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Breaking Ground: City Solutions for Refugee Housing in Münster and Cleveland

Cities of Migration10:00am 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.

Introduction to Collective Impact Webinar

Innoweave, BC Healthy Communities, and plan h11:30am 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 

Setting More Places at the Table: From social isolation to community connection

CFCC12:00pm 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, Laura AndersonAndré 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.

Solidarity Works: The Canadian Worker Co-op Federation 25th Anniversary Conference

2016 CWCF Conference

Celebrate Workplace Democratic Ownership

Join the Canadian Worker Co-operative Federation (CWCF), Worker Co-operatives, CoopZone, Co-op Developers and co-op friends for three days of sharing, connecting and learning.

To celebrate CWCF’s 25th anniversary the conference will look at milestones over the past 25 years for both CWCF and for worker co-ops, and also make plans for the next 25 years. Many worker co-operatives will be featured through dynamic Co-op “Ignite” presentations and on various panels. Opportunities for networking and discussing with each other will be prioritized.

Register for the Solidarity Works conference

Early bird rate in place until September 16th, 2016

Check out the Solidarity Works Facebook page

Thursday evening will be a Birthday Celebration Solidarity Supper followed by entertainment by Bill Bourne, a Juno award-winning musician from Edmonton.

Kathy BardwickThe Keynote speaker, Kathy Bardwick, CEO, The Co-operators will speak on Solidarity in the Co-op movement on Thursday afternoon.

Under Kathy’s leadership, The Co-operators has prospered and grown, and is recognized today as a leader in the Canadian insurance industry as well as the co-operative sector. She has led a transformation of the organization as it adopted more sustainable business practices over the past several years.  These accomplishments have earned a number of honours for The Co-operators in recent years.

In addition, Kathy sits on the Board of the International Co-operative Alliance, where she chairs the Commission on Co-operative Capital.  She will address the CWCF Conference on Solidarity in the Co-operative Movement just a few weeks before her retirement in December, 2016.

Some of the practical training topics that will be covered are:

  • Managing the Democratic Process in a Worker Co-operative, by Alain Bridault
  • Financing Worker Co-ops
  • Legal Issues in Worker Co-ops, presented by lawyers Mary Childs (Vancouver) and Celia Chandler (Iler-Campbell, Toronto)
  • People and Co-ops: Maintaining Mutual Respect and Dignity within your Worker Co-op – reporting on new research, by Peter Hough
  • Strengthening your Co-op’s Value Proposition – Positioning your co-op for more effective sales: through price, branding and advertising
  • The Leap Manifesto and the Worker Co-op Movement

Some of the other presenters include:

  • Andy Broderick, VP, Impact Market Development, Vancity and Managing Director, New Market Funds
  • Tracey Kliesch, General Manager and CEO, CCEC Credit Union
  • Rebecca Kemble (US FWC Past President, and City Councillor, Madison, Wisc.)
  • Jessica Gordon-Nembhard, Professor, Dept. of African American Studies, City University of New York (CUNY), and member, Grassroots Economic Organizing Collective
  • Isabel Faubert, Executive Director, Quebec WC Network / Réseau de la coopération du travail du Québec
  • Seth Klein, BC Director of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives

Optional tours on November 2nd to:

  • The Vancouver Convention Centre, for which SSG Worker Co-op did the LEED Certification, and
  • The Wood Shop Workers Co-op.

Download the Solidarity Works Conference Program

Download the registration costs and other details

Evaluations That Work: What the Non-Profit Sector Can Learn from the Ontario Nonprofit Network and Vibrant Communities

Tamarack Institute12:00pm 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. 

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