Co-op Week 2017 will take place from October 15-21.

Co-op week is a celebration of Canadian co-operative and credit union members. Co-op Week is always celebrated during the same week as International Credit Union Day, which is the third Thursday in October of each year.

The History of Co-op Week in Canada

Co-op Week has been celebrated by francophones throughout Canada since 1958. In 1981 celebrations were held among anglophone co-ops in the Maritimes and Saskatchewan. The event went national in 1982 with the encouragement of the Co-operative Union of Canada, a predecessor of Co-operatives and Mutuals Canada.

Co-op Week appears to be a uniquely Canadian phenomenon. In the US, October is Co-op Month, and the International Co-operative Alliance and United Nations have an International Day of Co-operatives on the first Saturday in July.

International Credit Union Day, co-ordinated by the World Council of Credit Unions (WOCCU),  has been celebrated on the third Thursday of October since 1948.

Manitoba based Events

• MCA Awards Banquet, October 18
• Co-op Housing Day, October 21
• LITE's Wild Blueberry Pancake Breakfast, November 24

The Fresh Outlook Foundation is hosting its 7^thBuilding SustainABLE Communities (BSC) conference in Kelowna, BC, Canada November 21-24. The overarching theme is Innovation Through Collaboration, with major forums addressing Climate Action, Water Stewardship, Food Systems/Security, and Community Capital/Infrastructure. Workshops will focus on Ecological Economics, Community Engagement, and SustainAbility for Young Professionals, while breakout topics include Climate Change & Community Health, Leadership & Governance, Active Transportation, Local Prosperity, Collaborative Change, Sustainable Development, Ecological Imperatives, and the Sharing Economy. Unique and fun activities include the SustainAbility SchmoozeFest, SustainAbility Village, and Tasty Talk Dine-Around. The event’s stunning venue is ideally located on the shores of Okanagan Lake and steps from Kelowna’s vibrant cultural district. It’s also easily accessible, being minutes from an international airport.

Register for Building SustainABLE Communities

BSC typically draws delegates from government, business, and the nonprofit and academic sectors. Students are also a major contingent. To ensure a robust, multi-sector gathering, this event offers affordable registration fees, with substantial discounts for students and nonprofit representatives. For more information and to register, visit www.freshoutlookfoundation.org/sessions/.

1:00 - 2:00pm Eastern Time

This webinar will share developmental stages, challenges and key learnings of establishing a province wide initiative within a pan Canadian collective impact effort to end youth homelessness.  A Way Home – a national collaborative for youth homelessness was one of the Ontario Trillium Foundation's first collective impact grantees and they will share their experience using a collective impact approach.

Register for the Collective Impact Stream Action Area: Prosperous People webinar

Facilitator

Tracey Robertson
After spending the last 25 years in strategic philanthropy, community development, higher education and the voluntary sector, Tracey has learned that the most innovative solutions are developed when people from diverse perspectives and disciplines come together to look at an issue in a new light. Over the last 10 years, Tracey has focused her work on investing and fueling social innovation at the grassroots, community and systemic levels.

Guests

Melanie Redman
Prior to becoming the Executive Director of A Way Home, Melanie was the Director of National Initiatives at Eva’s. In that role she directed the National Learning Community on Youth Homelessness, the Eva’s Awards for Ending Youth Homelessness, and the Mobilizing Local Capacity to End Youth Homelessness Program, which works with communities across Canada to craft, implement, and sustain plans to end youth homelessness. She currently serves as the Chair of the Youth Homelessness Research Priority Area at the Canadian Observatory on Homelessness. Her passion for addressing the root causes of complex social issues drew her to co-develop A Way Home with partners across Canada.

Dr. Stephen Gaetz
Dr. Gaetz is a leading international researcher on homelessness, and is director of the Canadian Observatory on Homelessness at York University.  He focuses his efforts on conducting research and mobilizing this knowledge so as to have a greater impact on solutions to homelessness. Stephen has played a leading international role in knowledge dissemination in the area of homelessness through the Homeless Hub.

11:00am – 12:00pm Pacific Time

Over the past decade alone, web technology has vastly increased data availability, and community innovators have created new tools for accessing, visualizing, analyzing, and sharing relevant data to advance equity-focused policies and investments. From local tools like the Metro Atlanta Equity Atlas, which connects local leaders to timely data across eight key areas of community well-being, to national tools like Mapping Police Violence, which provides interactive maps and charts on officer-involved deaths of community members, online data tools are equipping advocates, policymakers, funders, and the public with relevant data to advance health equity and move policy across a range of issue areas.

Register for Designing Data Tools for Health Equity and Community Action

Join us, live from Portland, for a panel discussion with national leaders who are using and designing data tools to drive health equity and community action.

Featured Speakers:

• Sarah Treuhaft, Senior Director at PolicyLink (moderator)
• Nathaniel Smith, Founder and Chief Equity Officer/CEO of the Partnership for Southern Equity
• Sam Sinyangwe, Co-Founder of Campaign Zero and Mapping Police Violence
• Julia Sebastian, Research Associate at Race Forward
• Cat Goughnour, Founder and Principal at Radix Consulting and Right 2 Root
• Antwi Akom, CEO of Streetwyze; Co-Founder of ISEEED; Associate Professor at San Francisco State University

This convening is generously supported by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.