Join others engaged in all aspects of building fairer and stronger local economies, tackling poverty and homelessness, and investing in sustainable communities for a full day of networking, learning, sharing, and inspiration.
With over 30 workshops, this free, all-day event takes place on October 23rd at St. John’s High School in Winnipeg’s North End.
There is no charge for registering for this conference.
Registration closes October 21st at 12 midnight Central Time.
Here is a selection of the workshops confirmed thus far:
Session One (morning)
CED 101 / Profile Project
Expanding the Capacity to Serve
Transforming or reforming capitalism
It takes all day to be poor- 2009 inner city report CCPA
Putting you in youth engagement
Revitalizing Rural MB -two communities stories
Evaluation – Creating the framework
CCEDNET Policy
Removing barriers and creating opportunities for Manitoban’s with Disabilities
Sharing Responsibility, Sharing Wealth Participatory Management and Participatory Economics
Session Two (early afternoon)
Effective Proposal Writing (please note this session will be offered twice today)
Poverty Reduction: Measuring the Impacts of a CED Approach
Youth cooperative of services
Social Enterprise 101 Putting the E in CED
History of the Indian Act
Creating a limit- Creating awareness of Peak Energy
Building a global movement: How we are part of and can build global solidarity for social, economic and environmental justice
The Building of Community – Local Jobs, Housing and CED
Collaborating for a Common Vision: What’s Health Got to Do with It?
Ready for Anything – Preparing for Disaster Resiliency
Session Three (later afternoon)
Effective Proposal Writing (please note this session will be offered twice today)
Advanced Social Enterprise
Introducing West Central Women’s Resource Centre’s new Jeopardy Games: Residential Tenancies Jeopardy, EIA Jeopardy and Rewarding Work Jeopardy
The Art of Collaboration
The Way We Eat – A CED Approach to Building Sustainable Local Food Systems
NGO Handbook
Aboriginal Co-ops: Arctic and Winnipeg
Social Enterprise Development as an Effective Tool for Immigrant Settlement
As a little girl, when Elinor Ostrom gazed out at her mother’s Los Angeles “Victory” garden, she didn’t see peas, carrots and tomato plants, she saw a vast network of human beings, all digging in to prevent food shortages on the home front during the Second World War.
The morale stuck with the youngster and, after a lifetime of studying people who spontaneously unite to manage everything from water levels to lobsters, she became the first woman to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Economic Science.
Dr. Ostrom’s research, and her celebrated publication, Governing the Commons, challenged the prevailing wisdom that the best way to manage something is to privatize it or regulate it. Her award, which she shared yesterday with another American economist, Oliver Williamson, is being interpreted as another knock by the Nobel committee against the free-market philosophy adamantly endorsed by the administration of former U.S. president George W. Bush.
In July 2009, the Canadian CED Network’s Board of Directors approved the final version of the 2009-2011 Strategic Plan. This plan is meant to focus the energies and guide the choices of the membership and staff over three years in order to achieve or move towards the objectives and priorities it identifies. The new strategic plan also establishes a renewed organizational vision, mission and values statement for the network.
The four areas of priority for the 2009 -2011 Strategic Plan are:
On October 16, 17 and 18, millions of people around the world will “Stand Up and Take Action” to demand that world leaders end poverty and achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
STAND UP is a three day global mobilization to show our solidarity with anti poverty activists around the world. We want to break a Guinness World Record (again) for the largest coordinated mobilization of people and send the strongest message possible to leaders around the world – “no more excuses: act now to end global poverty”.
Stand Up can be a large event or it can be a short moment on one of these 3 days. Essentially, it is a gathering of people who agree to stand up and read the Stand Up Pledge. Those who stand up are then counted and the number is submitted to the Make Poverty History website. Up moments can be inserted into pre-existing events, like sports games, faith gatherings, conferences, concerts, classrooms etc.
Last year, close to 80 thousand Canadians stood alongside almost 117-million world-wide. This year we hope to have a much larger number of Canadians participate because we want to send a strong message to the government that hundreds of thousands of Canadians want bold action taken to make poverty history both globally and here in Canada.
The Stand Up and Take Action mobilization this year is encouraging those organizing Stand Up events to promote specific actions people can take to help make poverty history.
There are two online actions that we you ask you to take:
Make us Proud to be Canadians at the G8/G20 Summit in June 2010. As host of the G8/G20 Summit in June of 2010, Canada has an amazing opportunity to provide bold leadership to solve global challenges of extreme poverty and climate change. The Canadian government is deciding now on the agenda of the 2010 G8 and what kind of new initiatives it could propose. Send a strong and clear message now to Prime Minister Harper that Canadians want their government to take initiatives at the G8/G20 in June 2010 to tackle extreme poverty and the impact of climate change on poor countries. Tell him to make us proud to be Canadians again.
Sign the Dignity for All online petition for a poverty free-Canada.
The Dignity for All Campaign is calling for a federal plan for poverty elimination that compliments provincial and territorial plans. Together, we can eliminate poverty in Canada!
What you can do in your community:
Attend an event: Check out the website to see if there is an event happening near you.
Organize an event big or small. Register your event at Make Poverty History
Let Make Poverty History know. Email to find out how we can help you.
Download our Stand Up kit
Hold your event on October 16, 17or 18, read the Stand Up pledge, stand up and then take a picture.
Count how many stood up and report your numbers to Make Poverty History by midnight on October 18th.
Provide opportunities during or after the event for people to sign onto the Make Poverty History campaign. If you have a live internet connection, you can sign online
or you can download our sign on sheet
Let us know how your event went! If you took any photos, please send them too! Email
“If everyone who wants to see an end to poverty, hunger and suffering speaks out at the same time, the noise will be deafening. Politicians will have to listen.” Desmond Tutu
The forum will bring together participants from Latin America and Canada to:
Share social economy experiences of participants
Discuss existing regional policy and advocacy models and their outcomes
Identify policy supports which the social economy needs to grow in various regions of the hemisphere
This is a major opportunity for engaging in discussion and learning on the role of the social and solidarity economy in responding to local and global economic, social and environmental challenges. Government officials at all levels, NGO staff and volunteers, academics and researchers, grass roots activists, practitioners, and students are invited to participate.
Dates:
The forum will have a duration of 6 weeks, from October 26th to December 4th 2009.
Format:
The forum will take place online from an electronic learning platform called Moodle. The course will consist of readings, available on the website, followed up with questions and discussions in which participants take part by writing at the time of their choosing. Participants should be able to dedicate 2 -5 hours per week to work on the forum.
The Conference Board of Canada today issued its annual ranking of Canada with respect to a number of “society” indicators. Overall, says the Board, Canada’s “social performance” ranks 9th out of 17 developed countries. However, Canada receives a “D” grade on the poverty rate for working-age people and “C” grades on child poverty, income inequality, gender equity, and assaults – all “troubling for a wealthy country.”
The Board’s conclusions further reinforce the need for federal, provincial, territorial, municipal and community leadership to combat poverty and inequality. To help secure enduring and stronger leadership from the federal government – optimally rooted in a commitment to uphold the economic and social rights of Canadians – please consider adding your name (and/or your group’s name) to those who/that have already endorsed Dignity for All: The Campaign for a Poverty-free Canada.
GUELPH, ON, Sept. 16 /CNW/ – The University of Guelph and The Co-operators today launched a new centre dedicated to preparing a new generation of business leaders committed to community engagement and sustainability. The Co-operators Centre for Business and Social Entrepreneurship will be supported over the next five years by a $400,000 gift from the Guelph-based insurance and financial services organization.
Based in the College of Management and Economics (CME), this special-focus centre will be among the first of its kind on a Canadian university campus. It will serve as a gateway between the University and the community. Business students and faculty will work with social purpose organizations on a broad range of collaborative initiatives that have tangible benefits for everyone involved. Along the way, students will gain management and economic experience, create and launch new ventures and develop a sense of social responsibility and leadership. There will also be opportunities for faculty and graduate student research.
The donation, provided through The Co-operators Foundation, builds upon more than two decades of collaboration and partnership between the two organizations.
“Our values align very well with the mission of this new centre, which is to foster a commitment to community engagement and sustainability among future business leaders,” said Co-operators president and CEO Kathy Bardswick, who is vice chair of U of G’s Board of Governors. “Through the centre, students will have opportunities to get hands-on experience with non-profits and other local organizations, which will not only further their learning, but will also benefit our community.”
The Mondragón Cooperative Corporation (MCC), the largest consortium of worker-owned companies, has developed a different way of doing business-a way that puts workers, not shareholders, first.
Here’s how it played out when one of the Mondragón cooperatives fell on hard times. The worker/owners and the managers met to review their options. After three days of meetings, the worker/owners agreed that 20 percent of the workforce would leave their jobs for a year, during which they would continue to receive 80 percent of their pay and, if they wished, free training for other work. This group would be chosen by lottery, and if the company was still in trouble a year later, the first group would return to work and a second would take a year off.
The result? The solution worked and the company thrives to this day.
This guide identifies important quality of life factors that can help communities improve themselves in areas that really matter. While such things as unemployment rates, income per capita and air quality are all important and available statistics, they do not always give a complete picture of the vitality of community.
Social Enterprise Angels is an exciting event to be featured at the Third Canadian Conference on Social Enterprise,
organized by the Social Enterprise Council of Canada (SECC). The
Conference, which runs from November 18-20, 2009, in Toronto, Ontario,
is expected to draw over 300 social enterprise managers, funders,
supporters and policy-makers from across the country. Social Enterprise
Angels will occur on November 19, 2009, from 5:00-6:30pm. In
partnership with the SECC, the event is co-hosted by Social Venture
Partners Toronto.
Social Enterprise Angels is inspired by the CBC television series, The Dragon’s Den,
where aspiring entrepreneurs pitch their business idea to a panel of
investors in hopes of securing funding for their venture. Social
Enterprise Angels uses a similar model to demonstrate and promote the
value of financial investment in social enterprise. The event will
feature three of Canada’s top social entrepreneurs, selected from among
a pool of nation-wide applicants. These selected social entrepreneurs
will have the opportunity to pitch their social enterprise to a panel
of judges, or “Angels” in front of a live audience, in hopes of
securing up to $30,000 for their projects. The Angels include
representatives from the social enterprise sector, the private sector,
and Social Venture Partners Toronto.
Social Enterprise Council of Canada is requesting letters of
intent from social enterprises operating in Canada who are seeking
investment towards the start up and/or growth of their enterprises and
who would like to participate in this event.
Applicant Criteria:
This competition is open to start up and established social enterprises
operating in Canada seeking investment to contribute to the start up
and/or growth of their enterprises. Social enterprise in this context
is broadly defined: “enterprises that are run like businesses,
producing goods and services for the market economy, but they manage
their operations and redirect their surpluses in pursuit of social and
community goals” owned and operated by charities, non-profit
organizations or non-share cooperatives. The goals of the enterprise
could be environmental, employment, arts and culture, or to generate
revenue for the parent organization. To qualify, enterprises must:
Be based in Canada
Have a comprehensive business plan (further details below)
Be committed to attending the Conference at their own expense
Complete the letter of intent available at the end of the letter, and
submit electronically. Letters will be accepted in either English or
French.
Organizations/enterprises with a member of the
Social Enterprise Council of Canada on their payroll or serving as a
member of their board of directors are ineligible.
Application Process:
1) Letter of intent – due September 14, 2009
Complete the Letter of Intent provided at the end of this document and
return electronically to . All Letters of
Intent will assessed by a Selection Committee in light of the following
criteria:
The scope / impact of the social enterprise
The viability of the social enterprise
The alignment of the organization’s mission with the social enterprise
The use of the investment to grow the social enterprise
The Letters are due on Monday, September 14, 2009 at 5:00 pm EST.
From the submitted Letters of Intent, the Social Enterprise Angels
Selection Committee will select thirteen shortlisted applicants, and
invite them to submit a comprehensive business plans for their social
enterprise. All applicants will be informed of their status by October
5, 2009.
2) Business plan – due October 13, 2009
For those selected to submit a business plan, this will be due on: October 13, 2009. The business plan must include:
A feasibility study
A marketing plan
A business operations plan
A financial plan
An executive summary
Business plans should be between 10 – 20 pages in length. They
should be returned electronically and all in one document to .
The Selection Committee will review the business plans and select three
finalists to present their social enterprises to a live audience and a
panel of judges at the Third Canadian Conference on Social Enterprise.
Those selected to participate in the event will be notified by
Wednesday November 4, 2009.
3) Social Enterprise Angels Event – held on November 19, 2009
The three finalists will make their pitch at the Conference and compete for funds from the individual funders.
In order to prepare for the event, applicants will be offered coaching
sessions to hone their presentation skills before “pitching” their
enterprise to the Social Enterprise Angels in 5-7 minutes. The Social
Enterprise Angels will select the winner(s) at the end of the event.
Letter of Intent
Social Enterprise Angels: Social Investing In Action
Name of organization:
Address:
Phone:
Email:
Name of enterprise:
Address (if different from organization):
Contact person:
Phone:
Email:
1. Do you have a business plan? (Please underline one)
Yes
No
2. Is your organization: (Please underline all that apply)
Charity
Non-profit
Non-share co-operative
3. What is the purpose and mission of your organization?
4. Please tell us about your social enterprise (concept) in 35 words:
5. What were the gross sales revenue for your enterprise in 2008? If Ø, what is your first year budget?
6. Please describe your product(s) and/or service(s):
7. What is the social/cultural/environmental objective of the enterprise?
8. Please circle the stage of development that best describes your social enterprise:
Planning Start up Growth
9. When did you start your social enterprise if started (or when do you plan to start it)?
10. Number of people employed at your social enterprise (or number of people to be employed):
__________ Part time _________ Full time ________ Volunteers
11. What size of investment do you need to grow your enterprise?
12. How will you use this investment? Please include the time frame.
Since the World Food Summit in 1996 communities around the world have become more concerned about food security. Though in Canada we often consider ourselves fortunate to have a great and varied food supply there are many reasons for us to be concerned. For example, many farmers are struggling to make a living wage, local food production is not enough to supply demand for local food, food-borne illnesses have been making national news, and monoculture is making our farms ever more reliant on pesticides and fertilizers. These are just a few of the reasons for concern.
Through the Canadian Social Economy Research Partnerships (CSERP) researchers and practitioners across Canada are investigating how the Social Economy is addressing food security and how it can be doing more. Now CSERP is engaging with producers, communities and other stakeholders to use the research to identify next steps in creating a sustainable food and agriculture policy and system for Canada. Seeking input on this will be the next stage in our work and we welcome your involvement.
Download the newsletter to learn more about the exciting work being done by across the Social Economy Research Partnerships, click here>>
The Canadian Social Economy Hub (CSEHub) is located at the University of Victoria and is co-directed by Ian MacPherson and Rupert Downing. CSEHub undertakes research in order to understand and promote the Social Economy tradition within Canada and as a subject of academic enquiry within universities.
CSEHub is a Community-University Research Alliance (CURA) between the University of Victoria, represented by its principal investigator, and the Canadian Community Economic Development Network (CCEDNet), represented by the designated co-director. CSEHub is directed by the two organizations and their representatives, with the advice and input of a board of representatives of regional nodes and national partners of the Canadian Social Economy Research Partnerships (CSERP).
Executive Summary
The tax and program spending levers available to the federal government provide a number of opportunities to catalyze entrepreneurial initiatives that contribute to sustainable and inclusive economic development. As part of a whole-of-government approach to supporting community innovation and social entrepreneurship, incentives to leverage private investment as well as direct federal investment are vital measures that can enhance prosperity and contribute to Canada’s efforts towards a sustainable economic, social and environmental future. Compared to other countries, Canada is falling behind in this field. Our recommendations for measures that the 2010 Budget can take to begin catching up are:
Create a Greater Role for Social Enterprise in Economic Revitalization
Provide Sustained Support for Community Economic Development Organizations and Community Capacity Building
