Noon-1PM (MST)

This year Albertans will put billions of dollars into RRSPs. The majority of this money will leave the province, and won’t be used to support local businesses that create jobs, or strengthen the local economy.

Communities across Alberta are bucking this trend. They are investing directly in their savings in their local economy. This has led to the revitalization of businesses districts, created jobs, and increased vibrancy. By investing locally, community members receive both a financial and social return.

This webinar will teach participants about raising local capital, to finance local business development. Unleashing Local Capital is a new and innovative local financing program that supports communities in establishing Opportunity Development Co-operatives (ODCs) that pool capital within a designated community using RRSP eligible shares.

This lunchtime webinar will teach you everything you need to get started, as well as provide an opportunity to ask questions and discuss your local business development project. It will include: The webinarwill include

• an overview of the project, drawing from successful examples in Alberta
• The process of raising capital in your community
• Rules and regulations related to local financing, and how to raise capital in accordance to the current rules

At the end of this session you will be prepared to get started on a local financing project in your community! If you are involved in local business, community economic development, or are an entrepreneur this webinar will provide you with some excellent new information and insight into how local financing can be used to build strong and vibrant communities. Opportunity Development Co-operatives can be used to finance:

• Expansion, renovation, and upgrading of existing businesses
• Revitalization projects of a once-bustling main-street
• Succession planning that will keep an important business in the community
• New businesses

Opportunity Development Co-operatives also:

• Keep wealth in communities
• Let you invest in your community
• Connects you to a local business and the local economy in a meaningful way

Register now

For more information please contact Paul Cabaj, Director of Co-operative Development at pcabaj at acca.coop

12:00 pm – 1:00 pm Mountain Time

This session, hosted by the Battle River Alliance for Economic Development and Alberta Centre for Sustainable Rural Communities, will be geared to business owners from all disciplines and business service providers (municipalities, EDOs, CAOs, etc.) who seek to deepen their understanding and begin the process of succession planning. Succession planning is a natural process in a successful business and one that can (and should) be positive and empowering.

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Please Join Shauna for this Informative Webinar:

Shauna is the Executive Director of the Alberta Business Family Institute and former Project Manager for the Creating Pathways for Entrepreneurial Families Rural Initiative.
Shauna’s background includes a variety of experience, including banking and accounting along with project and event management. Shauna is a certified Family Enterprise Advisor and has successfully supported many small to medium sized businesses successfully transition to the next phase of ownership.

Living throughout rural Alberta growing up, Shauna has a unique understanding of the issues of rural sustainability and from being a partner in her own family business, she understands the need to readily access further education, information and resources in order for both the family and the business to thrive, grow and transition successfully.

Shauna is currently Treasurer and Audit Committee Chair for the Alberta Chamber of Commerce, Past- President of the Camrose Chamber of Commerce, Advisory Board Member for the Rural Alberta Business Centres, Volunteer Mentor with MentorNation/Futurepreneur and Volunteer Screener for the TEC Edmonton VenturePrize Awards.

For more information visit www.acsrc.ca or contact:
Naomi Finseth, Alberta Centre for Sustainable Rural Communities
780.679.1672780.679.1672 | Email: acsrc at ualberta.ca
 
Or visit www.brandonu.ca/rdi/

1:30pm Eastern Time

Wondering how to move beyond youth involvement to youth engagement? Where can you find a powerful professional development program for staff? Are you looking for creative ways to market your credit union/co-operative within your community?

With the release of On Co-op’s new “CYL Sponsor and Youth Engagement Guide,” co-operatives and credit unions now have access to a comprehensive all-in-one resource which provides the collected best practices and necessary steps as to how your co-op can use CYL as the “centrepiece” around which to build your youth recruitment and engagement strategy - not to mention key pieces to your social media and staff professional development strategies!

This comprehensive step-by-step toolkit has been designed to guide your co-op’s year round involvement with CYL. The Youth Engagement Guide goes beyond "just" CYL and includes:

• Youth engagement Best Practices and sample initiatives
• Leveraging your staff’s professional development and team building initiatives
• Youth recruitment and selection guidelines/resources
• A year-round calendar of events and timelines  
• Sample youth engagement agreements with youth
• Guidelines for creating a powerful community/youth outreach program by pairing  CYL with On Co-op’s award-winning All 4 Each School Program

To get your advanced copy of the CYL Sponsor and Youth Engagement Guide, e-mail youth@ontario.coop.

To get the most from this, combine the Youth Engagement Guide with our informational Webinar on real world youth engagement and CYL at 1:30pm on Wednesday, January 14th.

Register now

12:00pm to 1:00pm Eastern Time

The Social Innovation Residency is a unique new offering out of the Banff Centre. It has been designed for leaders with an innovative project in mind, that holds potential to get at the root causes of big problems and that is ready for significant refinement and development over a focused period of time. If you are a change agent from the private, social benefit, government, or the philanthropy sector and would like to learn more about the program and application process, join us for this one-hour informational webinar.

Residency content will integrate and build upon the highly successful social innovation curriculum recently designed for the Graduate Diploma in Social Innovation at the University of Waterloo, as well as a suite of innovative programs offered through The Banff Centre.

The Social Innovation Residency is a collaboration between The Banff Centre and the Waterloo Institute for Social Innovation and Resilience at the University of Waterloo with the generous support of Suncor Energy Foundation. As a WISIR partner, SiG is proud to present this webinar for you.

Register now