Chateau Lacombe
10111 Bellamy Hill Rd NW

This workshop will gather together Canada’s premier community development leaders and neighbourhood practitioners to explore the use of Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD) and leading neighbourhood revitalizing techniques. We have brought together for the first time seven of the world’s top authors and practitioners in the field.

In addition to master classes, we will offer learners the opportunity to take up to 20 highly practical workshops including four experiential neighbourhood tours. We have chosen to host this gathering in Edmonton, AB which is home to community leagues (neighbourhood associations) that have existed for nearly 100 years and also the Abundant Community Edmonton initiative that focuses on building connections at the block and neighbourhood level using ABCD - a highly innovative revitalization strategy.

Register for ABCD: Healthy Neighbourhoods, Healthy Cities

Why Invest in Neighbourhood Development?

Over the past three decades, there has been a shift in how we connect with one another. Today, people report fewer social connections, decrease in tolerance and trust, and an eroding political and civic engagement atmosphere in our communities.  Building communities that bring residents together and provide a sense of belonging and connection leads to residents being happier, healthier, more likely to live longer and more willing to act for the common good. 

While municipalities have traditionally focused on the physical components of a neighbourhood -  paving sidewalks and roads or building houses, parks and arenas - cities across Canada are now realizing that they need to do more.  They need to support the residents who live, work and play in the neighbourhoods to create a sense of belonging and connection. This is how vibrant cities are built.

So how can we support this work?

Asset-Based Community Development is an approach to the development of communities based on their strengths and potentials. It involves assessing the resources, skills, and experiences available in a community; organizing the community around issues that move its members into action; and then determining and taking appropriate action. In this workshop, you will learn the key fundamentals of ABCD and grow your skills and confidence to use these in your work. We will also connect you to the ground-breaking work that Tamarack is undertaking to deepen community in North America.

Neighbourhood work is one of the foremost opportunities available to us to foster a sense of belonging. Neighbourhoods are home to an abundance of people with shared experience, while at the same time offering great diversity in personalities, experiences, gifts, cultures and backgrounds. In this workshop you will learn strategies and gain tools and resources to build belonging and connection in neighbourhoods.

City Building is about harnessing community assets to build strong neighbourhoods. By connecting citizens to work together they strengthen the economic, social and physical infrastructure. Vibrant cities create the conditions for economic and social well being. 

Learn more about ABCD: Healthy Neighbourhoods, Healthy Cities

12:00pm – 1:00pm Eastern Time
Online - Register for webinar link!

​Cost: Free

Join us for Weaving Indigenous Wellbeing, Research and Ethics: Community and Campus Perspectives in Canada.

The webinar will feature the work and vision of four Indigenous leaders working in community-campus engagement. Two Professors from Saskatchewan and British Columbia and two community leaders from the National Association of Friendship Centres in Ottawa will focus on ethical research, Indigenous knowledges, equitable partnerships and how higher education and other Canadian allies can collectively support Indigenous community health and well being. They will explore the challenges they face, opportunities for the future, and specific recommendations for policy, funding, culture, and program changes.

Level: Beginner/Intermediate – Attendees do not need any prior experience or knowledge of indigenous research or community development. Check out the Urban Aboriginal Knowledge Network to learn more about the topic: www.uakn.org

Resources to read ahead of the webinar:

Pidgeon, M. (2018). Moving between theory and practice within an Indigenous research paradigm. Qualitative Research. https://doi.org/10.1177/1468794118781380

Pidgeon, M. (2016). More than a checklist: Meaningful Indigenous inclusion in higher education. Social Inclusion, 4(1), 77–91. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.17645/si.v4i1.436

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Presented by CFICE and Community-Campus Engage Canada, in collaboration with the National Association of Friendship Centres, the Urban Aboriginal Knowledge Network, and the Centre for the Study of Educational Leadership and Policy (CSELP), this webinar explores answers to the guiding question How do we grow impactful Indigenous-Campus engagement and ethical research in Canada to better support indigenous community health and well being?

This webinar is now full. Please email cfice@carleton.ca to be put on the waiting list, and to receive post-webinar information. Thank you!

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Are you a social-venture leader creating impact in your community that requires outside-the-box thinking? Are you facing a unique challenge and looking for innovative business solutions to address it? Tired of figuring everything out on your own? Want to make meaningful connections with other social purpose leaders in Alberta? Are you looking for resources to grow your impact?

Then Social Venture Institute Alberta is for you!

Join us at the Banff Centre from June 5-7, 2019 for this hands-on encounter with and for social-venture leaders. You will work with about 70 other innovators in a highly interactive and intensive format. It will be an opportunity to innovate, connect, breathe, disrupt, rejuvenate and shake things up.

Take advantage of the early bird discount until April 5, 2019.

Register for Social Venture Institute Alberta 2019

We will hear the real-life stories – warts and all - behind social purpose success stories. We will explore and tackle real-time business challenges, yours included. We will share findings, tools, and resources. We will do all of this while building new contacts with entrepreneurial peers surrounded by the beauty of the Banff Centre.

“I had many personal ‘aha moments’ both about my business and my leadership style. I learned that there is a lot of support out there for people like me who are using their gifts to create the world we dream of.”
- SVI Alberta 2018 Attendee

Join a conversation to explore how local organizing principles and approaches can contribute to the creation of more sustainable, fair and inclusive economies.

Led by Co-facilitators, Alejandra Bravo and Mercedes Sharpe Zayas, this interactive webinar shares the Power Lab's experience of connecting people and ideas for action to build local economies that strengthen communities and benefit everyone.

Delve into how community economic development organizations might contribute to changing social conditions for your organization’s constituencies and how the people you serve can become a base for action. Understand how to centre equity-seeking groups as primary actors in decision-making and agents of making material gains in their communities.

Resources: 

• The Power Point Presentation is available here 
• Attend Organizing for Fairer Economies in Toronto on May 30, 2019

PRESENTERS

Alejandra Bravo, Director and Co-Facilitator, Power Lab

As the Director of the, Power Lab, a new leadership learning initiative focused on local organizing for a fair economy co-generated by the Atkinson Foundation and the Broadbent Institute.

Active in the community benefits movement, she supports leaders working to build campaigns and coalitions organizing for economic opportunities for historically disadvantaged and equity-seeking groups. Alejandra contributes to movement building as a facilitator, trainer, mentor and strategist with various social change efforts.

Previously she was Manager of Leadership and Learning at Maytree, where she designed and delivered political and civic training for emerging and diverse leaders. Alejandra has a 25-year history of working for progressive social change with grassroots, immigrant, and labour groups. She has worked as a community organizer, political staff and has been a City Council candidate in Toronto.

Mercedes Sharpe Zayas, Co-Facilitator, Power Lab

Mercedes Sharpe Zayas is a community planner committed to movement building and economic justice in the urban form.

Mercedes has been cultivating her participatory planning practice as the Workforce Planning Coordinator for the Parkdale People’s Economy, a network of over 30 community-based organizations and hundreds of community members organizing towards decent work, shared wealth, and equitable development in Parkdale. She has also worked as a Policy Research Intern at the City of Toronto’s Economic Development and Culture Division, a Research Assistant for the Metcalf Foundation’s Inclusive Local Economies Program, and a Graduate Research Assistant with The Public Studio.

In her spare time, Mercedes is the Co-Director of Communications for PODER, a grassroots Latinx feminist organization in Toronto. She holds a Master of Science in Urban Planning from the University of Toronto and a Bachelor of Arts in Honours Anthropology from McGill University.

3:00pm to 4:00pm

Universities, colleges and institutes can play a much more significant role in the design and construction of much-needed social infrastructure In Canada and globally, including affordable housing, child care centres, women’s shelters and seniors’ care facilities. The most effective and sustainable way to do this is through authentic partnerships with non-profit organizations and community groups that mobilize the necessary local knowledge and public, private and philanthropic resources to implement these complex projects.

Register for the Community-Campus Partnerships for Social Infrastructure Webinar webinar

As leaders in this work, Simon Fraser University (SFU) and the University of Winnipeg have valuable experience and methods to share, to spread information on innovative models and support their replication and adaptation across Canada and the world. Guided by our Moderator, Ted Jackson, our presenters—SFU President Andrew Petter and University of Winnipeg Community Renewal Corporation Managing Director Sherman Kreiner—will address the following key questions:

• What kinds of social and green real estate projects are possible?
• How can we structure effective community-campus governance and project-management bodies?
• What combination of financial instruments and sources can be used to finance social infrastructure?

Webinar participants will be invited to pose their own questions online to the presenters before and during the webinar.

Visit the event website.

Mar 25 - Jul 14, 2019

Towards Co-operative CommonWealth is a master class in movement building for a new model of political economy that is sustainable, democratic, and socially just. Offered by the Synergia Institute and Athabasca University, it sets out the practical models and pathways for meaningful systems change at multiple levels. The goal: to better secure our basic needs for land, food, livelihood, social care, energy, finance and more in these increasingly difficult times.

The course is suitable for newcomers to social change work as well as veteran activists, practitioners, policy-makers, and researchers. Individuals on their own and people working for social change through organizations, networks, and movements can leverage the course material and the expertise of the Synergia team to advance their own projects and activist work locally.

Enrol for Towards Cooperative CommonWealth

The course is offered in two sections: Section 1 is 4 modules over 4 weeks starting March 25th, followed by a 4 week intellectual pause to catch your breath from April 22 till May 20th, and Section 2 starts another 4 Modules from May 20th to June 22.

Following the course, feedback from the Synergia team will be available for three weeks to promote application of course ideas & models to your own projects or work.

*The course is free at the certificate level. The cost of degree accreditation is $269 CAD.​

OBJECTIVES

• Outline and explain the problematic, and transformative vision.
• Discuss emerging food system alternatives and strategies for transitioning to just, sustainable food systems.
• Recognize the role of public policy and bottom-up innovation in renewable community energy.
• Become familiar with the interplay of assumptions, interests, power, and technology feeding the growing precariousness of livelihoods and the implications for human wellbeing, and to explore emerging sector-, policy-, and place-based alternatives.
• Outline the philosophy, rationale, and organizational forms of user-controlled models of health and social care.
• Discuss enclosure, and the alternatives of commons and land trusts.
• Describe community development finance and co-operative capital raising and their potential to secure democratic and socially directed investment for the common good.
• Synthesize key ideas and practices that define systemic transition.

Target Audience: We imagine that if you were attracted to this course, you will be someone who shares our general world view and vision, and wants to broaden and deepen it and join us and others to develop it. That is its principal purpose, but a secondary purpose is to link people and projects that share these views in practical ways. You are likely to be people who are already engaged in social change work in three crucial movements – co-operation, commons, and sustainability. Most are already actively working to make this world view a reality. You may be active in the environmental movement, human or animal rights, social equality and development, the solidarity economy, co-operative finance and alternative currencies; the Transition Movement, permaculture, local food, eco-villages, the digital commons, peer-to-peer and open educational resources, community energy or many others.

For more information about Synergia Institute visit: synergiainstitute.org

Course is offered by Athabasca University in collaboration with Synergia.

"System Change Not Climate Change" Banner photo is copyright (c) 2009 by Kris Krüg and made available under a CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 license.