The Immigrant & Refugee Community Action Network (ICAN) of the Canadian Community Economic Development (CED) Network focuses on creating opportunities for new immigrants and refugees to participate in the leadership of the CED and Co-op movements in Canada. It is a national network of newcomer CED practitioners and their allies.

Newsletter
ICAN's first Newsletter was published in Spring 2011

See Blog  for meeting details and resources http://icanccednet.wordpress.com  

Projects

Immigrant Settlement and Integration through Social Enterprise initiative (ISISE)

ISISE is making the case for social enterprise development as an effective model for immigrant settlement and integration.

This initiative grew out of CCEDNet's Immigrant and Refugee Community Action Network (ICAN) which works to create opportunities for new immigrants and refugees to participate in the leadership of the CED and Co-op movements in Canada. ICAN is a national network of newcomer CED practitioners and their supporters. CCEDNet's 2005 discussion paper, Creating Opportunities - Optimizing Possibilities describes how the co-operative sector can assist immigrants and refugees in Canada and how immigrant and refugee communities can use the co-op model to revitalize Canadian communities. The ISISE initiative broadens this approach by including other forms of social enterprise.

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Publications

Creating Opportunities - Optimizing Possibilities

This paper is a starting point for a discussion about the role the co-operative sector can play in assisting immigrants and refugees in Canada and the role that the immigrant and refugee community can itself play in revitalizing Canadian communities through the co-op model.

Storytelling Newcomers' Experience with CED in Canada

These stories are the first published reflections on CED and co-op models being used specifically to foster the social and economic inclusion of newcomers into Canada.