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Join enp Canada for a Google Hangout featuring:
Bridgespan, Habitat for Humanity, and ReStore

Watch our four panelists and moderators from Axiom News host a virtual “hangout” to discuss their experiences & share their wisdom related to scaling social enterprise.  Building upon the themes of our recent inquiry into scaling social enterprise, each panelist will offer their unique perspective and together they will answer questions posed by viewers.

What is a Google Hangout? How does it work?

It’s easy…  Just click on the link to our hangout at the start time,  then watch as our four panelists & our team of moderators engage in a 45 minute conversation about scaling.  You do not need a Google plus account to access the Google Hangout.

How do I ask a question?

If you have a question you’d like our panelist to address, please tweet us @enpCAN or add it to the event homepage anytime between now and the Hangout. This will give our panelists an idea of what you’re interested in and a give us a chance to prepare a response.

I can’t make it, will you be posting this online?

Yes! We’ll be posting the conversation as a follow up story in our newsroom, it will be in our resource library (tagged with “growth & evolution”) and, it will be on our youtube channel.

Meet the Panelists

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Abe is a consultant at the Bridgespan Group, where he has helped a variety of domestic and international organizations develop strategic plans for scaling their social impact to help break cycles of intergenerational poverty. Abe’s past clients range from mid-size NGOs to large national networks to a multilateral development agency to a leading corporate foundation. He has worked in economic development, public health, global development, education and youth development. He is the co-author of Transformative Scale: The Future of Growing What Works, published in the February 2014 issue of Stanford Social Innovation Review.

The Bridgespan Group is a non-profit adviser and resource for mission-driven organizations and philanthropists. Bridgespan collaborates with social sector leaders to help scale impact, build leadership, advance philanthropic effectiveness and accelerate learning.

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Vanessa is the executive producer of DreamRider Productions, a social enterprise energized by a mission to inspire students to do their part to conserve water and energy and to reduce, reuse and recycle waste. To actualize its mission, the enterprise creates, produces and delivers live theatre productions to students in Greater Vancouver. The program has worked far beyond what its originators dreamed as students have gone home and made significant changes in their and their families' lives.

After working yearly with more than 70,000 students of all ages in more than 200 Greater Vancouver schools, DreamRider is now launching the Planet Protector Academy, an interactive, curriculum-linked program for Grade 3-6. The key impetus for the new program is to expand DreamRiders’ social impact to a broader audience.

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Heidi is the regional development manager for two ReStores locations in southern Alberta. In 2012, the Calgary ReStore reached $1.7 million in sales, the highest of all Canadian Habitat for Humanity social enterprises for that year. Established in 1991, the Habitat for Humanity ReStores sell new and used building supplies, home furnishing, appliances, and décor donated by corporations or citizens.

Heidi, who has worked with the two southern Alberta stores for about a year, attributes the Calgary store’s phenomenal 2012 success in part to rigorous documentation of incoming inventory, as well as clearly and constantly articulating the purpose of the enterprise. The goal for the southern Alberta stores is $3 million in sales in 2014.

Profits from ReStore are directed to the non-profit, Habitat for Humanity Canada, to support the building of more homes for families who are struggling. The social enterprises’ impact also includes shrinking the public’s environmental footprint by reducing and reusing building supplies and home and office items.

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David, with Common Good Solutions, has been using entrepreneurship as a tool for change for over 30 years. He has worked with Aboriginal Peoples in Canada’s North, youth and business development organizations, and all levels of government to develop sustainable entrepreneurial projects in recreation, the arts, environment and business sectors.

David has a special passion for working with young entrepreneurs. He is also an active volunteer, having been a member of the Social Economy and Sustainability Research Network Subnode, which focused on food security in the Atlantic provinces. He is the founding and current president of the Atlantic Council for Community and Social Enterprise, and sits on a number of national committees to further develop the policy environment for investment and capacity growth in the sector.

8:00 pm - 10 pm
Cafe Deux Soleils 2096 Commercial Drive
Vancouver, BC

Join us at Cafe Deux Soleils on July 26th for an evening of great ideas about transforming the economy, and a path forward to make those ideas a reality.
 
This is an invitation to action.
 
We all feel it: that wellspring of energy for major change to the current economic system. It's welling up between us, and the tidal waves of development rushing towards our neighbourhoods. Right now, as tides are shifting around us, we need to come together and define that change as we see it and need it to be.  Then we need a plan for action. That's what Groundswell is all about.
 
We're figuring out what real change - change that is substantial, not superficial - to the economic system looks like, and then working with young people to make it happen. We know the current economy is the product of all our collective actions, and we're working on ways to shift those actions in favour of greater justice, love and solidarity.
 
RSVP https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/saturday-night-not-business-as-usual-tickets-12314650451
 

6:30pm – 8pm
Heartwood Community Cafe 317 E Broadway, Vancouver
 

You want to take charge and make real impact to better the world, your community, and yourself?

Groundswell is an alternatives-to-business community, training youth (<35) to make real change through social enterprises, co-ops and non-profits. Save your seat and experience what it's like to be part of a economic game-changing community.

BONUS: Get a chance to pitch your enterprise ideas and get feedback from Groundswell's mentors & facilitators.

Or, just come to find out how you can make the change you want to see in the world without compromising your ethics.

Groundswell is now taking applications for the coming year's programs.  Attend this event to cover step one of the application process.

RSVP https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/taking-action-and-changing-the-economic-logic-tickets-12251060251

Find out more at www.groundswellcommunity.ca

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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@canadianworker.coop) by the end of the day on August 14th. 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 runs from late October through March (but half the number of weeks as the Foundations Program) and 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; 
• The Foundations Program course runs for one year (mid-September - April) for those who may become developers or who are in the position of advising groups interested in exploring the creation of a co-operative enterprise;
• The Advanced Program (Years 1 and 2) lasts for two years.  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, taking a few hours per week. The Course Director is Peter Hough, and experienced co-op developers provide mentoring to students.

Click here to find brochures for download

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. 

"The Advanced Co-op Developer training has enabled me to connect with other Co-op Developers and a Mentor which allowed me to apply what I am learning directly to the groups and projects I am working on, in real time.  I would recommend this program for anyone interested in Co-op Development as we are often working alone or in small teams in communities; the course allows you to feel part of a co-op team!"  --Amanda Hachey, CEC-NB

"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.