track of community economic development (CED) in a country like Canada is that there is so much going on in disparate places and diverse sectors that it’s easy to get the impression we aren’t making much progress on the whole. 

So for the year end I wanted to compile my own top 10 list that would pull together some of the most encouraging developments in the last year.  Naturally, this list is far from exhaustive, but it serves as a good sampling of the promising progress being made in different places and areas of activity. 

1. Co-ops:  The bilingual apex organization for the co-operative movement in Canada, Co-ops and Mutuals Canada, was officially launched in April, providing a new, united voice representing and supporting co-operatives in Canada.  The federal all-party caucus on co-ops met for the first time, and the 2^nd International Summit on Co-operatives held in Québec City was an even bigger success than the first.  A very positive year for Canadian co-operators!

2. Social Enterprise: Enthusiasm for social enterprises continues to grow across the country.  In particular, procurement strategies are getting increasing attention, with the first Buy Social Canada Summit in 2014 and the introduction of the Buy Social Canada mark, which is expected to be officially launched at the 2015 Canadian Conference on Social Enterprise.   

3. Finance:  In September, Canada’s National Advisory Board to the G8 Social Impact Investment Taskforce launched their report, which is a tour de force on the regulatory and fiscal situation for impact investing in Canada.  Provincially, New Brunswick became the fourth province to create CED Investment funds, and the Community Social Planning Council of Greater Victoria published an excellent guide for creating community-sourced financing tools. 

4. International:  The Social and Solidarity Economy is getting increasing attention at the United Nations thanks in large part to RIPESS and the Inter-Agency Task Force on Social and Solidarity Economy.  Civil society organizations internationally are focusing on getting social and solidarity economy included in the UN’s post-2015 development agenda, which will guide international agencies’ development priorities and trajectory for years to come. 

5. Research:  One of the last products of the Canadian Social Economy Hub was a special issue of Canadian Public Policy on the social economy that came out in 2014.  Cross-Canada research on the value of co-ops and social enterprises continues, with the publication of a New Brunswick report on their economic impact.  The Rural Development Institute at Brandon University was awarded a major new research grant, and the journal Community Development announced a special issue on Collective Impact for Community Development, co-edited by Tamarack’s Liz Weaver.  In 2015, in addition to the always stimulating CASC and ANSER meetings, watch for the CU2 Expo at Carleton University.

6. CED with Official Language Minority Communities:  CCEDNet members RDÉE Canada and CEDEC carried out the fieldwork for the first ever economic plan for official language minority communities which should be launched in 2015. 

7. Enabling Policy:  Manitoba and Québec continue to lead on the policy front: Manitoba introduced a very positive budget in the spring, and has been involved in the co-design of a social enterprise strategy that will be launched in early 2015.  Québec formed an Advisory Committee of Social Economy Partners to implement the province’s 2013 social economy framework law, and Nancy Neamtan from the Chantier de l’économie sociale gave the keynote at our Manitoba Gathering, sharing insights on Québec’s success.  CCEDNet’s Policy Council has proposed an update to our Policy Priorities, which will be discussed at our upcoming webinar.  With the impending federal election, policy will be a big priority in 2015, so consider attending if you can.

8. Thought Leadership:  I know I’m old school, buying real paper books, but I’m going to need a new bookshelf soon for the amazing work being produced by smart people around the world.  I’ll mention just three publications from Canadians here:  Sonja Novkovic and Tom Webb’s Co-operatives in a Post-Growth Era is an marvellous edited compilation with insights for a more environmentally sustainable and equitable economy.  The tireless and joyful CCEDNet founding member Paul Born shares more of his leading insights in Deepening Community.  And a little book you may have heard about, This Changes Everything by Naomi Klein, is remarkably aligned with the ideas and analysis articulated in The Resilience Imperative, co-authored in 2012 by CCEDNet founding member Mike Lewis.

9. Supporting a New Economy:  Last June, the New Economy Coalition held their first conference and member meeting in Boston, with many Canadians soaking up the rich connections being made.  An active NEC member, CCEDNet promoted New Economy Week in Canada and partnered with One Earth on a blog series that explores how to build an economy that works for people, place and the planet. 

10. Building a Movement:  We are always looking for opportunities to build bridges and make connections with people who share our vision and values.  This year, a key opportunity was at the People’s Social Forum, where over 5,000 people gathered to identify strategies for change. 

Although this list is far from complete, and it can sometimes be hard to see, I hope this review illustrates some of the many ways we are making progress.  And the upside of being such a diverse movement is that there are always places doing innovative things, improvements to celebrate and terrific people to learn from. 

So that is what we’ll continue to do in 2015, thanks to our members (who also, you may have noticed, happen to be many of the people doing the fantastic work mentioned above). 

What was your 2014 highlight?  Login to comment below. 

My best wishes for the year ahead.

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Michael Toye is the Executive Director of the Canadian CED Network, having worked in various other capacities with CCEDNet since 2000. Michael has also taught courses on CED and social enterprise at Concordia University and has written a number of articles and other publications on CED and the social economy, including co-editing the book, Community Economic Development: Building for Social Change.

Read Michael’s blogs

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LISC study details strategies that make poor neighborhoods more resilient

A new study of dozens of poor communities across the country found that families fared better economically in places where a far-reaching revitalization effort addressed multiple community needs at one time—affordable housing, safety, education, employment, and other basic services.

Conducted by the Local Initiatives Support Corp. (LISC), the in-depth study looked at 63 neighborhoods where the nonprofit has been investing for more than a decade and found that employment and incomes each grew by 9 percent more than they did in similar communities that were not part of LISC’s long-term investment strategy.

Michael Rubinger, LISC president and CEO, announced the results this week, explaining that the research quantifies what LISC’s staff had previously believed but only knew anecdotally—that the organization’s strategy called Building Sustainable Communities improves the quality of life for low-income families in a significant way. The data hold critical implications for policymakers and philanthropic organizations focused on the ever-widening income inequality gap, he said, adding, “This a real indicator that we’re moving in the right direction.”

Since launching the strategy in 2007, LISC has made $750 million in grants, loans and equity investments that not only directly funded projects and programs but led to a total of $3.1 billion in development in the 63 targeted neighborhoods.

Download the report here

Learn more here

As I ponder how we analyze a community economy, I think I am starting to understand my continual aversion to the on-going efforts to ‘map social economy’ or ‘mapping social enterprise’. And it may not be just my irrational obstinate character!

This new perspective comes from having just spent some time reading about “the map is not the territory,” a phrase coined in 1933 by the father of general semantics, Alford Korzybski; and following Dr. Peter Hall’s suggestion, reading the book “Seeing Like a State.”

I am realizing the difference is simply between static pictures of what is there in a snapshot at the time of the mapping and being able to express the dynamic relationships of what is happening among the components of the map.

The ‘territorial relationship’ perspective also appears in an academic review of business guru Peter Drucker’s organizational analysis. The concept reflects the early ecosystems analysis by author Fritjof Capra (The Tao of Physics & The Turning Point particularly). And I am learning it is common in some therapeutic models.

One author describes mapping alone as an Aristotelian view of reality (cause & effect), rather than the capacity to reflect the vibrancy offered by a Quantum analysis (relationships). The framework is so much broader than I had anticipated.

Peter Pula of Axiom News in a blog adds “Over lunch one day, a day in which David Cooperrider was incredibly generous with his time, we were discussing the work of discovering strengths in people, organizations and systems as an approach to constructive journalism. He said, it’s about even more than discovering strengths these days; it’s about discovering where the energy is in a system. Another clinker. Where is the energy in the system?”

Anne Jamieson of TEF and Chair of the Ontario Social Economy Roundtable helped my understanding as well: “My thoughts are that mapping can be useful – for people who are new to the sector and are trying to navigate the ‘who’s who’ of the social economy/social enterprise sector. I have always worried about ‘mapping’ being a distraction, and requiring an investment of resources far greater than the benefit. Not to mention, that maps are static, quickly out-of-date, and in no way able to explain the dynamic relationships that exist.

Let’s avoid ‘mapping’ and focus building our networks, so that newcomers can join them and learn about the relationships that way. Let’s also build good directories that are targeting specific audiences (consumers or corporations, geographic regions), and are commonly accepted in the business world; keep them simple, and as up-to-date as possible, and avoid worrying about duplication – again, businesses are used to registering on many different directories, and purchasers are used to searching in a variety of places.”

All of these discussions are leading to some fascinating and evolving considerations of how do we map, design, and participate in the dynamic relationships, the “territory” of a community economy. So more to follow…

​This post was originally published on the Accelerating Social Impact CCC’s website on November 17, 2014.

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David LePage is a Principal with Accelerating Social Impact CCC, Ltd. (ASI), one of Canada’s first incorporated social purpose hybrid corporations. David is the former Team Manager of Enterprising Non-Profits, where he led the effort to expand the enp social enterprise development and training model across Canada. He initiated Canada’s first Social Purchasing Portal in 2003. He is currently involved in multiple public policy initiatives and research projects to support the social enterprise ecosystem across Canada. 

Originally published on Momentum’s blog Engage on December 16, 2014

Momentum’s Self Employment program has offered business training to Calgarians since 1998. Because our participants face barriers such as disability, income level, or low education, they would have difficulty starting a business on their own. Still, we know that with the right supports, these individuals can be successful launching a business that will improve their livelihood and maybe even create jobs for others. After 20 years and 700 participants, we have a fine-tuned model that comes with a powerful promise.

With Momentum, you can launch a business in 10 weeks. And it will pay off—for you, and for those that invest in you.

We aren’t into empty promises, so this fall Momentum commissioned Dr. Emery and Dr. Kneebone from the University of Calgary to conduct an economic evaluation of the Self Employment program. Specifically, we wanted to know the impact on incomes of participants, and on the budgets of the Government of Canada and Province of Alberta. Why these governments? Because they invest the money needed to operate the program, and because they get the benefit of increased tax payments and reduced dependency on social services.

The results are in, and they are astonishing:

• The average participant’s income grew by 250%.
• For every dollar invested, between $7 and $19 is generated and returned to the community.

Not only do participants experience big growth in their earnings, but they grow in other asset areas as well. Here are some comments I heard first-hand at a recent business launch event.

“As a new person to Calgary, my classmates are the first people I befriended here.”

“Momentum’s Self Employment program has changed my perspective on life.”

And my favourite:

“Even my MBA didn’t teach me this much.”

In fact, the results show that even an MBA can’t provide this powerful an economic return, either. Here’s Dr. Emery’s perspective:

“Over the past 30 years, when comparing the income gains of university and college graduates (over a high school graduate) to the cost of those degrees and diplomas, the Internal Rate of Return is generally less than 10% but the investment in that education is considered a good one since it yields double the return of a benchmark asset like a government bond at 5%.

When applying the same methodology to evaluating the return to investment on Momentum’s Self Employment program the annual returns are between 96% and 400%. This reflects the high social costs and impacts of barriers to employment for the population the Momentum program is serving. For not a lot of money invested, society gets a very high rate of return.” – J.C.H. Emery, PhD

What Dr. Emery is saying is that not only do our participants earn higher incomes after the program, but they contribute 10 times the economic value to the governments that invest in them, when compared to the return on investment of a university education. And it only takes six months.

I feel great admiration for my colleagues that work in the Self Employment program. They are truly remarkable change-makers. Congratulations, everyone, on these results.

We have published a summary of the research on our website if you’d like to learn more.

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Carolyn Davis is the Community Relations Director at Momentum, a Calgary based CED organization and founding member of the Canadian CED Network. Momentum partners with people living on low incomes to increase prosperity and inspires the development of local economies with opportunities for all.

 

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