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46th Annual Congress on Housing & Homelessness

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Will you join us?

The Canadian Housing and Renewal Association, CHRA, is the national voice for the full range of affordable housing and homelessness issues and solutions across Canada. We invite you to come to Edmonton in April 2014 to be immersed in the housing topics that are relevant to you and to take away learnings that are important to advancing your work. This unique national gathering offers unrivalled opportunity for dialogue, networking and inspiration.  Mark your calendars for April 29 to May 2 2014. Registration opens in January.

Who should attend?

The CHRA National Congress is in its 46th year and continually draws a diverse group of delegates from those who collectively house and shelter hundreds of thousands of Canadians and provide housing support to many more. Housing providers, municipalities, businesses, provincial and territorial housing departments, service and support agencies, individuals and other national and provincial associations will convene in Edmonton. Come!

Keynote Speaker

Mike Holmes will Make it Right®
April 30, 9:30-10:30 a.m.

Good Till the Last Drop: Strategies to Manage Stormwater While Greening Communities & Creating Jobs

Speaker: Sharyn Inward, Program Manager, RAIN, Green Communities Canada
Managing stormwater with infrastructure improvements can help to mitigate the impact of traditional development practices, which can cause the combined volume of rain and wastewater to exceed a sewer system’s capacity. Pollutants in the runoff from rainwater can destroy biodiversity, while excess stormwater backups can result in the increase of street and basement flooding. Practices that can green stormwater infrastructure include modifications to a range of soil, water and plant systems in order to green housing, yards, community spaces and municipal lands that intercept stormwater, infiltrating a portion of it back into the ground, air and sewer system.
Affordable housing providers, municipal environmental service departments and community organizations will have an opportunity to learn about practical, cost effective stormwater management solutions, such as rain gardens, treescapes, rain barrels, container gardens and porous pavement. We will be joined by Green Communities Canada Sharyn Inward, who will discuss these strategies, along with exciting new programs in the United States that work with housing, neighborhood groups, schools and businesses to manage stormwater that, in addition to creating jobs, have created more livable, prettier communities with higher property values and improved health outcomes.

[ register here ]

SPEAKER

Sharyn Inward has over twentyyears of experience researching, developing, funding, implementing, managing and evaluating community-based environmental awareness and action programs. Notable examples include Cancer Prevention (Women’s Health and Environmental Network) and Well Aware and Pesticide Free Naturally (Green Communities Canada). Sharyn’s latest work includes developing and implementing the RAIN Program, addressing lot-level stormwater management in eight Ontario communities and Depave Paradise, both for Green Communities Canada, as well as designing green buildings and houses in her spare time. Areas of specialization include community engagement, program development, water quality, stormwater, energy efficiency, green building, passive solar greenhouses and architecture for small, natural buildings.
  • Green Communities Canada(GCC) is a national association of community organizations that help people go green – in their homes and gardens, on the road, at work and in the community. Sharing knowledge and best practices, GCC is a leader in delivering programs and services at the community level, and is represented in every region of the country.

Space is limited. REGISTER NOW!

Please note that, as always, webinars are free for CHRA members. 
For non-members, the cost is $40 + tax.

Building Leadership for the Long Haul

3:00 pm - 4:15 pm Eastern

What’s the difference between a plan that’s put into place and one that’s put on a shelf? People. If you want something to show for your hard work, you need to build strong local leadership and grassroots support. This webinar will focus on how to grow effective local leaders who can nurture volunteers, corral resources and build the public support that can move community design or planning work from paper to practice.

Join Milan Wall from the Heartland Center for Leadership Development to learn about their research on keys to thriving communities and effective leadership. Milan will describe characteristics of effective local leaders, roles and responsibilities to guide community action, and tips for recruiting new leaders in a changing world.

Regiser now

This call is part of a capacity-building series offered jointly by CommunityMatters and the Citizens’ Institute on Rural Design.

BLOG POST

What It Takes to Be an Effective Community Leader

Speakers

Milan Wall, Co-Director of the Heartland Center for Leadership Development
 

Making Social Innovation Work Inside Your Organization

11:00am-12:00pm Pacific, 2:00-3:00pm Eastern

  • Warren Nilsson, senior lecturer in social innovation, University of Cape Town (UCT) Graduate School of Business; faculty member, UCT Bertha Centre for Social Innovation
  • Tana Paddock, coordinator, Organization Unbound
  • Marlon Parker, social entrepreneur and founder, Reconstructed Living Lab (RLabs)

How can you build a capacity for innovation within your social purpose organization? Organizations that excel at social innovation tend to have in common one apparently simple practice: They pay a great deal of attention to the inner experiences of the people who work in them.

Please join SSIR on February 5 as Warren Nilsson and Tana Paddock discuss the theory and practice of "inscaping"—their term for the work of drawing on personal experience to generate the raw material of social change. Nilsson and Paddock will present examples and insights from specific organizations that use inscaping to foster innovation "from the inside out."

Joining them for the webinar will be Marlon Parker, founder of RLabs, a social enterprise based in Cape Town that promotes community-driven innovation in 21 countries.

The webinar will build on Nilsson and Paddock's article "Social Innovation From the Inside Out," in SSIR's Winter 2014 issue. There will be time for Q&A during the last 20 to 30 minutes of the webinar, which will be moderated by SSIR Senior Editor, Michael Slind.

This webinar is for people at nonprofit organizations, foundations, and other social purpose groups who want to create internal processes that will help to build a deep, long-lasting capacity for innovative thought and action.

Learn more about this webinar and register here. To view previous webinars in the SSIR Live! webinar series, go to https://ssir.org/.

Regina Starr Ridley
Publishing Director
Stanford Social Innovation Review

P.S. Away from your desk on February 5? That's OK! Register and you can view this webinar on-demand three hours after the live event ends.

Pitchfests: Promoting Local Business Investment through Entrepreneur Showcases

What do you get when you bring together local entrepreneurs and everyday investors?

Answer: A pitchfest!

A pitchfest (also called an entrepreneur showcase) is a fun, informative event where local entrepreneurs who are looking to raise capital can connect with everyday investors and community members.

[ read more ]

During the event, the entrepreneurs give presentations to “pitch” their business ideas to the audience in an informal setting that typically includes food, drink, and plenty of mingling. A pitchfest is a matchmaking event of sorts, serving as the first step toward connecting local entrepreneurs and investors in meaningful ways.

On February 6, New Dream hosts a free webinar about how to organize a pitchfest in your community. Dovetailing with New Dream's Guide to Going Local, the webinar will cover topics such as how to get started, identifying local entrepreneurs and investors, and maximizing the success of your event. Register now!

Date: Thursday, February 6, 2014
Time: 1:00-2:00pm EST (10:00-11:00am PST)
Cost: Free

Guest speaker:

Bob Marino of Seacoast Local, an education based nonprofit organization working to keep more money rooted in the Seacoast, NH community. Seacoast Local's Entrepreneur Showcases are featured in New Dream's Guide to Going Local — watch the video here.
 

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