English – Page 12 – Canadian CED Network

As Canadians continue to adapt to the realities of COVID-19, local governments and community partners across the country are adapting their spaces and services to keep residents safe and healthy, support economic recovery, create jobs, and build vibrant, resilient communities.

Today, the Government of Canada alongside Community Foundations of Canada, the Canadian Urban Institute and a network of partners including CCEDNet are announcing projects taking place across Canada as part of the first round of th A neighbourhood bulletin board has 4 colourful, hand-drawn posters with positive messages. We are in this Together. We are going to be okay. Don't give up. e Canada Healthy Communities Initiative. The $31-million Canada Healthy Communities Initiative is building safer spaces and ensuring a higher quality of life for people across the country, by helping communities adapt to the challenges presented by COVID-19.

Also today, the second round of the Healthy Communities Initiative will open, until June 25. The Healthy Communities Initiative is funding projects between $5,000 and $250,000 that help create safe and vibrant public spaces, improve mobility options, and provide digital solutions to help their neighbourhoods or communities navigate the pandemic and look to build back better in the COVID-19 recovery. A variety of community-led organizations are eligible to apply, including local governments, charities, Indigenous communities, and registered non-profit organizations.

Visit healthycommunitiesinitiative.ca to see the Healthy Communities Initiative projects that have received funding from coast to coast to coast on the project map, and find out more about how to apply for round 2.

The recent federal budget renewed the Investment Readiness Program (IRP) for a second 2-year, $50 million term.

How can we ensure that this second phase of the IRP is effective in meeting its goals? How can we ensure that the issues identified during the pilot phase of the IRP are addressed?

Members of the People-Centred Economy Group have made the following recommendations to the federal government with respect to the design and implementation of IRP 2.0:

Prioritize and strengthen the role of groups led by and serving equity-seeking populations, so that their needs are reflected throughout the program, and that they receive ample financial resources.
Working with IRP pilot partners and data from the IRP pilot, and engaging with additional ecosystem stakeholders, consider a redesign of the SPO funding delivery mechanism that takes into account: sequencing for more relationship-oriented program development and intake processes; tailored funds or processes for different stages of readiness; and responsive intake systems that enable support when groups need it in advance of real procurement or investment opportunity. Working with ecosystem partners, consider new or additional delivery partners with a focus on strengthening equity, regionality, and subsidiarity, while taking into account the unique role of national ecosystem partners.
Expand and clarify the IRP objectives to include procurement readiness and development of the wider social innovation ecosystem, beyond those initiatives likely to be recipients of social financing.
Consider a distinct role for IRP partnership convening that could be combined with wider ecosystem convening and likely separate from the funding delivery partners. There may also be value in integrating a distinct ‘wayfinder’ role that would focus on helping non-IRP partners navigate the program. Regardless of the specifics, all partners focused on convening should demonstrate strong collaborative capacity, equity and inclusion practices, and expect to be key resources for the forthcoming Social Innovation Advisory Council.

Do you agree with these recommendations? If yes, we invite you to endorse the briefing note submitted to the federal government on May 7. You can signal your organization’s support by sending an email to CCEDNet’s Government Relations Director, Raissa Marks, at . New endorsements will be communicated to government officials as they come in.

Endorsements to date:

Buy Social Canada (BSC)
Canadian Community Economic Development Network (CCEDNet)
Canadian Worker Co-op Federation (CWCF)
Chantier de l’économie sociale
Co-operatives and Mutuals Canada (CMC)
Imagine Canada
Institute for Community Prosperity
Momentum Calgary
Network for the Advancement of Black Communities
Ontario Nonprofit Network (ONN)
PARO Centre for Women’s Enterprise
SEED Winnipeg
Social Economy Through Social Inclusion (SETSI)
Social Enterprise Council of Canada (SECC)
Table of Impact Investment Practitioners (TIIP)
Women’s Economic Council (WEC)

Originally published in iPolitics, May 7, 2021.

Long before COVID-19, Canadians struggled to access affordable housing. Now, isolation, unemployment, and mental illness — side effects of the devastating virus — are causing our most vulnerable citizens to become even more vulnerable.

While many Canadians have taken the safety of their homes during the pandemic for granted, the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) has found that 1.6 million Canadians still don’t have safe or affordable housing.

The culprit is often systemic discrimination making it extra-hard for some people, including Black, Indigenous, and LGBTQ2S Canadians, to access and maintain safe, affordable, and stable housing.

There’s an urgent need for innovative and immediate solutions to this housing crisis.

The government of Canada’s National Housing Strategy — a 10-year, $70-billion plan to give more Canadians a “place to call home” — got a $2.5-billion boost in the federal budget. But this still doesn’t meet the demand for affordable housing in Canada, meaning that provinces, territories, and municipalities are contributing unequally to fill the gap. Additional sources of capital are required, and social finance is an important one.

Social finance is well-established in Canada. It’s an approach to investing that provides measurable social and environmental benefits by mobilizing private and philanthropic capital for the public good through social-finance intermediaries. Like traditional investments, social finance pays a return on investment while supporting the community and stimulating the local economy.

Investors have been helping non-profits and social enterprise for years. New Market Funds, for example, has been delivering investment opportunities with financial returns and lasting community benefit since 2013. The company works coast to coast, managing $65 million in capital from financial and other institutions, foundations, family offices, and individuals. New Market Funds deploys money to create affordable housing, reduce greenhouse-gas emissions, and increase marginalized populations’ access to capital, among other recipients.

Much of its activity currently involves affordable housing, with two funds that help finance non-profit and co-operative housing. The latest of these — started just this year using $50 million from Canadian accredited investors — will enable non-profits to buy affordable-housing assets that would otherwise be lost to profit-driven entities.

New Market Funds helps community partners in the 30 largest metropolitan markets in Canada by: filling equity gaps to help buy a property or complete a project; providing additional equity to expand a project; or investing to allow community partners to take equity out of a stabilized project to fund future projects.

In 2019, Ottawa promised a Social Innovation and Social Finance Strategy, and a 10-year, $755-million Social Finance Fund, neither of which was delivered. In the latest budget, the government recommitted to disbursing the Social Finance Fund, with an initial $220 million in financing over the next two years. Ottawa estimates the fund could attract up to $1.5 billion in private-sector capital to: support development of the social-finance market, create thousands of new jobs, and drive positive social change.

Until it keeps its Social Finance Fund commitment, Canada remains the sole member of the G7 that hasn’t directly invested capital to accelerate the growth of this critical market of social investment.

Now is the time for the federal government to demonstrate support for social innovation and social finance with a national strategy and Social Finance Fund.

With smart investments, our communities are poised to solve some of our biggest problems, and to create a more inclusive, prosperous, and sustainable future post-COVID.

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Andy Broderick is a managing partner at New Market Funds, and helps to lead its non-profit work to develop multi-family housing.

*The opinions expressed in blog posts are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the position of CCEDNet

Every year, CCEDNet members are invited to submit nominations for CCEDNet’s Board of Directors. This year, there were four vacancies to be filled.

Four eligible nominations were received by the deadline, leading our Elections Officer to declare the following candidates elected by acclamation.

The results will be ratified at CCEDNet’s Annual General Meeting of the members on June 11.

Congratulations to these amazing CED leaders from across Canada, who will be part of CCEDNet’s dedicated Board of Directors.

Aftab Khan

Aftab Khan has been the Executive Director for Action for Healthy Communities (an Alberta based nonprofit organization working to build the capacity of individuals and communities to help them successfully integrate into the society) since May 2016.

He has been involved in poverty alleviation and community economic development through mobilization of local resources and provision of basic education, health, small infrastructure and microfinance and enterprise development supports for the last twenty five years. He started his professional career in 1988 as a Manager for a youth self-employment program in Pakistan. For more than 15 years, he worked for various national and international NGOs and UN agencies in developing countries to develop and manage community economic development programs.

After moving to Canada in 2007 he started working for the non-profit sector and during last 14 years, he has been working in leadership roles with various immigrant-serving agencies and other non-profit organizations. He volunteers on various committees and boards including serving on Alberta Association of Immigrant Serving Agencies (AAISA) as a director since 2017.

Aftab has an MBA from Pakistan, a Diploma in SME development from the International Training Center of the ILO in Italy and an Executive MBA from the University of Alberta. Aftab loves travelling and volunteering with community-based economic development initiatives.

Katie Allen

Katie is a passionate practitioner with experience in the charitable, non-profit and social enterprise sectors. Katie is a social enterprise developer, policy wonk, social finance aficionado, and strategic planner with a passion for building community resilience. Katie has over a decade of experience developing social enterprise, sustainability and revenue diversification plans, governance, capacity development, and strategic planning. In 2018, Katie completed an Entrepreneurship program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) for social entrepreneurs, innovators and change-makers.

As a life-long learner, Katie holds a Master of Arts degree in Sustainability Studies from Trent University. Her research focussed on social enterprise and alternative governance models that address organizational stability and capacity in social purpose organizations. Katie is a PhD Candidate at the University of Guelph in the School of Environmental Design and Rural Development. Her research focus is rooted in creating a fair and just economy for non-metro areas in Canada by examining place-based impact investing ecosystems and enabling environments.

Katie has volunteer experience on the Board of Directors for the Canadian Rural Revitalization Foundation (CRRF) and Advisory Committee for the Canadian Centre for Rural Creativity. Currently, Katie coordinates the Rural Research Centres Network (R2CN) and is a Research Associate with the Gateway Centre of Excellence in Rural Health.

Katie Daman

Katie Daman is a settler from Niverville, Manitoba who has been living in Winnipeg, Manitoba for the past ten years. Both Winnipeg and Niverville are considered places of home for her and located on Treaty 1 Territory. Katie’s educational background is in Business Administration, with a particular interest in supporting economic development initiatives that benefit the whole community — also known as community economic development.

Currently, Katie works for Community Futures Manitoba as the Project Coordinator for the Churchill Region Economic Development (CRED) Grant Fund, a grant fund available for economic development projects in northern Manitoba. Community Futures Manitoba is a non-profit, grassroots-driven program created to strengthen rural and northern economies by encouraging entrepreneurship and assisting in community economic development.

Katie is also the co-founder and co-chair the Farm Fresh Food Hub Community Service Co-op and South Osborne Farmers’ Market. She has served on numerous other boards and committees including CCEDNet (current), Pollock’s Hardware Co-operative (past Treasurer), Transition Winnipeg and WestEnd Commons.

Michael Norris

Originally from Toronto, Michael quickly became involved in educational politics, being elected president of the Ontario Student Trustees’ Association. After sitting on the Premier’s steering committee for Major Capacity Expansion and the establishment of UOF, Michael completed his studies at the University of British Columbia in International Economics and Sustainable Development. He then returned to Toronto to work with Conseil scolaire Viamonde in Labour Relations and Community Development, as well as with l’Université de l’Ontario français as a consultant. His passion for economics and sustainable development is what brought him to the CCO, where he manages their Organizational Management & growth strategy. Outside of work, Michael cycles frequently with Morning Glory and is a member of the Board of Directors of COFRD.

Until now, there has never been an economic impact study on the innovative Nova Scotia Community Economic Development Investment Fund (CEDIF) tax credit program to assess its impact in creating jobs and building local economies. Beginning last September, CCEDNet has been partnering with the Co-operative Enterprise Council of New Brunswick (CECNB) and the BC Community Impact Investment Coalition on a Pan-Canadian Community Investment Organization Project that has included this landmark study. We are very excited to announce that CECNB has just completed this study and the results are staggering!

An investment of less than $700,000 by the Nova Scotia government in 2019 generated $2 million in investment by Nova Scotians into CEDIFs.

Nova Scotia CEDIFs invested in 116 small businesses whose annual economic impacts in 2019 were:

$118 million annually in GDP value-add
1,200 jobs (FTEs)
$52 million in annual wages and salaries
$25 million in annual taxes

This means that every $1,000 invested by government into the CEDIF tax credit in 2019 resulted in the creation/maintenance of 1.75 jobs for Nova Scotians (approximately $575/job).

Find out more about the Pan-Canadian Community Investment Organization Project, follow future developments on community investing in the Atlantic region, and download the full report here.

Looking for more CEDIF information? Check out this 2013 webinar on the model.

The Pan-Canadian CIO Project is funded by the Government of Canada’s Investment Readiness Program. The opinions and interpretations in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the funders or supporting organizations.

Originally published in CBC National, April 13, 2021.

The Global Risks Report, released by the World Economic Forum earlier this year, cites the top challenges facing us today – a daunting list. Damage to the environment from climate change and our failure to act on it is the main danger, while the COVID-19 pandemic that has killed more than two million people worldwide has highlighted the risk of infectious diseases. The pandemic has also increased societal risks such as poverty, and threatens economies.

We cannot react to these global problems with complacency, by simply throwing money at them, or with top-down or siloed solutions. We need bold community-based, sustainable and comprehensive approaches with far-reaching results. And we need them now.

We can harness social innovation and social finance as a solution to these very real global risks.

Social innovation and social finance provide an economic “triple play” — mobilizing investment and creating jobs, while also addressing social inequities and environmental degradation.

Social innovation simply means working together to develop outside-the-box solutions to collective problems in support of social progress. It requires collaboration among community leaders, non-profits, charities, cooperatives, government, and the private sector. Social innovation is that café down the street that employs at-risk youth to give them a better start in life, or a small-town housing co-op for seniors that allows them to age in place.

Social finance is a tool that enables social innovation. It is an approach to investing that provides measurable social and environmental benefits, mobilizing both private and philanthropic capital for the public good through social finance intermediaries.

Some provinces, for example, provide a generous tax credit to individuals who invest in Community Economic Development Investment Funds (CEDIFs). These CEDIFs in turn invest the money in local businesses and organizations, providing jobs and services to the local community. Like traditional investments, CEDIFs pay a return on investment while supporting the community and growing the local economy.

Many countries around the world are embracing social finance. Portugal, Japan, the United Kingdom and the European Union have established social finance funds, and social procurement initiatives have been successfully tested by Scotland, France, Finland and Australia.

Likewise, the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals are a call to action to promote prosperity while protecting people and the planet, and corporations are increasingly putting an emphasis on environmental, social and governance (ESG) practices, as well as socially responsible investing.

Here in Canada, social innovation and social finance have already proven their value in helping to solve problems. The national Table of Impact Investment Practitioners and Québec’s CAP Finance represent dozens of funds across the country with more than $1 billion in assets and a record of investing in improving seniors care, ensuring food security, increasing access to affordable housing, and supporting women entrepreneurs.

Social financing can generate enormous spinoff benefits. In 2006, for example, the federal government provided $22.8 million in seed funding to the Fiducie du Chantier de l’économie sociale in Québec, which offers financial products to support the capitalization of social economy enterprises. This leveraged an additional $30 million to launch the fund, and over the next decade 212 investments were made, creating or maintaining 3,183 jobs and mobilizing an additional $374 million.

The impacts of COVID-19 have highlighted gaps in our social systems and have spurred innovative ideas about ways to build a better economy. The federal government has an opportunity to step up and enable these ideas to flourish through social innovation and social financing initiatives.

It has already taken initial steps in this direction, now the government needs to deliver on its promises.

A landmark report was authored before the pandemic by the Social Innovation and Social Finance Co-Creation Steering Group – an advisory group of leaders from the philanthropic, financial, and research sectors as well as the community, which was responsible for helping to develop a social innovation and social finance strategy with the Government of Canada. The report offers critical recommendations, among them a call for the creation of a social finance fund that would help meet the financing needs of organizations that work on positive social outcomes.

Just after the report was released, Ottawa announced it would launch a Social Finance Fund with a $755 million in funding over 10 years, and a $50 million Investment Readiness Program. However, the Social Finance Fund has yet to be rolled out and, after a successful two-year pilot, the Investment Readiness Program is set to expire this month.

If implemented, the Social Finance Fund would accelerate the development of opportunities across the country, resulting in improved access to capital for local organizations working to address social or environmental challenges. It would also increase opportunities for investors to support the local economy.

The federal government’s last full budget, in 2019, made promises about the Social Finance Fund that need to be kept. The upcoming budget on April 19 provides an opportunity to once again prioritize social innovation and social finance in the face of an unprecedented need. Key actions that need to be undertaken through the next budget include:

Implementing the Social Finance Fund to boost COVID-19 economic recovery;
Expanding the Investment Readiness Program into an ongoing program to help organizations access social finance funds;
Properly resourcing all 12 recommendations of the Social Innovation and Social Finance Co-Creation Steering Group.

As we look for solutions to our most pressing existential crises – such as climate change and global pandemics, and the social, environmental and economic havoc they wreak – social innovation and social finance should be in our toolkit.

An investment in social innovation and social finance is an investment in the future of all Canadians.

Victor Beausoleil is the founder and CEO of Social Economy Through Social Inclusion (SETSI) and president of the Canadian Community Economic Development Network (CCEDNet).

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Marie J. Bouchard is a professor at the École des sciences de la gestion at the Université du Québec à Montréal, and member of the Centre de recherce sur les innovations sociales (CRISES).

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Carol Hanne Hilton is the founder and CEO of the Indigenomics Institute and was a member of the Federal Advisory Council on Economic Growth.

*The opinions expressed in blog posts are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the position of CCEDNet

Originally published in iPolitics, April 7, 2021.

Long before the global pandemic reached Canada, the care of our most vulnerable citizens had challenged many governments, communities, and families. “Care work” was “women’s work,” and therefore underpaid and undervalued. That often meant difficulty retaining staff and inadequate quality of care, particularly in for-profit settings.

When COVID-19 struck, no one suffered more than residents in long-term care. According to the Canadian Institute for Health Information, 80 per cent of COVID deaths in Canada have been in retirement homes and homes with 24-hour nursing care.

There’s been plenty of debate about how best to respond to the crisis. Solutions include better regulations, more inspectors, and more staff. Some jurisdictions have added new beds to reduce overcrowding. But the bigger concerns are ownership of long-term care facilities, and how the care economy operates more generally.

Does profit have a place in the care of our most vulnerable citizens? It’s time to look more closely at the many alternative models that put people, not profit, at the heart of community care.

COVID has illustrated the strength of the non-profit approach and how it’s built to serve communities, in stark contrast to for-profit models. Ownership is key. Non-profit and co-operative housing and services — be they seniors’ homes, supportive housing, or child-care centres — serve people locally and are accountable to communities through their volunteer boards of directors.

On the other hand, large, for-profit chains, while claiming to be better able to provide local services and facilities, have delivered inferior quality of care. According to a study in the Canadian Medical Association Journal (2020), long-term care facilities that are run for profit had more extensive COVID outbreaks and more deaths than non-profit ones.

The non-profit model is established in Canada. For example, in the 1990s, Quebec introduced universal child care as an innovative solution to: the inferior quality but high cost of private daycares; high staff turnover; and stagnant government funding. The policy was instrumental in getting a record number of women into the workforce, and the investment more than paid off in economic spinoffs.

According to Statistics Canada, 20 per cent more women worked in Quebec in 2016 than in 1996 when universal child care was introduced, resulting in more government revenue through provincial and federal taxes and fewer families reliant on social benefits.

Another social-economy model, that of care co-operatives, is thriving in British Columbia. The Victoria Health Co-operative is a community-owned enterprise that brings together health-care practitioners and member-owners. All health co-ops are non-profit; the goal is to cover costs, and surpluses are re-invested in the services offered to patients.

Examples of social innovation often fly under the radar.

In 2018, the federal government committed to enabling social innovation across the country. This was in response to 12 important recommendations from the Social Innovation and Social Finance Strategy Co-Creation Steering Group report, Inclusive Innovation: New Ideas and New Partnerships for Stronger Communities. The government subsequently promised a $50-million Investment Readiness Fund and a $755-million Social Finance Fund.

Thanks to the success of the Investment Readiness Program, there are now more non-profits and co-operatives ready to scale up and replicate innovative solutions in their own communities. The Social Finance Fund, which the government promised but has yet to roll out, could inject much-needed capital into converting for-profit ownership to non-profit or co-operative ownership.

In contemplating a post-COVID economic recovery, accelerating the Social Finance Fund would boost the care economy.

Establishing a national Social Innovation and Social Finance Strategy, as well as a Social Finance Fund, should be part of the solution to the care crisis. They would provide high-quality care and decent work for women, who make up most of the care workforce. They would also generate social and economic benefits in a low-carbon sector.

Andre Beaudry is the executive director of Co-operatives and Mutuals Canada.

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Cathy Taylor is the executive director of the Ontario Nonprofit Network.

*The opinions expressed in blog posts are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the position of CCEDNet

The Overton window: A sweet spot for policies that are aligned with the government’s agenda and within the range of policies politically acceptable to the voting public at a given time.

Since last summer, efforts have ramped up to push for a national Social Innovation and Social Finance Strategy as part of our COVID-recovery. These efforts have come from all corners.

Members of the People-Centred Economy Group identified social innovation and social finance as one of their three key recommendations for COVID-recovery and raised the issue repeatedly…
- …at meetings with Minister Hussen, Minister Anand’s staff, Minister Joly’s staff, Centre for Rural Economic Development staff, Senators Ratna Omidvar and Lucie Moncion, and Parliamentary Secretary Sean Fraser,
- …in their two pre-budget briefs (August & February), and
- …in letters sent to Prime Minister Trudeau, Ministers Freeland, Champagne, Fortier, Guillbeault, Joly, Monsef, and Qualtrough, Leader of the Opposition Erin O’Toole, MPs Candice Bergen, Dan Albas, and Peter Julian.
The Impact Response campaign, led by SVX and supported by over 100 leaders, outlined three key actions to respond to the social and economic impacts of COVID-19 by mobilizing social finance and social enterprise.
CCEDNet’s letter-writing campaign resulted in constituents in over 50 ridings writing to their MPs about the implementation of the 12 recommendations of the Co-Creation Steering Group, the acceleration of the social finance fund, and the expansion and renewal of the Investment Readiness Program (IRP).
All non-governmental members of the Co-Creation Steering Group signed a letter to Ministers Hussen and Qualtrough urging them to accelerate the deployment of the Social Finance Fund.
CCEDNet and its Policy Council have included social innovation and social finance as one of our national policy priorities, and have discussed it at length with ESDC officials, Minister Hussen’s political staff, Minister Qualtrough’s political staff, MPs Matthew Green and Leah Gazan, Senators Nancy Hartling, and Green Party Leader Annamie Paul.
Ryan Turnbull, MP for Whitby, has been an indefatigable champion for social innovation and social finance, creating the Liberal Party Social Innovation Caucus, hosting round table discussions with stakeholders, and making the case with his parliamentary colleagues.

We’ve been working hard to ensure that the upcoming federal budget contains a clear commitment to social innovation and social finance. So far, it’s working. The narrative is shifting.

In February, CCEDNet hosted Minister Hussen for a week-long virtual tour of social innovation examples from across the country. According to departmental sources, Minister Hussen has been drawing on these examples regularly in meetings and conversations, most recently at a public talk at the University of Ottawa. Most of the Liberal Caucus signed a letter to Ministers Freeland and Hussen asking them to accelerate the social finance fund and renew and expand the IRP, and 25 senators did the same in another joint letter.

More recently, because of our and others’ efforts, a number of articles have appeared in prominent media outlets and policy publications:

iPolitics: Liberal MP rallies senators to push government to invest in social enterprises by Janet E Silver, February 19
CBC Manitoba: Pandemic provides opportunity to make meaningful investments in social infrastructure by Diane Roussin, Andrew Chunilall and Julie Gelfand, March 21
The Hill Times: Food insecurity remains a serious challenge during the pandemic by Nancy Neamtan, April 1
The Toronto Star: Women have been hit the hardest by the pandemic — and are also the key to our economic recovery by Rosalind Lockyer, April 5
iPolitics: Ottawa must deliver on its promise to remove profit from long-term care by Andre Beaudry and Cathy Taylor, April 7
CBC National: New federal budget needs to deliver on government’s social finance and innovation commitments by Victor Beausoleil, Marie J. Bouchard, and Carol Anne Hilton, April 13

Our Overton window is open. The government has committed, time after time, to build back better. Civil society organizations and the general public are demanding that the recovery from COVID-19 be equitable and sustainable, that is strengthen communities and increase resilience. A national social innovation and social finance strategy is the way to make it happen.

Will our efforts be enough? We’ll find out on April 19 when the federal budget comes out.

*The opinions expressed in blog posts are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the position of CCEDNet

Originally published in The Toronto Star, April 5, 2021

Events of the past year have laid bare inequities faced by our country’s citizens. Women who are filling critical roles to aid in the nation’s response to COVID-19 have been disproportionately and negatively impacted by the pandemic, with extraordinary levels of job loss and economic hardship.

Women have been hit hardest by the pandemic, but they are also the key to our economic recovery. Investing in women-centred organizations with innovative solutions should be top of the federal government’s agenda.

Women have been rising up to tackle the country’s social and economic problems in innovative ways. Take Canada’s PARO Centre for Women’s Enterprise, which has been called a poster child for social innovation. PARO has grown into the largest peer-lending network for women entrepreneurs, with more than 170 peer groups across North America.

The key to PARO’s success is its women-centred approach and “wraparound.” Wraparound involves working with other community partners with expertise in areas such as domestic violence, gender equity and skills training to help women find success as business owners. PARO provides the financial support and training that she needs, in addition to these wraparound services.

Today, these women-led organizations are struggling to respond to community needs with stagnant funding and lack of recognition for the important work they do — and how they do it.

Women-centred organizations are poised to be integral players in Canada’s recovery and rebuild efforts. The economic payoff alone is significant. According to a report by McKinsey and Company, it is estimated that Canada could add $150 billion to its annual GDP by 2026 through supporting women’s participation in the workforce. What stands in the way is a national social innovation and social finance strategy, and a framework and funding to make it work.

In 2018, the Social Innovation and Social Finance Strategy Co-Creation Steering Group released its report. Promisingly, the federal government responded with promises of a Social Innovation and Social Finance Strategy, the launch of a $50-million Investment Readiness Fund and $755-million Social Finance Fund.

Thanks to government action on the Investment Readiness Fund, more non-profit and social-enterprise organizations are prepared with the knowledge and infrastructure to replicate and grow. They understand how to leverage government investment to attract private-sector investment for greater impact. They know their communities and what they need.

But promises for the Social Finance Fund have not yet materialized. The upcoming budget provides an opportunity to prioritize social innovation and social finance in the face of unprecedented need. There is no better time than now.

We no longer live in a world that accepts inequities and vulnerabilities. If anything, COVID-19 has taught us this. Investing in women, through socially innovative women-centred organizations, is a critical step toward a post-COVID economic recovery that doesn’t leave anyone on the sidelines.

Rosalind Lockyer is founder and CEO of PARO Centre for Women’s Enterprise and serves on the board of directors of the Women’s Economic Council.

*The opinions expressed in blog posts are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the position of CCEDNet

The Stronger Together Award celebrates individual and organizational members who have made exceptional contributions to Community Economic Development and/or who have provided outstanding leadership to CCEDNet in achieving our vision of sustainable, equitable and inclusive communities directing their own futures.

In 2019, the inaugural awards were given to three individuals who had received honorary lifetime memberships over the years: Eunice Grayson, Stewart Perry and Rankin MacSween. In 2020, an award was given to Diana Jedig for her longstanding leadership on the Board. We now continue the annual tradition of recognizing and honouring four CCEDNet members who have advanced Community Economic Development by working to strengthen and advance sustainable and equitable local economies.

One of the four annual awards will be designated as the Youth Leadership Award in recognition of Stewart Perry’s commitment to youth leadership in Community Economic Development. This award champions action and innovation made by young people that has created positive social impact within their community.

It is our honor to highlight the invaluable work of our network. We warmly invite CCEDNet members to nominate their peers. The deadline to submit nominations is May 7, 2021, 11:59 pm EST.

The 2021 Stronger Together Award recipients will be celebrated at the 22nd Annual General Meeting on June 11, 2021.

Next Steps:

Please read the following criteria, nomination process and selection process information on this page before submitting your nomination.
Please complete the Nomination Form in its entirety and submit
Please submit a signed copy of the Nominee Consent Form to Adriana Zylinski at under the subject heading [Stronger Together Awards – “Name of Nominee”] and indicate that you have also submitted the nomination form.

Criteria

The nominees must be CCEDNet members in good standing for at least 1 year and demonstrate leadership in advancing CED in one or more of the following areas:

Strengthening community support systems and creating solutions that benefit and empower those in need.
Advocacy and policy work that encourages municipal, provincial and/or federal representatives to take action toward equitable, inclusive and sustainable community economies.
Fostering peer learning environments and building collaborative peer connections that engage and build capacity for others to be agents of change in their communities.
Youth category: significant contribution or innovation made by a young person (under 30 years of age) that has created positive social impact or inspired others to become engaged in supporting their communities.

Nomination Process

Nominations can be made by any individual or organizational member in good standing that is not on the Stronger Together Award Selection Committee. Former award recipients may not be nominated again; however, previous nominees may be.

Selection Process

The Stronger Together Award Selection Committee, composed of Board members, and CCEDNet staff, will review the nomination forms and select the award recipient(s).

The committee will evaluate and score the nominees based on the completed written content of the nomination form and an assessment of merit.

Support

If you have any questions or need support in sending your nomination, please contact Adriana Zylinski at .

Endorsements to date:

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The government committed to:

For further reading:

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Now accepting applications for Spring 2021 cohort! Apply now!

Learn more about the CED Program

Next Steps:

Criteria

Nomination Process

Selection Process

Support