MaRS Centre for Impact Investing is hosting the next Impact Ontario on May 21. Registration will open soon.

Visit www.impactinvesting.marsdd.com for updates

2:30pm – 5:00pm

As both the Government of Ontario and the City of Toronto move forward to establish robust, integrated employment services and training policies, there is increased momentum and commitment to build effective workforce development systems.

Workforce development systems encompass much more than traditional employment training. They include an array of strategies to address industry needs and ensure career advancement opportunities. Workforce development requires the engagement of employers, community networks and agencies, and government.

The focus will be employment approaches to workforce development currently being adopted in the U.S. by local and state governmental agencies, community-based organizations, labour and management partnerships, and community colleges. The presentation will include an in-depth analysis of Per Scholas, an organization that runs a leading national workforce development program, focused on IT industries, with centers in seven cities.

The panel will be moderated by noted workforce development expert Sheila Maguire. She will be joined by panelists Angie Kamath and David S. Berman — two individuals closely involved over the past decade in NYC’s innovative workforce development strategies.

• Angie Kamath joined Per Scholas in 2013 as Executive Director of New York operations. Prior to joining Per Scholas, Ms. Kamath spent 7 years as Deputy Commissioner for Workforce1. During her tenure in the Bloomberg administration she implemented several successful initiatives focused on improving the income and advancement prospects for working poor.
• David S. Berman is the Director of Programs and Evaluation at the New York City Center for Economic Opportunity, in the Office of Mayor de Blasio. Mr. Berman oversees the unit that helps to design anti-poverty initiatives, and he works with an array of City agencies on program implementation and performance monitoring and evaluation with the goal of bringing effective strategies to scale.

We believe this presentation will enrich our understanding of what constitutes effective workforce development systems. We hope it will foster dialogue and stimulate ideas about how a variety of strategies, in combination, can work together to improve the economic mobility and stability of Toronto’s working poor.

We hope you will join us. Please RSVP as space is limited.

RSVP >>

For additional information, please contact:
Adriana Beemans, Metcalf Foundation Inclusive Local Economies Program Director,
abeemans at metcalffoundation.com, 416-926-0366 ext 224.

For technical difficulties or if you have questions about registering via Eventbrite, please contact Heather Dunford at: hdunford at metcalffoundation.com

12:00 Noon EDT

This webinar will present findings from a knowledge project submitted to ESDC. We will have an overview of the challenges and opportunities that not-for-profit (NFP) organizations experience when attempting to partner with the private business sector and identify resources/tools that NFPs could use for partnering with the private sector.

Format: 30-minute presentation followed by 30 minute Q & A session

Register now

About Dr. Tessa Hebb

Dr. Hebb is the Director of the Carleton Centre for Community Innovation, Carleton University, Canada. Her research - which focuses on Responsible Investment and Impact Investment - is funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, Government of Canada. She has published many books and articles on responsible investing and impact investing policies including the volumes Working Capital: the Power of Labor’s Pensions; No Small Change: Pension Fund Corporate Engagement; The Next Generation of Responsible Investing; and SRI in the 21st Century: Does it make a Difference to Society. In November, at the 2014 Social Finance Forum Dr. Hebb received an award from the Women In Leadership Foundation & the MaRS Centre for Impact Investing celebrating her career of groundbreaking work in impact investing.

11:00am - 12:15pm Pacific Time

Please note: event listed in Pacific time. To participate in this free tele-seminar, please register online and you will receive call details via email.

The alternative currency known as Timebanking seeks to re-weave community in a similar fashion to Transition: from the bottom-up. At its core, Timebanks gather neighbors together to accomplish simple tasks for one another.  At first, this seems to be a simple concept, but the small acts of helping neighbors, reskilling, and volunteering in community are at the heart of making Transition work. Timebanking, as a bottom-up tool to solve the problems created by the mismatch of unmet needs and unused skills, provides the space for the work of building true community through co-creation (rather than co-consumption.)

The work of timebanking and the Transition movement are deeply allied.  This TeleSeminar with Marie Goodwin of Timebank Media and Transition Town Media, PA will help you imagine “the more beautiful world your heart tells you is possible” through the lens of both transition and time banking. Its goal is to help Transition activists learn about how these two movements, Transition and Timebanking, deeply augment one another and become powerful tools when combined that help to engage communities in the important work ahead of us all.

About Marie Goodwin:

I am an archaeologist by training, but found myself much more interested in the modern stories of our culture than any ancient ones being thought up by academics. In addition to stories, I'm interested in activism and transition. I am on a great team of community builders that is Transition Town Media, and with their support founded the Media FreeStoreand Timebank Media. I am also passionate about issues relating to local food, herbal medicine, traditional cultures, new-story education and local economic resilience. For my day-job, I work in the gift with author/philosopher Charles Eisenstein.

Noon-1PM (MST)

This year Albertans will put billions of dollars into RRSPs. The majority of this money will leave the province, and won’t be used to support local businesses that create jobs, or strengthen the local economy.

Communities across Alberta are bucking this trend. They are investing directly in their savings 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.

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 webinarwill 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 now

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