The call for applications is currently open for the First Nations, Métis and Inuit Co-operative Development Program. The program is designed to help Aboriginal communities explore the potential of establishing co-operatives to meet their community needs.
The program was developed in collaboration with national Aboriginal organizations. It is sponsored by Arctic Co-operatives Ltd. Successful grants are funded by the Co-operative Development Foundation of Canada.
This program helps explore the potential of co-operatives aimed at creating jobs and economic activity to help reduce the high rate of aboriginal poverty. It is designed to stimulate start-up or expansion of cooperative projects in First Nations, Métis and Inuit communities.
Activities that would qualify for funding include (but not limit to):
Consultation with communities to generate ideas for co-operatives
Feasibility or pre-feasibility study to explore a project idea
Writing a business plan
Exploration of innovative models of co-operatives
Other structuring activities for co-operative development in the community
Applications should be directed to Co-operatives and Mutuals Canada by February 20, 2015. The amounts that can be granted vary between $ 5,000 and $ 50,000.
Please take a few minutes of your time to answer this survey in the spirit of co-operation. We are highly interested in your perspective on the subject. We would also appreciate it if you would share the survey with your contacts so that we can gather as much information as possible worldwide. The survey will remain open through February 18, 2015.
The Manitoba government is launching a new strategy to reduce poverty and promote social inclusion by partnering with community groups to create jobs for those facing serious barriers to work, Housing and Community Development Minister Kerri Irvin-Ross and Jobs and the Economy Minister Kevin Chief announced yesterday.
“There are many barriers that many Manitobans looking for a job face including lack of education and socio-economic barriers. By working together and connecting these people to social supports and job training, the social enterprise sector has been effective at providing a way out of poverty,” Minister Irvin-Ross said. “We are going to build on that success story and expand it to offer more people the hand up they need to be part of our growing economy.”
The Manitoba Social Enterprise Strategy is a partnership between community groups, the Manitoba government and the Canadian Community Economic Development Network (CCEDNet-Manitoba).
As businesses that focus on social mission, social enterprises are an important part of ALL Aboard: Manitoba’s Poverty Reduction and Social Inclusion Strategy, Minister Irvin-Ross said, adding they provide pathways to employment for Manitobans who have been excluded from the labour market, helping to reach the goals of both reducing poverty and adding 75,000 workers to the labour force by 2020.
“Whether we’ve experienced it personally or not, we know poverty creates a lot of challenges for families,” said Minister Chief. “Social enterprises are giving people the chance to get their first job, and sometimes even be the first person in their family to get a job. A first job is often the first step out of poverty and the first step in building healthier homes and communities.”
“We are enthusiastic to be launching this co-created strategy with the province as they recognize the energy and potential of Manitoba’s social enterprise sector to create jobs and pathways out of poverty,” said Sarah Leeson-Klym, regional director, Canadian CED Network. “We look forward to taking action to grow and strengthen our social enterprise sector as too many Manitobans who want to work are detached from the labour market.”
“A good example of supporting social enterprises is our partnership with Social Enterprise, Manitoba Housing and Pregnancy and Family Support Services to build 19 affordable housing units at 150 Austin St.,” said Minister Irvin-Ross.
“The Austin Street Housing is an excellent example of how this initiative supports social enterprises,” said Minister Irvin-Ross. “Austin Street will not only provide safe, affordable housing for 19 families in a new, three-storey building built on three vacant lots in the North Point Douglas neighbourhood of Winnipeg, but it will also emphasize the use of a high level of local labour content in its construction. This will allow for opportunities for skill development and local employment in various trades.”
“We are thrilled to be the developer of a community initiative that supports our work to foster family life, grow community connections and empower individuals,” said Cassandra Houle, executive director, Pregnancy and Family Support Services Inc. “The number one family need in our area is access to safe, affordable housing and 150 Austin will provide that, and will provide tenants and residents in the surrounding community a pride of ownership.”
“We want everyone in Manitoba to have the opportunity to contribute to their community through earning a living in a fulfilling job. We will invest in social enterprises, strengthen services for people facing barriers to work,” said Minister Chief.
Minister Irvin-Ross said over the next two to three years, Manitoba Housing will continue to work on energy retrofitting projects using social enterprise including:
pursuing a partnership with social enterprises and Manitoba Hydro to look at replacing approximately 300-plus standard efficient furnaces;
encouraging co-operatives and non-profit housing providers to perform water retrofits that will lower utility bills; and
installing energy saving materials and equipment, such as insulation and drain-water heat recovery units, where feasible.
In addition, Manitoba Jobs and the Economy will continue to support these initiatives including:
expanding awareness of department programs, including Entrepreneurship Manitoba, to all businesses including social enterprises;
exploring new opportunities to improve access by social enterprises to key employment support programs; and
implementing eligibility changes to the Workforce Development Program to allow for direct participation by social enterprises.
Know a great co-op or co-operator? Co-operatives and Mutuals Canada is now accepting nominations for their annual awards.
The 2nd Congress and AGM of Co‐operatives and Mutuals Canada will take place from June 15 to 18, 2015 in Saskatoon. A CMC Awards Ceremony will take place during the Congress.
The Awards Committee is now inviting nominations for the following three awards:
The terms of reference for each of the awards can be viewed by clicking the award titles.
Procedures for submitting awards nominations:
CMC members are asked to submit their awards nominations by March 20, 2015.
Awards nominations should be made using the nomination forms found in the terms of reference for each prize.
Awards nominations should be sent to the attention of Madeleine Brillant, Director of Corporate Affairs at or at: Madeleine Brillant Director, Corporate Affairs Co‐operatives and Mutuals Canada 400‐275 Bank Street Ottawa, ON K2P 2L6
Today, with great excitement, we officially launched the Manitoba Social Enterprise Strategy: A Strategy for Creating Jobs Through Social Enterprise. A community-led initiative co-created by the Canadian CED Network – Manitoba and the Province of Manitoba, this document is a comprehensive collection of concrete policy and program recommendations to support non-profits creating jobs and training opportunities for people with barriers to employment.
Social enterprises are non-profit organizations that use a business model to realize social, cultural and environmental outcomes, such as fostering a more sustainable environment, providing important community services like child care, generating revenue for non-profits, or as this strategy is focused on, creating jobs and training opportunities for people with barriers to employment.
By connecting multi-barriered individuals to a comprehensive program of social supports and job training, social enterprises have proved effective at providing a sustainable pathway toward prosperity, while reducing poverty and crime, growing our labour market, increasing our tax base and decreasing the costs associated with health care, justice and social services.
The road to today’s launch began in the fall of 2013, when CCEDNet – Manitoba members passed a policy resolution calling on the Province of Manitoba to co-create and co-produce a sector strategy for social enterprises focused on creating training and job opportunities for people with barriers to employment. The Province responded in Budget 2014 with a commitment to support the development of a sector strategy, and shortly after a steering committee was struck, comprised of half community members and half government representatives.
Over the past eight months, CCEDNet – Manitoba has conducted broad research on best-practice, completed a Provincial program review, hosted consultations with social enterprise stakeholders in Manitoba, received expert advice from British Columbia to Scotland, and repeatedly took progressing drafts of the document to the community for feedback. The result is a thorough list of policy and program recommendations, finely tuned to the strengths and opportunities of the Manitoba social enterprise sector.
Increasing the amount or scale of social enterprise alone is not a panacea for our complex community challenges. The incidence of poverty and unemployment in our province is an issue that needs dedicated and ongoing action that includes but is by no means limited to growing social enterprises — without continued investments in our communities in areas such as affordable housing and child care, the potential for social enterprise will not be realized.
A full house at the launch
However, it is our sincere belief that by implementing the recommendations within the MSES, we will see more supportive jobs created and more pathways out of poverty realized. Communities in Manitoba have identified this approach as one way they can succeed, and this is one way that we can support community-led and -owned opportunities.
Today is a day to celebrate; tomorrow we get back to work. We look forward to partnering with stakeholders from various sectors across the province to implement the recommendations within this strategy, and look to the Province to signal its commitment to the strategy through investments within Budget 2015.
Together, we can ensure that more Manitobans who want to work have access to the training and employment opportunities they need, and a pathway can be forged to break the vicious poverty cycle too many of our community-members face.
The video below introduces one of Manitoba’s successful social enterprises, BUILD, a member of the Canadian CED Network. More examples can be found among our Profiles of CED in Manitoba.
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.
Darcy was also a contributing author to the Alternative Municipal Budget for CCEDNet-Manitoba.
Proposals are now being accepted to host the 2016 National CCEDNet Conference! Any CCEDNet members and partners interested in hosting the 2016 conference are invited to submit a proposal.
Host selection criteria
Capacity to organise a major bilingual national event
Local mobilization potential
Resources that can be leveraged for the event
Information required in the proposal
Proposed conference title and theme(s)
Reasons for interest
Demonstrate your experience and capacity to organize a major bilingual event
Positive impacts for the community and region
Local partners/mobilization strategy
Resources committed or anticipated, including in-kind organizing capacity by hosts and partners, as well as cash contributions by conference sponsors and funders
Local initiatives/innovations to showcase
Recommended venues able to accommodate up to 400 participants and 12 breakout sessions.
A supplementary document with background information on previous conferences and typical responsibilities of CCEDNet and host partners is available upon request by emailing
Completed proposals must be sent by February 28, 2015 to
The successful host for the 2016 event will be announced in spring 2015.
If you have any questions feel free to contact Michael Toye at mtoye at ccednet-rcdec.ca
In a letter to the Canadian CED Network and the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives Manitoba, Premier Greg Selinger has expressed his support for the comprehensive approach endorsed by 95 community organizations in The View from Here 2015: Manitobans Call for a Renewed Poverty Reduction Plan.
This comprehensive community poverty reduction plan will provide marginalized people with the tools they need for a life of dignity and opportunity. The report assembles the ideas and findings of on-the-ground experts and recent research in a comprehensive package of recommendations.
“We are very pleased that Premier Selinger has joined the chorus of voices endorsing a comprehensive approach to poverty in Manitoba.” – Kirsten Bernas, author of the View from Here 2015 and Research and Policy Manager at the Canadian Community Economic Development Network.
Premier Selinger’s letter indicated that he “supports in principle the comprehensive approach reflected in the recommendations” and that there a number of avenues that government will work with community groups to move the View from Here 2015 recommendations forward. We look forward to working with the Manitoba government to implement the comprehensive recommendations from the View from Here 2015.
The Premier identified items in the View from Here 2015 that the provincial government will prioritize and work with community groups to implement: the recommendations of the Hughes Inquiry; expanding jobs and training resources including creating an Aboriginal community Labour Market Intermediary; expanding child care spaces; expanding parent child centres; creating new rent-geared to income (RGI) housing units; establishing a basic income for people with severe and prolonged disabilities; and improving adult literacy; expanding the Non-Profit Organization/Red Tape strategy and funding for Aboriginal-led organizations.
We thank the Premier for his support and look forward to working with the provincial government and community partners to take bold action to reduce poverty in Manitoba.
The View from Here 2015 contains 50 recommendations in nine key areas. Community groups are looking for progress on all the recommendations in the View from Here 2015.
Our current story is about Sacred Money and Markets. Money, it tells us, is the measure of all worth and the source of all happiness. The market is omniscient. Earth is simply a source of raw materials. Inequality and environmental destruction are unfortunate but unavoidable. Although many recognize this story promotes bad ethics, bad science, and bad economics, it will remain our guiding story until replaced by a more compelling story that aligns with our deepest understanding of the universe and our relationship to it.
A Sacred Life and Living Earth story is grounded in a cosmology that affirms we are living beings born of a living Earth itself born of a living universe. Our health and well-being depend on an economy that works in co-productive partnership with the processes by which Earth’s community of life maintains the conditions of its own existence—and ours. Offering a hopeful vision, this book lays out the transformative impact adopting this story will have on every aspect of human life and society.
David C. Korten is a cofounder and board chair of YES! Magazine, co-chair of the New Economy Working Group, founder and president of the Living Economies Forum, a member of the Club of Rome, a founding board member emeritus of the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies, a former Associate of the International Forum on Globalization, and a former Harvard Business School professor.
Watch the book launch at All Saints Church in Pasadena, Jan 25, 2015
The 2015 Canadian Conference on Social Enterprise will be the fifth national social enterprise conference to be held in Canada and invites you to join hundreds of existing and prospective social enterprise operators from every region in Canada.
Taking place in London, Ontario from April 22-24, 2015, the Conference offers an exciting three days of training and work sessions, networking opportunities, speakers and dynamic, interactive events.
This year’s 2015 Canadian Conference on Social Enterprise will host over 40 guest speakers and experts who will offer valuable insight into the sector.
Three individualized tours will be offered to attendees and will highlight the different aspects of the London community through local social enterprises. Don’t miss out on one of these three tours: Community Economic Development and Regeneration Tour, Employment Based Tour, or the Partnership Tour.
On April 23, 2015, three local social enterprises will host a special evening of cuisine and company. Have your pick from Edgar and Joe’s, YOU Café, or The London Training Centre to experience incredible food and people. Limited space available– register now and reserve your spot.
Will you be there? Let us know so we can plan to connect or find us at the CCEDNet exhibitor table.
Join us and enjoy three days of networking with the top talent and experts in social enterprise!
Affordable housing has long been a community priority. Individuals and families need stable housing to access social services and succeed in training or employment. The province has added more than 3,000 new social and affordable-housing units since 2009, and has increased annual investments in repairs and maintenance tenfold in the last decade. While these investments have helped meet some of the need, more social housing — particularly larger family units with more than three bedrooms — is required.
This is a key recommendation found in The View from Here 2015: Manitobans Call for a Renewed Poverty Reduction Plan being released today in Winnipeg. To address persistent poverty in this province, community groups have outlined this plan, which utilizes the work of on-the-ground experts and recent research. The findings are supported by over 90 organizations across the province. It builds on earlier recommendations we put forward in 2009.
Given the ever-increasing costs of rent and inadequate welfare rates, in 2009 we recommended increasing the shelter allowance for those on employment and income assistance (EIA). The province responded in 2014 with a new income benefit to be phased in over four years, which provides people on EIA and the working poor with more help to pay their rent. Community groups are calling for this new benefit to be implemented immediately.
In 2009, we recommended increases to the minimum wage. Although the province has continued with regular increases, stronger action is needed — a job should help lift people out of poverty and not perpetuate it. Currently two-parent families with two children who are working full time at minimum wage live below the poverty line. The province is integrating training and hiring for marginalized populations into public infrastructure projects. It is also working with the community on a strategy to grow social enterprises. These non-profit businesses successfully train, hire and support people shut out of the workforce because of issues like a criminal record, a disability, or lack of formal education. A financial commitment is needed to implement this new social-enterprise strategy and bring more low-income Manitobans into the labour market.
Full house attendance at the launch in Winnipeg
Poverty reduction cannot just be about jobs and better wages. We need investment in public services such as health care, early learning and childcare. While the province has made great progress on creating childcare spaces, the existing supply is not meeting demand.
People also need community-led services that address complex challenges such as addictions, mental illness and low literacy levels. The province provides multi-year funding to organizations that deliver these social services in the communities where low-income people live. This support should be expanded to more organizations providing effective wrap-around services.
Many are disappointed Manitoba’s poverty rates are still too high, but statistics do not immediately respond to changes in government policy. Manitobans who work with individuals and families in poverty witness incremental effects daily and are confident we are on the right path.
They know many Manitobans would be worse off had investments in recent years not been made and that even bolder action is needed if we are going to see more significant improvements. We need the province to build on investments that are making a difference.
Today’s release of The View From Here 2015 provides a renewed package of comprehensive actions for reducing poverty.
The report is based on research and consultations with individuals and organizations who know what works. This comprehensive approach will help reduce increasing costs in health care, justice, social assistance and child-welfare systems as poverty is inextricably linked to these systems. Community groups hope this plan will provide a renewed foundation for future government action to reduce poverty in Manitoba.
Kirsten Bernas is Research and Policy Manager with CCEDNet in Manitoba. She received a BA (Honours) in Economics from the University of Manitoba as well as an MA from the Norman Paterson School of International Affairs at Carleton University in Ottawa. Kirsten represents CCEDNet on the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives‘ Alternative Federal Budget Steering Committee, Make Poverty History Canada’s Steering Committee, and the Right to Housing Coalition‘s Provincial Committee.
The Greater Ohio Policy Center released an independent analysis of an innovative model for neighborhood recovery being piloted in a Cleveland neighborhood, finding promising results for this block-by-block holistic approach to revitalization that combines demolition and rehabilitation.
Slavic Village Recovery (SVR), a for-profit entity consisting of four partners, was created for the purpose of revitalizing the neighborhood of Slavic Village. Through a targeted investment strategy, the SVR partners intend to take a holistic approach to community redevelopment, aligning demolition and rehabilitation to eradicate blight one block at a time and supplementing its efforts with community engagement. It is focused on gaining access to a critical mass of real-estate owned (REO) properties and bank walkaways with the intention of either demolishing or rehabilitating the vacant structures.
The report summarizes preliminary results for the Slavic Village Recovery Project, including:
Sales prices of the initial homes reached the targeted amount necessary to cover rehab costs and make a small $5,000-$10,000 profit; received an appraisal value above the listed $60,000 sale price; and sold quickly.
Neighborhood morale is high and neighbors are positive about the project.
Investment is taking place in the neighborhood apart from direct involvement with SVR, suggesting, perhaps, that SVR’s private sector partners created market confidence for new businesses and city and regional governments.
The report also noted several keys to SVR’s early successes:
A holistic approach to community development and a clear comprehensive plan, strategically linking demolition and rehabilitation.
A focus on properties with value and the strong relationships needed to acquire properties from REO lists and banks
A philanthropic mission paired with a for-profit approach in executing the mission
Put your passion for social enterprise to work overseas. Students for Social Impact placements provide the opportunity for talented students to contribute to life-changing social enterprises in Canada or the UK, gain valuable overseas experience, and connect with other young leaders of the future.
The Students for Social Impact placements are designed to complement your studies. As part of the placement, you will be tasked with completing a research project devised by you and your social enterprise mentor, with input from your course instructor. You will present your preliminary findings at the Students for Social Impact Summit at the end of your placement. Throughout the programme you will have the opportunity to connect with other talented students on-line and in-person at the start and conclusion of your placement.
Programme Goals
Provide opportunities for high-achieving, high-potential undergraduate students to learn about, and experiment with, social innovation and entrepreneurship through experiential, multi-disciplinary learning provided in a workplace environment.
Support and encourage student mobility and employability for future leaders in social enterprise, providing opportunities for students from Canada and the UK to learn from international experiences, share with each other, and bring that learning back to their university environment.
Develop a network of emerging leaders in social enterprise in Canada and the UK.
The call for applications is currently open for the First Nations, Métis and Inuit Co-operative Development Program. The program is designed to help Aboriginal communities explore the potential of establishing co-operatives to meet their community needs.
“We are enthusiastic to be launching this co-created strategy with the province as they recognize the energy and potential of Manitoba’s social enterprise sector to create jobs and pathways out of poverty,” said Sarah Leeson-Klym, regional director, Canadian CED Network. “We look forward to taking action to grow and strengthen our social enterprise sector as too many Manitobans who want to work are detached from the labour market.”
David C. Korten is a cofounder and board chair of 
The 
Put your passion for social enterprise to work overseas. Students for Social Impact placements provide the opportunity for talented students to contribute to life-changing social enterprises in Canada or the UK, gain valuable overseas 