11:55am-1:00 pm Eastern Time

Speakers: Annette Case with host Michael Toye

In the face of increasing wealth inequality and rising poverty rates, economic security is picking up steam as an inclusive, comprehensive solution for healthy, vibrant communities.  But what is at the core of this concept, and what does it contribute to the poverty reduction movement? What separates economic security from the many other promising practices that poverty reduction advocates wrestle with? Annette Case, Senior Consultant and Project Manager with the Insight Centre for Community Economic Development, and Michael Toye, Executive Director of the Canadian CED Network, will explain the ins and outs of economic security, share example impacts, and dive into an inclusive framework that is shifting attitudes and creating positive change.

About Annette Case

Annette Case is a Senior Consultant with the Insight Centre for Community Economic Development. Having recently launched the Metrics Matter Initiative, Annette has devised and is implementing an action plan to improve public awareness about economic security, what data and measures tell us about economic security and building public will to advance solutions that achieve meaningful progress for families and communities. In addition to her work at the Insight Center, Annette has worked with the Northwest Area Foundation, Strategies to Eliminate Poverty Project, the Seattle Foundation, FutureWorks, The Working Poor Families Project, City of Seattle, and helped create what is now the Guinn Center for Policy Priorities.

About Michael Toye

Mike Toye has been a consultant on community economic development and the social economy in two worker co-operatives he co-founded, author of numerous articles and reports, co-editor of the book Community Economic Development: Building for Social Change, lecturer, researcher and Policy Analyst for the Library of Parliament. His first involvement with the Canadian Community Economic Development Network dates back to 2000, and he has been Executive Director since 2008. He has also been a Vibrant Communities thought leader since 2014, assisting in generating content for the poverty reduction community with the latest news and updates.  He lives just outside Victoriaville, Québec.

2pm to 3pm Eastern Time

What if the performance data that you receive do not adequately capture the effectiveness of a nonprofit?

Over the past two decades, funders and policymakers have put more pressure on nonprofit organizations to pursue and achieve measurable outcomes. The increasing focus on performance-driven frameworks such as “pay for success” and “social return in investment” signals that such pressure will only grow more intense. For nonprofit professionals, that trend raises troubling questions: What if the ways that your organization makes a difference in people’s lives are not easily measured through conventional performance metrics? What if the logic model of your organization does not fully account for the value that you deliver through direct work with beneficiaries?

Presenters

Lehn Benjamin, associate professor of philanthropic studies at Indiana University’s Lilly Family School of Philanthropy, will lead a discussion of what frontline nonprofit work looks like in practice—and how to accurately measure the value of that work. Joining Benjamin will be Katya Fels Smyth, founder and CEO of the Full Frame Initiative; Maria Peña, chief program officer of LIFT; and Jesús Gerena, senior vice president of the Family Independence Initiative.

Speaker Bios

In the webinar, these presenters will:

• Explain how some of the most popular performance models used in the nonprofit sector fail to measure the true impact of what nonprofit professionals do
• Examine the reasons why it can be so difficult—yet so important—to recognize the value that on-the-ground work delivers to beneficiaries and their communities
• Explore examples of nonprofits that have succeeded in capturing and conveying the full value of frontline work

Who should attend this webinar:

“Valuing Frontline Work” will be of interest to nonprofit practitioners whose organizations provide direct services to marginalized groups. The webinar will also be highly relevant to funders, consultants, evaluators, and other professionals who support organizations that engage in such work. During the latter half of the session, registrants will be able to direct questions to Benjamin, Smyth, Peña, and Gerena. Michael Slind of Stanford Social Innovation Review will moderate the webinar.

Price: $49, which includes access to the live webinar; unlimited access to the webinar as many times as you’d like for twelve months; and downloadable slides. 

Register for Valuing Frontline Work

3pm Eastern Time

Join the Democracy Collaborative's Keane Bhatt and Steve Dubb, co-authors of the new report Educate and Empower: Tools for Building Community Wealth, for an online discussion with leading practioners on the practical strategies to empower residents to engage and participate in community economic development.

Register for the Educate and Empower webinar

Tools for Building Community Wealth

How do low-income communities learn to advance economically and build wealth? Low-income communities and communities of color, in challenging structural economic and social inequality, have historically grappled with tensions inherent to development. Who participates in, directs, and ultimately owns the economic-development process? In creating and sustaining new, inclusive economic institutions, how do community members cultivate and pass on skills, commitment and knowledge—especially among those who have long faced barriers to education and employment? And how should communities strike an appropriate balance between utilizing local knowledge and accessing outside expertise?

Download the Educate and Empower report

Speakers

Aaron Bartley, Executive Director and Co-Founder, PUSH Buffalo
Carla Javits, President and CEO, REDF
Dana Pedersen, Education & Outreach Coordinator, Cooperation Texas

SOURCE: Democracy Collaborative

1pm Eastern

Artscape’s work involves clustering creative people together in real estate projects that serve the needs of the arts and cultural community and advance multiple public policy objectives, private development interests, community and neighbourhood aspirations and philanthropic missions. Based in Toronto, Artscape currently operates nine projects including the award-winning Daniels Spectrum, LEED Gold certified Artscape Wychwood Barns and our newest community cultural hub Artscape Youngplace.  Working with communities to identify unique and diverse assets our projects cluster arts, cultural and environmental organizations as well as individual artists into affordable well-designed spaces. Artscape’s projects are embraced and activated by the communities they serve, delivering shared value and positive social, economic and environmental impacts.

Artscape has a number of exciting new projects under development in Toronto including a social enterprise event venue in the heart of the Entertainment District, a new community cultural hub which is part of a larger revitalization initiative in the Weston neighbourhood, as well as Artscape Launchpad – a cutting-edge centre for creative sector entrepreneurship.

Join this free webinar to gain insight and learnings from Artscape’s unique approach in cultural space development as a not-for-profit urban development organization, affordable housing provider, and thought leader in Creative Placemaking practice.

You Will Learn

• About Artscape’s evolution as an organization over its 29 year history
• About Artscape’s from the ground up approach to Creative Placemaking
• About tools for advancing cultural space development projects
• About working with partners across public, private and non-profit sectors
• How Artscape uses community engagement and public process to build successful projects

Register for the Partnership and Collaboration webinar

About the Speaker

Pru Robey is a passionate advocate for the transformative impact the arts and culture have on the lives of individuals and communities. Throughout her career, the development of innovative, multi-sector approaches to support cultural sector development, creative economy activation and sustainable urban regeneration has been a centerpiece of her work. Pru has over 30 years of experience as a consultant, researcher, manager, promoter and funder in the arts, culture and creative industries in Canada and the UK. As Vice President and Creative Placemaking Lab Director at Toronto-based Artscape, Pru takes the lead in new project research and development and on major research initiatives; directs a suite of programs and services designed to build the capacity of communities internationally to undertake creative placemaking; and advises communities internationally on strategies to support city-building through the arts. She designed and teaches Canada’s only undergraduate course in Creative Placemaking for the University of British Columbia and is a member of the Placemaking Leadership Council.

SOURCE: Artscape

Co-op week is the opportunity for Canadian co-operative and credit union members to celebrate the fact that they have collectively helped to build this country.  Co-op Week is recognition of their continuing contributions at home and abroad.

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.

Co-op Week 2015 will take place from October 11-17.

This year the theme is Our Co-op Advantage. Share your views on the co-operative advantage with others across the country by contacting Co-operatives and Mutuals Canada. Don't forget to share your event dates and event photos and show your co-op pride this October.

For more information visit Co-operatives and Mutuals Canada

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 the Canadian Co-operative Association.

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.

Noon to 1pm Mountain Time

This year Albertans will put billions of dollars into RRSPs. The majority of this money will be invested outside of the province.  However, several Albertan community are bucking this trend. They are investing directly 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. One only has to look to the communities of Sangudo and Crowsnest Pass to see the impact.

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 webinar will 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 for Introduction to Unleashing Local Capital

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