BACKGROUND

Immigrants to Canada make up nearly 20% of the population, but face significant disparities in many areas of daily life.  The income gap between newcomers and Canadian-born employees is growing, and more recent immigrants are not faring as well as those in the past. 

Entrepreneurship can be a strategy to overcome income disparities, but many immigrants have difficulty accessing mainstream business development supports.  The Edmonton Mennonite Centre for Newcomers and the Montréal Community Loan Association have specialized in entrepreneurship supports for immigrants, and their successful programs have generated some unique insights. 

This session presents the lessons from these two effective models of community services for immigrant entrepreneurship and consider the implications for improving immigrant settlement and integration in Canada. 

SPEAKERS

• Dennis Chute, Wildman Institute
  Serial entrepreneur, Dennis is CEO of Wildman Enterprises, where he created and is the lead facilitator of a training program for immigrants who want to start their own companies. The Entrepreneurship for Immigrants program is offered in partnership with the Edmonton Mennonite Centre for Newcomers and has graduated approximately 120 students, with more than 50% in business.  Dennis also serves on the board of several non-profit organizations and teaches board development and leadership training. 
   
• Jacqueline Bazompora, Montréal Community Loan Association
  Jacqueline is Coordinator of the Cercles d’emprunt de l’Ile de Montréal (CEIM), delivering business plan writing courses and coaching students through their business start-up process.  Building on the well-established loan-circle model, in its first year the CEIM has trained 41 participants in six loan circles, with five businesses started. 

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

• Edmonton Mennonite Centre for Newcomers http://emcn.ab.ca/
• Wildman Institute http://www.wildmaninstitute.org
• Montréal Community Loan Association http://www.acemcreditcommunautaire.qc.ca/en
• Case Studies of Immigrant Social Enterprises across Canada, Canadian CED Network, 2010
• Immigrant Entrepreneurs: Creating Wealth for Canadian Communities, Maytree Foundation, 2012
• DIY: Immigrant Entrepreneurs are Doing it for Themselves, North York Community House, 2013
• Catalogue of Immigrant Social Enterprises across Canada, Canadian CED Network, 2010
• Immigrant Self-Employment and Entrepreneurship in the Greater Toronto Area, Maytree Foundation and Metcalf Foundation, 2011
• Creating Opportunities, Optimizing Possibilities: Immigrant and Refugee Co-operatives in Canada, Canadian CED Network, 2004
• Upholding the Canadian Promise: Recommendations for a CED Approach to Settlement Challenges, Canadian CED Network, 2007

BACKGROUND

The start of a new year is often a time for looking back and looking forward.  But 2014 also marks a major turning point in the lives of three long-time Canadian leaders in the fields of co-operatives, social enterprise and CED.

Over many years of dedication, Lynne Markell, David LePage, and Walter Hossli have played an integral role in the growth and development of CED in Canada.  So we wanted to start our 2014 webinar series by sharing some insights from these three leaders on their experience and vision for the future. 

In this session, moderated by CCEDNet Emerging Leaders co-Chair Marianne Jurzyniec, we reflected on the biggest changes our presenters have seen over their careers, the most important lessons they’ve learned, and where they see exciting opportunities in the field today. 

PRESENTERS

• Walter Hossli
  Walter has been Executive Director of Momentum since it was founded in 1991.  Under his leadership, Momentum has won the Community Achievement Award from the City of Calgary, been recognized by the Tides Canada Foundation, by Charity Intelligence as one of the most effective organizations in Calgary and named one of Alberta's top 50 employers. Walter is a founding board member of CCEDNet, and he helped establish Vibrant Communities Calgary, an organization dedicated to fighting poverty.
   
• David LePage
  David is a Principal with Accelerating Social Impact CCC, Ltd., one of Canada’s first hybrid corporations,created to serve the emerging blended value business and social finance sectors. Until recently, David was the Team Manager of enterprising nonprofits BC and played a lead role in the development of enp-Canada.  His many involvements include Chair of the Social Enterprise Council of Canada, a member of the Social Enterprise World Forum Steering Group, the Canadian CED Network Policy Council, Imagine Canada’s Advisory Committee, and BC’s Partners for Social Impact.
   
• Lynne Markell
  Until her retirement in December, Lynne had been at the Canadian Co-operative Association for more than 10 years, focused on government affairs, public policy and co-op development.  Prior to CCA, Lynne had a long experience in the community economic development sector, was a former CCEDNet Board member, has been active on CCEDNet’s Policy Council. 

LOGISTICS

• Date: January 21, 20114
• The session begins with brief presentations by Walter, David, and Lynne, followed by an interactive question and answer period facilitated by CCEDNet Emerging Leaders co-Chair Marianne Jurzyniec.
• This session is in English. 
• You will need speakers or a headset on your computer to participate.  To ensure your system will be compatible with our webinar platform, try this connection test or look at the Adobe Connect quick start guide prior to the session.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

• Momentum https://momentum.org/
• Social Enterprise Canada http://www.socialenterprisecanada.ca/
• Canadian Co-operative Association http://cdfcanada.coop/