The Community Futures Network of Canada (CFNC) requires the services of a qualified Coordinator/Project Manager to manage the ongoing activities of the CFNC. This is a part-time, contract position.
5:30pm to 7:00pm Eastern Time
MaRS Discovery District Auditorium
101 College Street
Celebrated campaigner and Order of Canada recipient Al Etmanski has worked to achieve long lasting social change for more than four decades. His successes include the launch of Registered Disability Savings Plans, which now contain more than $2 billion in savings. In his highly praised new book, Impact: Six Patterns To Spread Your Social Innovation, Etmanski provides an inspirational and practical roadmap for others wishing to transform our society.
Join Al Etmanski and local changemakers at MaRS as we celebrate the release of this new resource. As in the book, hear Al speak with candour and warmth about his own journey of collaborations, doubts and setbacks before he reached success.
Al will be joined in conversation with local changemakers including:
This insightful conversation with be moderated by Susan Pigott, consultant, formerly with Family Service Toronto, United Way of Greater Toronto and St. Christopher House. Opening and reflective remarks will be provided by Allyson Hewitt, Senior Fellow, Social Innovation, MaRS Discovery District.
Lasting impact requires deeper patterns of change, only accessible when we look past quick wins and surface-level victories. Let’s come together to celebrate the victories!
Al Etmanski is a community organizer, social entrepreneur and author. He is an Ashoka fellow and a faculty member of John McKnight’s Asset-Based Community Development Institute. He is founding partner of Social Innovation Generation (SiG), BC Partners for Social Impact and co-founder of Planned Lifetime Advocacy Network (PLAN). He has received numerous awards for his work with people with disabilities, including the Order of Canada (2014), Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal (2013), and Governor General’s Meritorious Service Medal (2005). He lives with his wife Vickie Cammack – who also received the Order of Canada – just outside of Vancouver and delight in the creative pursuits of their five children.
**NOTE: This event has been postponed to the fall. Watch the CCEDNet events calendar and newsletters for more information**You are warmly invited to a Solarium, an introductory immersion in creating the conditions for regenerative leadership and change.
Like a greenhouse, this day offers the space and time to cultivate the practices and conditions that support you as a leader, as well as supporting your work in your organization and your community. It is an opportunity to discover new ways of understanding your influence in complex community systems. And it will help you see and act on opportunities to shift your organization toward greater resilience and cross-system impact.
Leadership that is generative has the capability not only of getting somewhere (leading) but of bringing something fundamentally new into being, creating a preferred future. Grounded in the principles and perspectives of living systems, it embraces uncertainty and invites learning and innovation. It is fundamentally collaborative. And in these ways and more, it is also regenerative – healing what has been damaged in our communities and ourselves by the structures we have inherited. More of a stance than a title or position, it may also be thought of as stewardship, and it can be practiced by anyone in any context.
Our time together will contribute to several key outcomes:
Ontario is in many ways a world leader in social innovation, purpose-driven entrepreneurship, collective impact initiatives and neighborhood renewal.
And yet, against this promising backdrop, there is a need for new frameworks to understand the dynamics and vitality of our organizations and the communities we are serving. As we move into new organizing patterns – with more participatory, collaborative and complex structures - we also need new ways of thinking and seeing. And we need practice grounds – dojos - where we can learn and prototype with others within our community.
There is also the need for a new lens on leadership. In a time when leaders no longer are the experts and often do not have the answers, the question becomes: what is leadership for? What is the future role of the leader? And how can a spirit of shared inquiry and continuous self-discovery illuminate a way forward towards navigating complex challenges with greater ease and a shared collective sense for what is being called for? How can everyone involved grow to be “leaderful”?
Perhaps most of all, leaders in every sector are noticing their need for time to renew, reflect and learn together, in a space that is nourished by nature and the arts.
These are the observations and questions that call us together at this time.
During our time together, we will move through four patterns - timeless patterns that have always formed the core of any living, creative, expressive system. In their scientific origins, they reveal that in every living system:
As we engage with these patterns in our leadership work – cultivating these fertile conditions in our projects and organizations – important new insights and possibilities emerge.
Any living system is also rooted in and nourished by the place where it grows. We and our organizations are no exception, though this is often overlooked. For this reason, our gathering will bring together people who are united by their care for Toronto, drawing on our stories of relationship with place, and inviting us to craft new stories of what is possible. In this work, the living systems patterns take on new depth and offer a clear pathway to action:
Within this Solarium, we invite you to explore what happens:
When we embrace a living systems understanding of ourselves, our organizations and our communities, with all the useful tactical insights that reveals;
And when we also explore the full, generative implications of the living systems perspective - that there is aliveness and creativity within and around us; that place, art and nature have vital roles to play; that we can (and must) shape and live into a compelling, unfolding narrative; that thriving is possible; and that complexity can be elegant and we can navigate it gracefully, together.
In all, this is an invitation into an epic narrative of aliveness, exploring the full implications of seeing the life in ourselves, our organizations and our communities. The practice of engaging a living systems framework connects us with how nature itself creates and sustains life. It invites us to create spaces that are hospitable to life in all its forms. We become allies with each other and our destiny in ways that intellect, tactics, and strategies alone cannot encompass. Our destiny is rooted in the rich soil of intuitive wisdom, the power of place, our dreams and aspirations, the gifts each person brings, and the collective intelligence that calls us to be together on this journey.
Your HostsMichael Jones is a leadership educator, thought leader, writer and a Juno-nominated pianist composer. He has been a Senior Associate with the MIT Dialogue Project, leadership faculty with The Banff Centre, a thought leader and leadership faculty with the Tamarack Institute, consultant/steward on the Leading for Transformation Dialogues supported by the Fetzer Institute and co-convener of the Wasan Dialogues on Creative Place-making in Muskoka ON. He has published The Soul of Placeand two other books in a series on Re-imagining Leadership and has recorded fifteen CD’s of his original solo piano compositions.
Michelle Holliday is a facilitator, organizational consultant, researcher and writer. Her work centers around “thrivability” — a set of perspectives, intentions and practices based on a view of organizations as living systems. To this end, she brings people together and helps them discover ways they can feel more alive, connect more meaningfully with each other, and serve life more powerfully through their work. This generally takes the form of designing and hosting transformative events, as well as delivering talks and workshops. Michelle also writes regularly, including a forthcoming book, The Age of Thrivability. Her research is summarized in a slideshow called Humanity 4.0, as well as in a TEDx presentation.
Do you want a socially inclusive, redistributive, prosperous economy?
The Canadian CED Network has been following with interest developments that have been going on across the Atlantic. Perhaps most exciting for us has been the work of Localise West Midlands. Although focused primarily on the West Midlands region of the UK, their work also seeks "to catalyse ideas across the UK and to make links with and support organisations all over the world working on a similar agenda."
In recent years they have engaged in a thorough analysis of the evidence base for economic localisation and community economic development (CED), assessing the prospects for truly 'mainstreaming CED.'
With "Localising Prosperity," a new resource from Localise West Midlands, they are clearly and simply outlining the CED approach, sources of inspiration, and guidance for implementation for diverse audiences: public institutions, communities, businesses - anyone interested in making places better and sharing prosperity.
This webinar with Karen Leach explores the work that Localise West Midlands has done to change people's views of 'community economic development,' how to effectively evaluate CED activities and demonstrate impact, and to understand what strategies are working in the UK to increase the uptake of the CED approach and address prevalent social and economic challenges.
Karen Leach, Coordinator at Localise West Midlands
Karen Leach has been Coordinator of Localise West Midlands (LWM) since its inception in 2002, responsible for the organisation’s strategy and delivery in conjunction with its board. Her professional interests are in economic efficiency in terms of sustainability outcomes and in economic awareness and empowerment amongst the general public. She is also on the Management Committee of Birmingham Friends of the Earth which runs environmental community centre The Warehouse, and was formerly campaigns support officer at Birmingham Friends of the Earth. LWM is a small non-profit think-tank, campaign group and consultancy with one member of staff and involving around 15 people as members and associates. It is located in Digbeth and has a West Midlands region-wide remit. LWM’s aim is to promote a more localised approach to supply chains, money flow and decision-making in order to form a more just and sustainable economy.
Stewart Perry, Associate with the Canadian Centre for Community Renewal
Honorary lifetime member of CCEDNet, Stewart is one of the pioneers of CED in the US and Canada, as both a policy adviser and a designer and manager of CED institutions. As head of the (U.S.) Center for Community Economic Development, he helped create the first finance institution for CED, the Massachusetts Community Development Finance Authority. He helped start Canada's first community development corporation, New Dawn Enterprises, and headed the Community Economic Development Center in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. A consultant, researcher, and author, Stewart currently specializes in community and development finance as an associate with the Canadian Centre for Community Renewal.
The Social Impact Investment Taskforce, launched under the United Kingdom’s G8 presidency, is coming to Canada for the first time! With these meetings come valuable opportunities for shared learning and agenda setting between nations, as well as the chance to showcase leading Canadian impact investment innovations for a global audience. Join the MaRS Centre for Impact Investing for a reception welcoming members of the Taskforce, Canada’s National Advisory Board, and leaders from the worlds of finance, non-profits and government.
We are pleased to announce that His Excellency the Right Honourable David Johnston, Governor General of Canada, will be delivering the keynote address.
This reception will provide an opportunity to celebrate the leading role Canadians are taking in building an impact investment market that fosters innovative approaches to tackling complex social challenges, connecting the brightest social entrepreneurs and ideas with the capital they need to succeed.
Chaired by Sir Ronald Cohen, the Social Impact Investment Taskforce was mandated to develop recommendations for catalyzing the global impact investment market. It brings together government officials and leading representatives from the finance, philanthropic and academic sectors of G7 countries, Australia and the European Union. National Advisory Boards and four issue-specific working groups were convened to support this endeavor. The Taskforce released its final report on September 15th, 2014. At the same time, Canada’s National Advisory Board released its report, Mobilizing Private Capital for Public Good: Priorities for Canada. To date, the Taskforce has met in Washington, London, Berlin, Paris and Rome.
Who we are:
Community Food Centres Canada (CFCC) provides ideas, resources, and a proven approach to partner organizations across Canada to create responsive, financially stable Community Food Centres (CFCs) that bring people together to grow, cook, share, and advocate for good food. CFCC works with the broader food movement to build greater capacity for impact and to empower communities to work toward a healthy and fair food system.
