This webinar explores where the economic and business aspects of co-operatives intersect with the social aspects of co-operatives. In exploring these concurrent bottom lines, the speakers will examine co-operatives in the context of the social economy as well as exploring how co-operatives use social accounting to critically examine their social impact as an enterprise. 

• Dr. J.J. McMurtry of York University and editor of the book Living Economics: Perspectives on Canada's Social Economy, will define the social economy (unpacking how these two concepts can be defined together) and how co-operatives can be defined therein.
• Dr. Laurie Mook of Arizona State University and co-author of the book What Counts: social accounting for nonprofits and cooperatives, will describe concepts of social and sustainability accounting and describe how co-operatives balance this type of measurement and performance evaluation in tandem with economic and business evaluation.

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Hildy Gottlieb is co-founder of Creating the Future and author of The Pollyanna Principles: Reinventing "Nonprofit Organizations" to Create the Future of Our World. Her writing has been seen in dozens of publications throughout the community benefit sector, including the Chronicle of Philanthropy, where she hosts the monthly podcast, Making Change - interviewing change leaders from around the world. Join with Hildy as she talks about what it takes for the social sector to create a different future. In this podcast she will highlight her latest thinking and outline what it takes for organizations to think and act differently so that they can create change.

Kathy Brennan is the Director of Evaluation for Living Cities in New York. Kathy has 15 years of experience managing and evaluating nonprofit and philanthropic efforts. She is currently co-authoring the book Advocacy Evaluation - the first book that specifically addresses this new area of focus for evaluation efforts. Join with Kathy and Liz Weaver as they talk about the innovative work of Living Cities, Advocacy Evaluation and Systems Change. There will be an opportunity to ask questions towards the end of the interview. This will be an inspiring and engaging tele-learning.

On Wednesday, October 3, 2012 from 10:00 - 11:00am EDT, the Inclusive Local Economies Program of the Metcalf Foundation presents a webinar entitled, Local Economic Development as if People and the Planet Mattered.
 
Elizabeth Cox works for the New Economics Foundation (nef), the UK’s largest “think and do” tank focused on improving quality of life by promoting innovative solutions to economic, environmental, and social issues.
 
Elizabeth will share nef’s approach to supporting local economic development in communities across the UK and internationally called Plugging the Leaks.  This approach moves beyond getting more money into the local economy through tourism, inward investment, or funding.  It re-generates the local economy from within, and takes advantage of the resources that a community already possesses.  A plugging the leaks approach is built around supporting community-based action towards developing a more sustainable local economy.  Elizabeth will be interviewed by Mary Rowe of the Municipal Arts Society of New York, and Metcalf Foundation Advisor.
 
This is the first in a new monthly webinar series focused on how we build resilient local economies.  It is a forum for communication, collaboration, and innovation focused on creating resilient local economies.  It is a initiative of the Metcalf Foundation and the Centre for City Ecology https://cityecology.net/
 

To register for this webinar please contact Heather Dunford at hdunford@metcalffoundation.com by Tuesday, October 2.

For more information about Plugging the Leaks please see www.pluggingtheleaks.org. To learn more about the New Economics Foundation go to www.neweconomics.org.
 

The webinar will be recorded and posted on the Metacalf website

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More About Elizabeth Cox

Elizabeth Cox is an economist who leads on nef’s UK and international local economic development work, and manages international partnerships.  Her work ranges from design and delivery of action research on enterprise and local economic development to support practical community action in the UK and internationally (BizFizz, Local Alchemy and Plugging the Leaks), developing approaches to help public bodies to embed social, economic and environmental outcomes throughout their commission process, to research on resilience.  New areas of research include developing a low carbon, high well-being economic development model, and developing with civic society organisations a global south hub network to support, to debate, and practically apply new economics in India and South Africa.
 
Prior to joining nef in 2003, Elizabeth worked as a policy advisor within the Ministry of Agriculture in Guyana for four years, and was responsible for the oversight of poverty alleviation programmes and the design of participatory monitoring and evaluation frameworks, and as a Research Fellow at the University of Aberdeen lecturing in economic development.

• Understanding co-operative principles
• Discovering different types of co-operative business structures and forms
• Working out the co-operative development process
• Identifying Co-operative Economic Development opportunities in Saskatchewan. 
• Webinar participants will learn how co-operatives work, the development processes and how to apply Co-operative Economic Development in their communities from a community economic development framework. 

>> Register here

November 8-10
Ancaster, Ontario

• Take part in our new more participatory approach, with a focus on Financial Viability and Member Development!
• Meet other worker co-operators and developers from across Canada!
• Get inspired by other co-ops' stories!
• Learn practical new tools!   
• See the Canadian premiere of the Shift Change movie!
• Help us honour Alain Roy, recipient of the Worker Co-op Merit Award!

[More information]

[Register here]