12pm -1:30pm Eastern Time
Ontario Institute for Studies in Education
252 Bloor St. West, (St. George Subway Station)
Room 3-104

Talk description 

The Toronto Community Benefits Network (TCBN) was formed by labour and community organizations in January 2013 to bring the Community Benefit Agreement model to Toronto. Used extensively in the US and the UK, the CBA model ensures that publically funded infrastructure projects are used to create employment opportunities as apprentices in the construction industry in communities that need them most. These starter jobs lead to careers with good pay and benefits and safe working conditions.

The TCBN began by successfully negotiating a Community Benefits Agreement (CBA) with Metrolinx, the regional transit authority for the Greater Toronto Hamilton Area in April 2014. In June 2015 Ontario passed the Infrastructure for Jobs and Prosperity Act, which will encourage the use of Community Benefits in all of the province’s expected 4130 B infrastructure spend over the next 10 years.

In July 2015 the TCBN completed a first round of engagement meetings with residents from historically disadvantaged communities and equity seeking groups along the Eglinton Ave.

Work being done in Toronto has brought the labour movement, especially the Building Trades, closer to Toronto’s diverse communities. The construction sector is the third largest sector in the Toronto economy after government and finance. Diverse communities see that the union movement is actively seeking to include them in the construction, so that the construction workforce reflects the diversity of the City of Toronto..

Presenter:

Steve Shallhorn has been the Executive Director of the Labour Education Centre (LEC) since 2011, a project of the Toronto and York Region Labour Council. He is also the Chair of the Toronto Community Benefits Network (TCBN), which is working to place at risk youth from Priority Neighbourhoods into training to work on the building of Light Rail Transit lines in Toronto.

Steve was with Greenpeace from 1987-2010. As CEO of Greenpeace Australia–Pacific Steve led a $14 million dollar a year organization with offices in Australia, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands and Fiji. Steve was also Executive Director of Greenpeace Japan, and Campaign Director for first Greenpeace Canada, and then Greenpeace USA. Steve played a key role in successful Greenpeace Campaigns to save the Great Bear Rainforest in BC, and a ban on the dumping of nuclear waste at sea through the UN’s London Dumping Convention.

Steve has two BAs from McMaster University (History, Economics) and partially completed a Masters in Community Management at the University of Technology, Sydney.

Full event details

For more information, check out the TCNB website CommunityBenefits.ca and follow him on Twitter @steveshallhorn.

10am Pacific / 1pm Eastern

What Cities and Counties Can Do

Across the country, communities and local governments are leading efforts to ensure that economic development delivers real community benefits like good jobs for local residents, community stability and housing that people can afford, community amenities like grocery stores and health clinics and environmental mitigation. City and county officials and staff and their community partners have pioneered new tools for success. Come learn what strategies are most effective, what pitfalls to avoid and what are the latest success stories.

Register for Delivering Community Benefits through Economic Development

Advance registration is required

Presenters include:

• Mike O’Brien, City Councilmember, City of Seattle. Councilmember O’Brien has led a number of efforts to establish community benefits in new economic development amidst an exploding real estate market.
• Jahmese Myres, Planning Commissioner, City of Oakland and Campaign Director, EBASE. Commissioner Myres has both led coalition efforts to win community benefits and worked as a planning commissioner on land use measures that support community benefits.
• Ben Beach, Director of the Community Benefits Law Center and a national expert on community benefits

Who should attend?

• Elected and appointed officials 
• City and County staff who work on economic development, workforce development, and planning 
• City and County attorneys 
• Organizations that work with local government on community benefits 

Local Progress is a national municipal policy network. 
For more information please visit localprogress.org

10:00am to 11:00am Pacific Time

Join Rosemary Cooper and Vanessa Timmer from One Earth, the lead authors of the Local Governments and the Sharing Economy Roadmap for a discussion about the role that cities can play in aligning sharing economy activities with their own objectives, including moving towards sustainability.

The roadmap describes a sustainability filter which we use to analyze shared mobility, spaces, and goods and community sharing, and to take a lighter look at shared food and energy.

• Discover what cities including Montréal, Austin, Vancouver, Portland and Toronto are doing to lead the way and what roles local governments can play in the Sharing Economy.
• Find out if car sharing, co-working spaces, clothing swaps and other Sharing Economy activities reduce our ecological footprints and increase social connection and resilience.
• Explore our analysis of Sharing Economy actors from community innovators to for-profit players such as Airbnb and Uber to the public sector.

Register for the Local Governments and the Sharing Economy Roadmap Webinar

Read the Local Governments and the Sharing Economy report

This is a free and public webinar. We welcome you to invite your colleagues to register as well.

Thank you to the J.W. McConnell Family Foundation for supporting this roadmap and project as part of Cities for People.

10am to 12pm
United Way Office, 12th Floor Boardroom B
26 Wellington Street East

The Mixed Capital Opportunities Fund (Mixed Cap) will support the expansion of early stage, high growth non-profit social enterprises by providing a hybrid form of capital, comprised of a combined loan (50%) and grant (50%). This innovative collaboration between the Toronto Enterprise Fund (TEF) and Alterna Savings will make debt financing more accessible to social enterprises. Mixed Cap is funded by the Province of Ontario and United Way Toronto (through a gift from the Polar Foundation), with all loan financing coming from Alterna Savings.

Are you an established Social Enterprise with a new business opportunity or plans for expansion?

Then the Mixed Cap is a great financing option to fund your idea. The Mixed Cap aims to support Social Enterprises that are using innovative approaches to address social, environmental, economic or cultural changes.

Register for the Training/Information Workshop

Features:

• Enterprises will be able to apply for between $10,000 and $30,000 in total investment (split equally between a loan and a grant).
• In exceptional cases, up to $50,000 may be approved; security/collateral may be required in these instances.
• The loan portion will be in the form of Term Loans and or Lines of Credit (LOC must be secured) and competitive interest rates will be set according to Alterna’s lending policies.

Selection Criteria:

• The identification of a solid business opportunity. If the ask is for staffing up, stocking up or purchasing capital equipment, then it has to be directly related to the business opportunity.
• Be owned and operated by incorporated non-profit organizations.
• Located and operating in the Greater Toronto-Hamilton area.
• Demonstrate job creation potential, particularly for minorities & disadvantaged groups.

Application Process:

• Attend a training/information workshop. The workshops are mandatory and they will be held once a month 
• Read through the checklist and submit all necessary documents. A complete application should include:
• Checklist
• Mixed Capital Opportunities fund application form
• Alterna business loan application
• Board resolution letter
• Consent form
• Business plan
• 24 month cash flow
• Other Documents (refer checklist) 

There will be quarterly application due dates: the next one's are as follows:

1. January 29, 2016
2. March 31, 2016
3. June 30, 2016

A review committee will first approve the applications and it will then proceed throughAlterna’s standard loan approval process.

Once an application is submitted, the final decision will be given in 4 weeks from the due date (assuming all necessary documents are provided and no further clarifications are required from the applicant)

For further information, please contact Shahil at sthomas at uwgt.org or 416-777-1444, ext 365

To build a common agenda for change we need to form together as a community. To work together harnessing the power of mutually reinforcing activities we are bonded and empowered by the collective. Continuous communication requires us to not only receive good information but be willing to share it, engage in it and create opportunities for deep and lasting agreement; this comes through our commitment to each other and the community we are a part of.

When John Kania (of FSG and founder of the Collective Impact movement) read Deepening Community he shared these comments, ”Community has the power to change everything. No amount of innovation, individual brilliance, or money can transform our broken society as effectively and sustainably as building community.Deepening Community provides useful and inspiring guidance for leaders everywhere who seek to create better outcomes in their work."

In this workshop Paul shares not only the fundamental principles of Collective Impact, he provides key insights as one of North America’s top Community Engagement leaders on how Deepening Community can sustain us as leaders and the outcomes we so desire.

 Learn to:

• Create a large scale common agenda for your collaborative efforts
• Form multi sector leadership teams
• Understand why involving business leaders is so critical to almost any community change
• Reconnect with your love for you community and understand why this is so essential for social transformation
• Make the connection between people deepening community in their lives and their engagement in social change and neighbourhood revitalization processes
• Understand the 5 key elements of collective impact: Common agenda, shared measurement, mutually reinforcing activities, continuous communication and the Backbone role.

Register for Deepen Community to move toward Collective Impact

Community has the power to change everything. In this workshop Paul will show you how.

"Community has the power to change everything. No amount of innovation, individual brilliance, or money can transform our broken society as effectively and sustainably as building community. Deepening Community provides useful and inspiring guidance for leaders everywhere who seek to create better outcomes in their work."

John Kania, FSG