The air is filled with talk of social innovation and social finance, of social impact bonds, social entrepreneurship and pay-for-performance schemes, some very new, others much older. Few adult literacy and essential skills providers, however, can define the various concepts or models or explain their relevance or appropriateness for their own work. As traditional funding sources shrink through funding cuts by governments and declines in charitable giving, the time is right to deepen our understanding of these models and consider what kinds of new supports or adaptations of older ones might be developed collaboratively between governments, philanthropists and communities.
This three-day institute will explore a range of new funding models including many currently proposed by provincial, national and international governments. The Institute will focus on how these might apply to literacy and essential skills training in community and workplace. We will look at case studies of pay-for-performance, social enterprise, and cooperatives with a learning agenda, and at the emerging concept of social impact bonds and other models.
The event, in Saint John, NB, from October 14-16, 2012, will bring together policy-makers, researchers, employers and workplace, learning and essential skills providers from across Canada and abroad.
Presenters:
Presenters from Canada, the US and UK will highlight their experiences. We will examine the evolving methodology for measuring Social Return on Investment (SROI), developed in the UK with government support, and now being tested in other countries, including Canada. Human Resources and Skills Development Canada (HRSDC) will share findings from recent pilot projects on social finance across the country.
