Anticipating Budget 2014

Budgets are not simply financial documents. They are clear statements of values and priorities. Some people and communities benefit, while others do not. Particular outcomes for society are pursued aggressively, while some are ignored. With this in mind, we eagerly await the Government of Manitoba’s 2014 “Statement of Values and Priorities” to be delivered on March 6th at the Legislature.

The Canadian CED Network – Manitoba promotes community economic development (CED) as a comprehensive and integrated approach to improving economic, social, and environmental conditions in communities. This approach understands that solutions to complex community challenges will be most successful and sustainable when they are community-led.

Manitoba Parliament Building As a network led by its members, CCEDNet – Manitoba works with over 100 community-based organizations to identify what government could do to best support their work, or even to reduce the need for their work at all. The members have identified a number of impactful ideas, which we have worked with them to advance.

CCEDNet took these ideas and made a budget submission, which calls on the Province of Manitoba to ensure Budget 2014 invests in things that matter to our Network.

In order to achieve the vision and mission of our members, we know that people need to have their basic needs met first. This is why we know that government investment in raising the EIA rental allowance to 75% of median market rent, creating more child care spaces, strengthening food security and building a strong local food economy, and building more social and affordable housing units are all essential policy priorities for reducing poverty and creating economic stability for Manitobans and their families.

Diversity Foods staff in their kitchen We also know that the best pathway out of poverty is a good job, which is why our members have identified the need for the province to work with our sector to create a Manitoba Social Enterprise Strategy. People want to work, and in order to reduce poverty and grow our labour market to attain the goal of 75,000 new jobs by 2020, the province will need to seriously invest in building the bridges to employment for Manitobans. Investment in co-operative development will also stimulate local, sustainable economic development.

Our members will look to Budget 2014 for action that will invest in building stronger and fairer local economies, reducing poverty, and creating more sustainable communities.

Read the Anticipating Manitoba Budget 2014 Blog Series

St. Norbert Farmers’ Market

As a network led by its members, CCEDNet – Manitoba works with over 100 community-based organizations to identify what government could do to best support their work, or even to reduce the need for our work at all. The members have identified a number of impactful ideas, which we have worked with them to advance.

Food matters. A lot. To everyone. Food is a significant determinant of our short and long term health, our kids’ ability to learn, clearly impacts and is impacted by our environment, and is an important piece of our provincial, regional, and family economies.

It was amazing to see hundreds of people gather last week to learn, celebrate, and connect around food security and local food at the 2014 Growing Local Conference hosted by Food Matters Manitoba. The people and ideas were inspiring, the common vision was hopeful, yet the challenges we face in achieving food security and sustainability are significant.

“To change our food economy, we need to ensure that every person in Manitoba at least has access to sufficient healthy food to ensure a basic quality of life.“

Food is such an essential ingredient in our lives, yet the way our food economy is structured not only determines who is able to access what kinds of food (if any at all), it also impacts the livelihoods of those who want to be local and sustainable food producers. Our food policies and markets are geared toward specialization, mechanization, commercialization, and export. In turn, we buy most of our food from multinational corporate oligopolies.

We do have lots of food in Manitoba, but not everyone has access to it, and while we produce nearly $4 billion in food, the benefits of this are certainly not reaching local producers as rural family and food producer incomes continue to fall. On average, farmers only receive 27% of the price of a week’s groceries while, for grain farmers, this dips to 4%.

Mennonite Village Museum garden in Steinbach

Community garden in Steinbach

To change our food economy, we need to ensure that every person in Manitoba at least has access to sufficient healthy food to ensure a basic quality of life. Raising the provincial EIA rental allowance to 75% of median market rent would help so that people don’t have to spend their food money on rent.

We also need to take action to re-localize our food economy by supporting local, sustainable food producers and making sure that we have the distributors and infrastructure available to get that food to consumers. Changing our massive and complex food system is not easy, and requires action on several fronts. The mechanism that makes the most sense to oversee a shift would be a Food Policy Council that brings together various stakeholders and explores action on multiple fronts. Many cities such as Edmonton, Toronto, and Halifax already have this, and it’s why our members prioritized the need for the City of Winnipeg to create a Winnipeg Food Policy Council. The province could also adopt this model with the creation of a Manitoba Food Policy Council focused on strengthening food security and investing in a local, sustainable food economy.

“We do have lots of food in Manitoba, but not everyone has access to it, and while we produce nearly $4 billion in food, the benefits of this are certainly not reaching local producers as rural family and food producer incomes continue to fall.“

Of course, Manitobans would feel more confident in producing sustainable food if they knew that there was a growing demand for it. While Manitoban consumers are increasingly looking for these options, larger institutions should also shift their food purchases toward local, sustainable food producers.

As a network led by its members, CCEDNet – Manitoba works with over 100 community-based organizations to identify what government could do to best support their work, or even to reduce the need for our work at all. The members have identified a number of impactful ideas, which we have worked with them to advance.

Diversity Foods staff

In a cash economy like ours, we need money to pay rent, buy food, pay for child care and school fees, access transportation, and acquire other basic necessities. As Canadians, we have created a social safety net to make sure that everyone has at least a basic amount of money to meet some of these needs. In that way, we are committed to taking care of each other, particularly those with the least. But what people receive is very little, and is woefully inadequate when measured against the cost of living, particularly with rising rental rates. This is why 150 organizations agreed that the provincial government needed to raise the rental allowance to at least 75% of median market rents.

Of course, people want more than subsistence living, and truly climbing out of poverty requires good employment. So, naturally, there are a lot of Manitobans who want to work, but a combination of historical systemic exclusion and not having all the skills and experiences business are looking for means they don’t get hired and remain in poverty. For these folks, we need to create pathways out of poverty with solutions that work – training opportunities and good jobs that provide both the personal and technical skill development that people need to get and keep a job.

Social enterprises provide these opportunities. As businesses, they operate in the market selling goods and services like any other business. But as a nonprofit, their entire reason for existing is to create a social impact – often providing jobs for people with multiple barriers to employment.

“People living in poverty who are struggling to climb out are often isolated, have poor health that is costly to our health care system, and are over-represented in our expensive justice system.“

This works, and works very well. We have many social enterprises in Manitoba already doing this, creating hundreds of jobs for folks that would otherwise be unemployed. The problem is that there are thousands more who want to work, which is why we need to create more social enterprises while growing and strengthening existing ones.

Shaun Loney of BUILD presenting the strengths of social enterprise.

To do this, we need to make sure that we have a good ‘ecosystem’ of support in Manitoba. We need to make sure that we build the skills and knowledge of those creating and managing social enterprises. We need to make sure that they are gaining access to markets in order to maintain and grow their sales and contracts. We need to make sure that the policy environment is not creating barriers to their operations, but is in fact enabling them to achieve the mission of training and jobs. We need to make sure that the right money is available at the right time for social enterprises, whether that is development or training funds or appropriate financing mechanisms. And we need to make sure that as a sector we have the evidence to demonstrate the value of this effective model, and have the capacity to build the relationships within the sector.

“We need to create pathways out of poverty with solutions that work – training opportunities and good jobs that provide both the personal and technical skill development that people need to get and keep a job.“

The province has supported social enterprises in many different ways, but it is time to take this to a new level with a more deliberate, strategic, and comprehensive approach that is designed together with the social enterprise sector. We need a Manitoba Social Enterprise Strategy.

This makes good policy sense, and creates a significant benefit in our communities. People living in poverty and struggling to climb out are often isolated, have poor health that is costly to our health care system, and are over-represented in our expensive justice system. The right kind of training and good job creates a pathway out of this. It works, it changes lives, it reduces the financial strain on our health, social service, and justice systems, and is therefore the right thing to do – with a sense of urgency.

Our members will look to Budget 2014, knowing that the choices made in it will impact the lives of all Manitobans to some degree, most significantly those with the least. Investment in a social enterprise strategy will signal that this budget prioritizes and places value in reducing poverty by creating pathways out of poverty for Manitobans.

The Canadian CED Network’s Annual General Meeting (AGM) will be held on May 29th, 2014 in Winnipeg, Manitoba, and virtually across the country.

Call for Board Nominations
Call for Resolutions

2014 CALL FOR BOARD NOMINATIONS

CCEDNet is a democratically governed organization led by a Board of Directors that is elected by our members.

Nominations are currently being sought for four positions on CCEDNet’s Board of Directors. CCEDNet members with energy and a vision for the CED movement in Canada are encouraged to submit their candidacy. The deadline to submit nominations is April 8, 2014.

This year we are seeking nominations for four at-large directors who will be elected to a three-year term.

For more information: 2014 Call for Nominations (pdf) or Word

2014 CALL FOR RESOLUTIONS

Members are invited to submit resolutions that will be presented at the Annual General Meeting. All resolutions must be submitted to CCEDNet at no later than April 8, at 5:00 p.m. (EST).

Sponsors of resolutions will be contacted no later than April 25. At that time, sponsors will be notified that their resolution will be presented at the AGM or that the resolution has been rejected because it does not fulfill the requirements.

For more information: 2014 Call for Resolutions

The Twelve Shoes of Christmas

For example, our members know that access to safe and affordable housing is essential for creating individual, family, and community stability. This is why we need more social housing units in Manitoba. For those who are renting in the market, they need enough money to be able to pay for a safe place to live. The problem is that rent costs have continued to rise over the years, while the allowance provided for renting has not.

“Budgets are not simply financial documents. They are clear statements of values and priorities. Some people and communities beneift, while others do not.“

As housing costs increase, people are forced to spend food money on rent, making personal debt and food banks sad necessities for survival. When housing needs are met, children do not need to move from school to school, parents have reduced stress and the means to provide the necessities for their families (food, winter clothing, transport, school supplies, etc.). People must have their basic needs met before they can pursue economic opportunities such as employment and education.

For this reason, the members of our network worked with over 150 organizations last year through Make Poverty History Manitoba to raise the issue with Manitobans and to push the provincial government to increase the EIA rental allowance to 75% of the median market rent. While still inadequate, this would at least give people some hope of finding some kind of safe place to live.

It was a fantastic campaign! Non-profits, businesses, unions, municipalities, and citizens joined together in a dedicated, creative, and well organized effort that got significant media attention and caught the attention of everyone at 450 Broadway – with the Twelve Shoes of Christmas and the “Have a Heart” Valentine’s Day rallies on the steps of the Legislature, how could it not! It was a simple ask that simply made sense.

“People must have their basic needs met before they can pursue economic opportunities such as employment and education.“

While Budget 2013 yielded a modest yet inadequate result, it seems that all that hard work just might pay off. The Minister of Jobs and the Economy, Theresa Oswald, recently signaled in a Winnipeg Free Press interview that the province is ready to meet the demands of the campaign. An editorial by Molly McCracken of the CCPA – Manitoba also highlighted that this policy measure was one of the recommendations in the recently released Phoenix Sinclair inquiry.

And so we await Budget 2014, knowing that the choices made in it will impact the lives of all Manitobans to some degree, most significantly those with the least. If the province comes through on this increase, it will signal a win for the campaign, a win for those living in poverty, and demonstrate that this budget prioritizes and places value in reducing poverty in Manitoba.

SPARK a community connection

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“Spark, a service of the Canadian Community Economic Development Network, matches non-profit community organizations in Winnipeg with volunteers who have specific skills or are experts in their fields, and may be seeking to somehow make a difference in their community,” explains Geoff Ripat, Spark Program Manager.

Thus begins a recent article by Third Quarter profiling the Winnipeg-based Spark. In interviews with Geoff and Spark Recruitment Coordinators Katie Schewe and Lindsey McBain, Third Quarter highlights Spark’s commitment to community. “[We] put our focus into matching the needs of the organization with the best skills-suited volunteer,” explains Lindsey. As Katie also points out, this also helps “[o]ur volunteers get a stronger connection to the good that is happening in our community, knowing they are helping to build a stronger Winnipeg.”

As an example of the kind of matching that Spark does, Geoff explains that “One of our mentor matches includes a new-to-the-position executive director whose association is going through a great growth expansion. Needing someone as a sounding board and guide, we have arranged for this person to have monthly meetings with a retired executive director who can bring some perspective to the situation[…]Sometimes the work is project-based. One of our clients wants to expand their community garden and we are working to help them find a landscape architect.”

Find out more about Spark

Watch a video about Spark

Third Quarter is a matching service helping Canadians in “the third quarter of their lives” to connect with businesses that are seeking experienced workers.

This week, the Province of Manitoba announced they will be creating over 250 new, affordable licensed child care spaces. Four new centres will be appearing in St. Andrews, Oak Lake, St. Boniface, and South St. Vital, with an expansion to an existing space in Waverley Heights. This is good news for Manitoban families and the Manitoba economy.

The Honourable James Allum, Minister of Education and Advanced Learning

CCEDNet – Manitoba’s members passed a Child Care policy resolution in 2012 calling for the creation of enough new licensed early learning and child-care spaces to meet the demand as determined by the Online Child Care Registry, with priority given to creating child care spaces in lower-income neighbourhoods including in rural and Northern communities.

Investing in high quality learning and child care services is one of the most effective means of reducing poverty and promoting economic growth in our communities. For every $1 invested in child care in Manitoba, $1.58 returns to rural and northern economies and $1.38 returns to the Winnipeg economy. Every child care job created leads to 2.15 jobs being created or sustained, and an estimated $715 million is earned by mothers and fathers available to work due to child care (source). Furthermore, child care is critical to ensuring Manitobans have the time to develop the skills and knowledge necessary for full participation in our society.

“For every $1 invested in child care in Manitoba, $1.58 returns to rural and northern economies and $1.38 returns to the Winnipeg economy.“

This is all on top of the amount our society benefits from quality early years education for our youngest.

While the Provincial government should be commended for their efforts in increasing licensed child-care spaces to nearly 32,500, there are still over 11,000 names registered with the Online Child Care Registry waiting for child-care spaces (as of Fall 2013).

The Province should continue and increase its efforts to ensure Manitoban families have access to affordable, licensed child-care spaces. It’s good for our communities and our economy.

Darcy Penner is a Research & Policy Advisor with the Canadian CED Network. He has been working in community development through various capacities since graduating from the University of Winnipeg with a BA (Honours) in Politics.

CCEDNet members who have not yet renewed their membership for 2014 should have received a letter today via email that contains an invitation to renew their membership and a review of our accomplishments over the last year.

You can now renew your membership online with your user account.

Go to https://ccednet-rcdec.ca/en/user.
Log in using the email address the renewal reminder message was sent to
If you don’t know your password, you can request a new password. Use the same email address as above.
Once you have logged in to your account, click on the ‘Memberships and Donations’ tab to see the status of your membership and to renew. You can choose to pay by credit card or by cheque.
If you have any questions, contact us at info at ccednet-rcdec.ca.

Renew today! Canada’s community economic development movement is a dynamic force for positive change, as illustrated in our new video:

Have a look at the outline of our achievements in 2013, and renew today.

For fashion trends the world looks to Milan; Copenhagen has become synonymous with urban planning; but for community development, Manitoba is increasingly the source for inspiration and cutting edge policy. Manitoba’s home-grown approach to community development is being studied by other cities looking for ways to deal with the complex challenges of poverty and social exclusion. This past week, the Victoria Social Planning Council invited CCPA Manitoba to British Columbia to present research from the State of the Inner City Report at a “Place-based Community Forum”. Unlike BC, Manitoba fosters opportunities for citizens marginalized by poverty and social exclusion to become involved in local neighbourhood revitalization, with very positive results.

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Manitoba has a long history of social justice movements. Manitoba was the first province to grant women the right to vote, home of the 1919 general strike, and is the location of one of the first Aboriginal friendship centres in the country. Our province is imbued with the spirit of solidarity and cooperation borne from a strong trade union movement and rural agricultural roots. First Nations teach us of the importance of considering the impact of our actions seven generations from now. These values inform community-organizing efforts towards social justice in Manitoba.

Winnipeg’s Inner City in the late 1980s and early 1990s was a place of divestment and concentrated urban decay. The rise of the suburbs had left the core of the city in trouble: boarded up storefronts and arsons in abandoned buildings were coupled with low graduation rates and high unemployment. Inner City activists got together and organized. Eventually several neighbourhoods created Community Renewal Corporations, modeled after organizations in the US that aim to meet both economic and social goals.

In 2000, the provincial government responded to these grassroots efforts with the creation of Neighbourhoods Alive!, an inter-departmental program providing funding to Community or Neighbourhood Renewal Corporations (NRCs) and program funding to communities with indicators of distress. NA! now funds 13 NRCs operating in urban and rural communities in Manitoba.

The province has invested widely in community development and “place-based” approaches to renewal. One example is Lord Selkirk Park, a public housing development in the North End of Winnipeg previously half empty with high rates of crime, is completely renovated and fully occupied with resources for residents. Many adult residents in Lord Selkirk Park are able to complete high school thanks to an adult learning centre on site. Family and child care centres also provide resources and services. Manitoba Housing and Community Development contracts with social enterprises that hire and train local residents to do renovations like this, helping people struggling with poverty to build skills and work experience. Place-based approaches such as this are being adopted in communities across the country; residents overwhelmed by poverty need complementary supports and resources close to home.

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The NA! policy framework requires the development of a Community Plan, facilitated by the NRCs and residents of the community. Different than a municipal land-use plan or secondary plan, the Community Plan identifies social and economic assets and areas of need in the neighbourhood or region. Lord Selkirk Park, for example, was identified as an area for renewal in the North End, and the North End Community Renewal Corporation partnered with a number of key community-based organizations, governments and foundations in the redevelopment.

NRCs create spaces for local people to participate in identifying and addressing the challenges they see around them. This is participatory democracy; residents and stakeholders in NRC communities have direct influence over decisions that affect their lives. In our current electoral democracy, opportunities to participate in policy and program development are rare, especially for those marginalized because of economic status, race, ability, age, gender etc. But in NRC neighbourhoods there are multiple ways for people to get involved: by learning about local services at a block party, participating at a community forum or volunteering on the board of directors of a local organization. In the process, people build skills, relationships and community.

While the Manitoba model has enabled a lot to be accomplished, there is a long way to go. Community development efforts must work in tandem with a strong social safety net. Local initiatives to improve conditions for low-income residents are challenged by low Employment and Income Assistance (EIA) rates, the low income housing crisis and people falling through the cracks of social systems. Governments and community must work together to address the problems of poverty and need to ask at what level is it most appropriate to respond to a need: at a system level or community level? For example, many communities are creating food security programs as low EIA rates require people to use their food budget to cover rent. To truly address this issue, the system-wide response should be to improve the EIA housing allowance, while the community-level response is to develop place-based programs to increase access to healthy food, skill-building opportunities and foster community around healthy eating.

Grassroots efforts to identify and respond to local challenges can be frustrated when governments, operating in silos and focused on accountability, place restrictions on local priorities. Addressing poverty requires long-term strategies and long-term investment. To address the root causes of poverty, a sustained and substantial investment is needed. The province has piloted an initiative to reduce red tape and provide multi-year funding to 35 programs. This is a good start. When the goal is improving socio-economic conditions, governments and community organizations need to work in a true collaborative partnership. Accountability runs both ways and the policy framework and funding arrangements must reflect this.

Organizations around the world such as KIP International and jurisdictions like BC are learning from Manitoba’s approach. At the same time Manitoba must learn from BC. When, after a decade of NDP government, the BC Liberals gained power in 2001, deep cuts were made to social programs: employment and training programs and many not-for-profit organizations were “defunded”. The impacts are still being felt as BC struggles to deal with the highest child poverty rate in the country.

The benefits of Manitoba’s unique approach to community development should be widely recognized and protected. It can take years to build capacity and infrastructure to address the complex challenges of poverty and social exclusion. However, unless future governments continue to set community development as a priority, this progress can be quickly undone.

Molly McCracken is the director of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives – Manitoba office

Previously published by CCPA as a fast facts at www.policyalternatives.ca. Photo of Snoball Winter Carnival in West Broadway, Winnipeg, Manitoba by Mandy Malazdrewich

CCPA Manitoba and the Commnuity Social Planning Council of Greater Victoria are both members of the Canadian CED Network

In response to the Manitoba government’s invitation for pre-budget submissions, CCEDNet

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provided recommendations that bring a CED perspective to the 2014 budget. Our submission, which was sent to the Hon. Jennifer Howard, M.L.A., Minister of Finance, includes 18 budget-relevant recommendations based on policy resolutions that have been developed, debated and endorsed by the members of CCEDNet – Manitoba.

In the submission we call on the Province of Manitoba to ensure Budget 2014 invests in things that matter to our Network, such as jobs, housing, co-operative development, poverty reduction, community-led development, and child care.

To learn more, or to find out how you can use this document to draft your own pre-budget submissions, contact Darcy Penner at

>> Read CCEDNet’s pre-budget submission

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Finance Minister Jim Flaherty answers questions on the 2014 Federal budget.

The Road to Balance: Creating Jobs and Opportunities, the Federal government’s 2014 budget, was released yesterday. This year, CCEDNet submitted two recommendations to the Federal government’s pre-budget consultations: the inclusion of 20% social value weighting in all requests for proposals and community benefit agreements on all relevant contracts; and investment in training to ensure government staff understand the social enterprise and co-operative business models so these businesses can access federal business development programs on a level playing field with other businesses.

Neither of these submissions is addressed in the budget document. Parts of the budget that are relevant to the CED sector include:

Continued focus on social finance, likely building on the report issued last year. The budget reiterated the government’s intention to work with the not-for-profit and private sectors to “explore the potential for social finance initiatives.” A Ministerial Advisory Council on Social Innovation was created in December 2013 to support that process. (p.215 of the PDF budget document)
The Canada Jobs Grant will be implemented on April 1, 2014. In provinces and territories that have not signed renewed Labour Market Agreements with the federal government, the program will be delivered directly by Service Canada and the federal regional development agencies. (p.60)
Regulations for credit unions that wish to operate federally will be clarified, leading to a “streamlined process for amalgamating two or more provincial credit unions into one federal credit union.” (p.132)
The government will carry out a public consultation on the income tax framework for non-profit organizations (NPOs) to ensure that the tax exemption for NPOs is appropriately targeted and not subject to abuse by organizations that claim the exemption but are not operating in the manner intended, and to ensure that reporting requirements for legitimate NPOs provide the public and the Canada Revenue Agency with sufficient information to evaluate their activities. (p.343)
Administrative burdens faced by charities will be reduced by modernizing the Canada Revenue Agency to enable charities to file their annual returns online. (p.213)
A $5 million per year increase in funding for New Horizons for Seniors program, which can “support municipalities, not-for-profits, social enterprises and other community partners to address the needs of seniors.” (p.206) The Targeted Initiative for Older Workers is also renewed for three years with a $75 million investment for unemployed older workers in smaller, vulnerable communities affected by closures or high unemployment. (p.78)
A proposal to introduce legislative and regulatory changes for a Property and Causality demutualization framework. (p.128) Many mutuals are locally owned and controlled in Canada, and can be important supporters of CED initiatives. Opening the door for demutualization may contribute to the loss of this connection with their communities.

CCEDNet would have liked to see specific measures supporting community economic development, such as a neighbourhood revitalization fund and a CED lens, which were part of the Alternative Federal Budget released last week.

The Canadian Community Economic Development Network looks forward to continuing our work with the federal government to implement enabling policy for organizations building resilient, inclusive community economies.

Other Budget Responses

On February 1, 2014, CCEDNet member Assiniboine Credit Union (ACU) was recognized for their commitment to environmental sustainability when they were awarded the Anne Lindsey Protecting Our Earth Award in the organization category.

The Anne Lindsey Protecting Our Earth Awards, also known as the Earthies, were established in 1990 to recognize the achievements of Manitobans who work to protect and steward the environment. The awards are given by the Manitoba Eco-Network at their annual Reel Green film event.

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Photo used with permission from Will Milne and the Manitoba Eco-Network.

Assiniboine Credit Union has a strong history of action on environmental sustainability that extends to business practices, granting priorities, and employee engagement. Some of ACU’s environmental achievements include:

Establishing a greenhouse gas management structure,
Committing to energy efficiency, including building a branch to LEED Silver energy efficiency ratings, and using geothermal systems in three of their 22 branches,
Winning back-to-back gold awards in the Commuter Challenge,
Recognition as a provincial leader on climate change, air quality and energy efficiency,
Being named one of Canada’s Greenest Employers, and
Reducing environmental impacts through waste management, including an extensive multi-materials recycling program, and a bi-annual waste audit.

The Manitoba credit union is also in the process of formalizing their commitment to the environment and CED values by creating a formal Corporate Social Responsibility policy. ACU is also one of only three Canadian financial institutions to be a member of the Global Alliance for Banking on Values.

It is this commitment to CED values that led to CCEDNet’s nomination of ACU for an Earthie in the organization/project category. We are always proud of the great work of our members, and privileged to highlight their work through nomination for awards like this.

Congratulations, ACU!

Learn more about the benefits of CCEDNet membership, and connect with us on Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn.