12:00pm - 1:00pm Eastern Time

This is an information webinar for those who are thinking about taking one of the courses through the CoopZone On-line Training Program. This webinar is open to anyone. 

Please RSVP to Hazel Corcoran (hazel at canadianworker.coop) by the day prior. You will receive the dial-in information by the start of the day of the call. (If you do not receive it by then, please write again at that time.) 

CoopZone offers various levels of training:

• The Introduction to Co-op Development course is appropriate for people interested in understanding the types and roles of co-ops and the basic co-op development process but who will not be active developers; it lasts half as many weeks as Foundations, and it runs from late October through March; 
• The Foundations Program course lasts for one year (mid-October - May).  This level is designed for individuals who are in the position of advising groups interested in exploring the creation of a co-operative enterprise;
• The Advanced Program lasts for two years and both years will be offered each year if there is sufficient demand. This level is designed for people who seek to provide full development services to co-operatives.

All of these on-line courses are designed to fit around a full-time job (a few hours per week). There is a new Course Director, Eric Tusz-King. Experienced co-op developers provide mentoring to students.

To learn more about this course and obtain the application form, please go to: www.coopzone.coop/courses or write to Eric Tusz-King at: CoopZoneTraining at gmail.com.

Download the Introductory Course Brochure

Here's what some of the students have had to say:

"The course is concise, informative and interactive. Mentors and course director are very knowledgeable, skilled, experienced, approachable and helpful. The readings and tools were very useful."   Billy Granger, SEED Winnipeg

"I would absolutely recommend the CoopZone program to anybody interested. The course is pretty amazing in the way that it creates a common community amongst us aspiring co-op developers and several fully established and tremendously experienced ones. The instructors are great, and the mentoring system gives me the chance to have hours of one-on-one time with an expert in my desired field."  Joel Ratcliffe, Ontario

"After working and consulting with non-profits for over 20 years, Co-op Zone training has given me the understanding and tools to finally be able to work with co-ops. During the course I had 4  groups engage me to help start or transition their co-op, and my assigned mentor as well as the CoopZone network helped guide me through it. Thank you!"  Rick Juliusson, FreeRange Consulting, BC

"What I like about the program:

• The webinars and online presentations, and the opportunity to connect with others across the country involved in the same work.
• The mentor element is great it’s been wonderful to have access to (my mentor’s) wealth of knowledge and perspectives.
• Access to the CoopZone listserv & tele-learning sessions has been good, too.
• The wonderfully curated and assembled reading materials.
• Learning together with great people–the director, cohort and mentors.”  Zoë Creighton, Upper Columbia Co-op Council​, BC

10:00am to 11:00am Eastern Time

Good, affordable housing is a critical first step to successful refugee reception, settlement, and integration. In today’s urban migration context, that means cities are under increasing pressure to provide affordable and dignified housing options. Getting housing right also promotes urban resilience in times of shock or crisis.

In the city of Cleveland, welcoming refugees may also be the solution to the problem of vacant homes in a sagging rust-belt economy. Danielle Drake of US Together will discuss how Cleveland is re-thinking its social housing model for refugees as part of a larger strategy to re-vitalize local neighbourhoods and improve living conditions for all residents.

Fifteen years ago, the city of Münster rejected typical temporary, camp-like refugee housing models and embraced a humanitarian strategy which improves living standards, while helping normailize the settlement experience for everyone, turning strangers into neighbours. Today, that foresight is helping cities like Münster accommodate an unprecedented wave of Syrian refugees to Germany. Jochen Köhnke joins the conversation to share challenges and successes from Münster’s refugee housing model.

Register for Breaking Ground

Speakers:

Danielle Drake, Community Relations Manager, US Together, Cleveland (United States)
Jochen Köhnke, Councillor for Migration and Intercultural Affairs, City of Münster (Germany)

Technical Requirements:

No cost to participate. You will need a computer with internet access and speakers. Pre-test System Requirements. Adobe Connect requires the Flash Player plugin, download version 11.9 or above to run. Unable to attend? Register now and receive an email notification when archived presentations are online. Questions? Contact gdx at ryerson.ca.

11:30am to 12:00pm Eastern Time (Optional pre-webinar group discussion)
12:00pm to 1:30pm Eastern TIme (Webinar)

Is your organization interested Collective Impact? Are you considering collaborating with other organizations to change population level outcomes on an issue that is important in your community or region? If so, you may be interested in attending an upcoming Introduction to Collective Impact webinar, on Thursday June 23rd.

LEARN about how a Collective Impact approach can support work across sectors to move the needle on urgent and complex community issues

EXPLORE the types of issues and conditions best suited to a Collective Impact approach, and learn when this approach is not the best fit

HEAR ABOUT lessons and insights from groups and collaboratives working with Collective Impact in BC and beyond

Register for the Introduction to Collective Impact Webinar

In addition to being an open learning opportunity, this webinar is a pre-requisite for collaboratives interested in participating in Collective Impact workshops and coaching to be offered in fall 2016 by BC Healthy Communities and Innoweave.

This session has been scheduled as a "lunch and learn" and we recommend if possible to use this as an opportunity to gather with your partners to learn and engage together. We suggest completing Innoweave's Collective Impact self-assessment and coming together as a group to discuss, prior to participating in the webinar from 12:00-1:30pm (Complete Innoweave's Collective Impact self-assessment).

**We recommend that you and your partners read the following before the webinar commences: Collective Impact, by John Kania and Mark Kramer.

OPPORTUNITIES AFTER THE WEBINAR:

Once you have attended the webinar, if you determine that collective impact is a fit for your issue and community, you can apply to participate in a supported Collective Impact process offered in partnership by BC Healthy Communities and Innoweave.

This process helps groups of different community organizations apply the Collective Impact approach to a shared population-level impact goal. The process includes two workshops staggered over a 4-8 month period, allowing organizations time in between the two sessions to build additional community support, and refine their shared outcomes goals.

Following each workshop, groups may also request Collective Impact coaching support. To access coaching, organizations should be clear on the goals that they hope to achieve with Collective Impact and the assistance that they require to develop their strategy for impact, build their collaborative and get ready to implement. 

Collective Impact Workshop 1 will be offered in fall 2016. This workshop is designed to help teams of leaders from at least 4-5 different community organizations committed to working on a common issue start to:

Articulate and refine population level outcome goals that they wish to achieve;

• Develop a hypothesis of the activities required to begin achieving those outcomes (e.g. a theory of change);
• Identify how they will test (and improve) their theory of change;
• Build a community engagement strategy that ensures key stakeholders and other leaders are part of the change process;
• Develop a 4-6 month strategy to deepen engagement on the issue, and advance activities to test a collective hypothesis.

If you have any questions, please contact Celeste Zimmer at celeste at bchealthycommunities.ca 

12:00pm to 1:00pm Eastern Time

What is social isolation? How do loneliness, social exclusion, and disconnection from community affect people at different stages in their lives? What forces are pushing people into more insular lives?  And what is being done to connect people back to one another, to healthy food and safe spaces? 

More than ever before, Canadians are living alone, and nearly one quarter describe themselves as lonely. Socially isolated adults face worse health as they age, and are less likely to participate in society. For populations facing marginalization and stigma, the sense of isolation and inability to access resources can be even greater.

In this one hour webinar,  André Picard, The Globe and Mail’s esteemed public health reporter and Wellesley Institute researcher Laura Anderson, will tackle this vital issue. Join the discussion on how to fight social isolation and restore a sense of connectedness to communities — from grassroots interventions, such as those community food security organizations are building on the ground, to broader policy solutions. CFCC’s Chief Operating Officer, Kathryn Scharf, will moderate the conversation.

Register for Setting More Places at the Table

Can't Attend? As with all Community Food Centres Canada's webinars, this one will be posted to The Pod Knowledge Exchange along with a host of downloadable resources a week or so after the event. Visit The Pod to stay in the loop about this webinar and others yet to come.

About the Panelists:

André Picard is a health reporter and columnist at The Globe and Mail, where he has been a staff writer since 1987. He is also the author of three bestselling books. André is an eight-time nominee for the National Newspaper Awards, Canada's top journalism prize. André has also been honoured for his dedication to improving healthcare. He was named Canada's first "Public Health Hero" by the Canadian Public Health Association and as a "Champion of Mental Health" by the Canadian Alliance on Mental Illness and Mental Health. André lives in Montréal.

Laura Anderson is a Researcher at the Wellesley Institute. She holds an MPH in Public Health Nutrition from Emory University and a PhD in Medical Anthropology and Global Health from the University of Toronto. Prior to joining the Wellesley Institute Laura was a Postdoctoral Fellow in Food Insecurity Policy at the Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary. Laura’s research focuses on the social determinants of health in Toronto, including the intersections between health and employment, access to and utilization of health care and social services among immigrant populations, and household food insecurity.

12:00pm to 1:00pm Eastern Time

Evaluations “work” when they lead to insight and action. We all know that the process can be resource-intensive, so it is important for us to maximize the probability of getting it right! In this webinar, two leading learning institutes, the Ontario Nonprofit Network (ONN) and Tamarack's Vibrant Communities Canada, will unpack real-life stories from Cities Reducing Poverty members to identify cases where evaluation worked really well. Together we will identify how they achieved exceptional success, and top takeaway points for the non-profit sector.

Register for the Evaluations That Work webinar

Speakers

Andrew Taylor is committed to the notion that evaluation is only useful if it answers questions that matter and enables people to act in new ways. He is co-owner of Taylor Newberry Consulting, a Guelph-based firm that specializes in developing research and evaluation solutions for public sector organizations. He is also ONN's Resident Evaluation Expert. He has helped organizations across Canada develop impact strategies and measurement systems that are evidence-based, manageable, and meaningful. 

Ben Liadsky joined the Ontario Nonprofit Network (ONN) in 2015 as Evaluation Program Associate. He has more than five years of experience working in the nonprofit sector in a variety of capacities from project management to fundraising to communications. He holds a Master’s Degree in International Studies with specialization in Global Environmental Policy from the University of Northern British Columbia where his research focused on the role of local governments and transnational environmental networks in addressing climate change. When not reading away, he can be found on his bike- if you can catch him that is.

Adam Vasey received a B.A., LL.B., and M.S.W. from the University of Windsor, and an LL.M. from Osgoode Hall Law School at York University. He has been the Director of Pathway to Potential, the local anti-poverty strategy, since 2009. In 2013 he was appointed to the provincial Minimum Wage Advisory Panel, and also received the “Distinguished Social Worker of the Year” award through the Ontario Association of Social Workers – Southwestern Branch. In 2014, Adam was awarded the Law Foundation of Ontario’s Community Leadership in Justice Fellowship. In 2015, Adam received the Odyssey Award through the University of Windsor’s Alumni Association. He is currently the President of the Ontario Association of Social Workers – Southwestern Branch and a board member of Unifor’s Windsor Essex Community Chapter.

Melanie Hientz is the lead evaluator with Living SJ – the strategy to end generational poverty in Saint John, New Brunswick. She has been involved in both the development and implementation of this Collective Impact initiative, working with a network of non-profits, businesses, government and educators. Melanie has also engaged with several Saint John non-profit organizations in coaching and evaluation capacities. She has a Bachelor of Public Affairs and Policy Management and an MA in Geography and Environmental Studies from Carleton University, in her hometown of Ottawa. Before moving to Saint John in 2013, she worked as a researcher for Carleton University and as lead researcher / special projects manager at Volunteer Canada. 
Melanie volunteers with the Community Foundation in Saint John and the New Brunswick Association for Community Living. In her free time, she enjoys exploring New Brunswick’s many beautiful hiking trails.

Elena DiBattista has had an extensive career in the human services field, primarily in the areas of community development and engagement, and early child development. Over the past thirty years, she has held numerous positions in Toronto and Peel Region with children’s aid societies, school boards and the provincial government and community agencies. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree (Psychology) from York University and a Child and Youth Worker diploma from George Brown College. Since joining Our Kids Network in 2010, Elena has been steadily guiding the transition towards a more strategic and structured partnership of organizations to meet the needs of children and youth in Halton. Her leadership in engaging key partners and community agencies to work together has contributed to stronger and more diverse partnerships and greatly increased resources. 

1pm to 2 pm Eastern Time

Join Buy Social Canada May 25th to hear the key lessons from Canada's Social Procurement leaders and to learn about how governments at all levels are working to better leverage taxpayer funded contracts to stimulate economic development and to achieve positive, targeted, social impacts.

Hosted by: David LePage, Buy Social Canada

Presentation by: Social Procurement Advisor Sandra Hamilton, author of Social Procurement Frameworks in both British Columbia & Alberta.

Register for the Buy Social Canada Webinar

With Contributions from:

• Wayne Chu, City of Toronto
• Councillor Jesse Ketler, from the Village of Cumberland 
• Canada’s first Buy Social Canada certified municipality 
• and more...

This is an opportunity to explore the changing face of public procurement in Canada, to expand your knowledge and to receive answers to questions from Canada's leading Social Procurement professionals.

SOURCE: Buy Social Canada