Be the first to find out when we release information on the next National CED Conference, EconoUs2017, September 13-15 in Calgary, Alberta.

Watch the announcement of the 2017 National CED Conference
 at ECONOUS2016 from Barb Davies, CED Coordinator with Thrive, the 2017 co-host 

10:00am Eastern Time

Join longtime CCEDNet member Shaun Loney for the launch of his new book An Army of Problem Solvers.

First Nations reconciliation has to include rebuilding local economies. Problem solvers such as social enterprises, social entrepreneurs and the small farm movement are demonstrating we can tackle society's most stubborn problems affordably. How do we reinvent government to make it all happen?

Learn more about An Army of Problem Solvers

About the Author

Shaun Loney, a longtime member of the Canadian CED Network, is an Ashoka Fellow (first in Canadian Prairies) and Ernst and Young's Entrepreneur of the Year (2014). He has co-founded and mentored 11 social enterprises including BUILD Inc (2011 Scotia Bank EcoLiving Green Business of the year and 2013 Manitoba Apprenticeship Employer of the Year). Shaun was Director of Energy Policy for the Government of Manitoba (2002-2008 and political advisor to Gary Doer's NDP (1997-2002).

Hosted by the Rural Development Institute

www.brandonu.ca/rdi

A first of its kind, national-level innovation summit designed by and for Indigenous people. It brings together Canada’s leading social innovators, entrepreneurs and Indigenous leaders for a truly transformative event.

The Indigenous Innovation Summit is a partnership between the National Association of Friendship Centres and the J.W. McConnell Family Foundation. By bringing together leaders in Indigenous social innovation from around Canada, they are sharing learnings, unlocking new ideas, building new fields of innovation. The panels cover a wide range of topics, including:

• Intergenerational Innovation
• Social Finance
• Indigenous Innovations
• Reconciliation and Innovative Arts Partnerships
• Millennial Innovation

The Summit was created with "field-building" intent, an idea the organizers believe is crucial to the success of social innovation and enterprise in Indigenous communities. The Summit helps connect fragmented players in social innovation, strengthens existing networks and creates new connections.

Register for the Indigenous Innovation Summit

The First Summit has Already Produced some Exciting Partnerships and Projects:

• World Wide Hearing partnered with the Montreal Fluency Centre in a joint pilot project to screen children for hearing loss in Cree communities in Northern Quebec;
• Several speakers from the Summit pooled their honoraria and put it towards Siem Lelum, an Indigenous affordable housing initiative in Victoria, BC;
• Indspire is working with Ma Mawi Chi Itata on a Nurturing Capacity, connecting researchers with Ma Mawi’s Aboriginal Head Start Program;
• The creation of an Indigenous Innovation Demonstration Fund (IIDF), a first of its kind funding program that will unlock much-needed capital for early-stage, high-potential Indigenous social innovation and enterprises.

In Edmonton, the Summit hopes to move even closer toward the goal of building an organized community around Indigenous social innovation. The Summit’s unique, participatory format enables attendees to actively engage in their learning, tease out best practices, and improve cooperation across the emerging area of social innovation.

Learn more about the Indigenous Innovation Summit

Speakers

Joseph Boyden’s award-winning writing career has had a strong focus on the historical and contemporary experience of First Nations peoples. He is best known for his books Three Day Road, Through Black Spruce, which won the 2008 Scotiabank Giller Prize, and The Orenda, which was named the winner of CBC Radio’s Canada Reads 2014. Joseph’s work reflects the perils and inner strengths of marginalized groups.
 

Tomson Highway is the proud son of legendary caribou hunter and world championship dogsled racer, Joe Highway, and artist-in-her-own-right (as bead-worker and quilt-maker extraordinaire), Pelagie Highway. A full-blood Cree, he is a registered member of the Barren Lands First Nation, the village for which is called Brochet (pronounced "Bro-shay") and which village is located in northern Manitoba where it meets Saskatchewan and what is now called Nunavut. Today, he writes novels, plays, and music for a living.

More to be confirmed

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Defending Workers and Communities in Transition

As Alberta implements the Climate Leadership Plan, the issue of a just transition for workers and communities becomes increasingly important. Bringing together workers, environmentalists, government representatives, and other decision-makers this FREE day-long event will feature panel discussions on the coal phase out, what is needed for a just transition, information on job training opportunities, the growth potential of renewable power, and more.  

Register for Just Transition and Good Green Jobs for Alberta

Agenda Outline

• 8:30am - Call to Order and welcome with Ken Neumann, USW National Director for Canada and Joie Warnock, UNIFOR Western Director
• Keynote Address by Diana Gibson
• Panel:  Just Transition and Alberta’s Coal Phase-Out 
• Lunch (Provided)
• Address by Hon. Deron Bilous, Minister of Economic Development and Trade
• Panel: Training for Good Green Jobs and What is Needed for these Opportunities
• Panel: Renewable Power, 30% by 2030, and Good Green Jobs in Alberta
• 5:30 pm - Wrap Up
• Reception

12:00pm to 1:00pm Eastern Time

Too often evaluation is a mysterious noise. We can’t discern a beat we can tap our feet to. The melody we seek is elusive. From a poverty reduction perspective, we are inundated with the voices of our clients, funders, donors, colleagues, governments, business leaders, and labour counterparts. Reducing or ending poverty is the music we want to create and listen to, but how can we lessen the noise that envelopes us and increase our capacity to make this music together?

On October 14th, join Mark Holmgren and Mark Cabaj as they discuss this emerging innovation about a Game-Changer approach to poverty reduction strategy and evaluation and share your thoughts as well. Topics covered will include:

• What a Game-Changer in poverty reduction looks like and how this approach can help enhance focus on the development and evaluation of big change efforts to end poverty;
• The case for moving from an evaluation focus on attribution to contribution;
• How this approach can help us understand progress and serve as a catalyst for learning about what is working across the country to address poverty;
• How Game-Changer thinking can foster nation-wide attention on needed systems and policy change; help frame research; and also offer a touchstone for funders in their efforts to resource effective poverty reduction initiatives; and
• How Game-Changers can contribute to Movement-Building and a Collective Impact approach to poverty reduction.

Register for A Game Changer Approach to Poverty Reduction Strategy and Evaluation

Start Your Learning Early

Read Mark Holmgren's brand new paper:

Sometimes to Hear the Music you have to Turn Down the Noise

Speakers

Mark Holmgren joined Tamarack in January 2016 to lead its Vibrant Communities initiative and sits on Tamarack’s team of Directors. His background includes providing executive leadership to two Edmonton-based, inner city human service agencies focused on addressing poverty and homelessness; as well as providing consultation to a number of groups on issues relating to social housing development, organizational change, strategy development and leadership. Most recently Mark served as CEO of Bissell Centre (www.BissellCentre.org) where he led a team of 130 staff delivering Housing First services, assertive street outreach, family and children services, and programs in the areas of mental health, addictions, homelessness prevention, FASD interventions, and employment services.

Known for his big picture view and his ability to work on the ground, Mark has a long history of leading and contributing to social innovations that benefit low income people. Examples include leading the collaborative design of the Community Bridge (homelessness prevention); developing a multi-purpose centre with housing attached for inner city seniors; leading the development of three social enterprises; and, developing innovative approaches to employing marginalized populations.

Mark Cabaj has spent twenty-five years as a social change practitioner, policy maker, funder and consultant in Canada, the USA and Europe. He is a former Vice President of Tamarack, and was the Executive Director of Vibrant Communities Canada - one of the country’s first and largest Collective Impact Initiatives.

Mark is now President of Here to There Consulting Inc. currently focusing on developing practical ways to understand, plan and evaluate efforts to tackle complex issues (e.g. neighborhood renewal, poverty, community safety, environmental sustainability). This includes playing a strong role in building the practice of development evaluation - using evaluation to inform the work of social innovators working in fast moving contexts - as well as practical methods for social innovation, systems change and collaborative action.