1:30pm - 2:45pm Eastern Time

Building affordable housing that promotes sustainable practices for the built environment is a goal of many towns and cities across Canada – particularly in emphasizing a focus on fostering community, business investment, jobs and smart growth.

But is it realistic, one might ask, to expect local governments and non-profits to attain such goals through the use of local planning practices and partnerships alone? We say, yes it is!

Hear from The Sustainable Communities’ partnership of the Government of New Brunswick and the Harbourside Cohousing seniors project in British Columbia who are each making sustainable, affordable community integrative design work.

Register for Building Sustainable Communities

The Sustainable Communities’ partnership of New Brunswick has developed a truly integrated planning approach called ‘Building Sustainable Communities with Design’ (or SCD Approach).  It provides community leaders with information on how:

• they are performing regarding fiscal impacts and density promoted;
• they can position themselves at the world level to attract investments and knowledge workers, and;
• to build to respond to climate change issues and implement sustainable building practices when developing communities.

Harbourside Cohousing is also showing that building sustainable development is possible today, and has responded to the needs of an aging population in creating their ‘Senior Cohousing’ project in Sooke (BC). The project will showcase how it came to fruition through collaboration with future residents on a shared commitment to a:

• ‘Built Green Canada Gold’ standard of sustainability and energy efficiency by design that promotes healthy aging in place;
• collaboration with the architect and cohousing project manager to create a built form that nurtures an innovative culture with connections to broader society, while enhancing use of green space, and;
•  offers affordable strata-titled housing in a supportive environment for aging residents to thrive.  

Join this interactive webinar to learn more about alternative development models, concepts and principles around the SCD Approach, response to seniors’ cohousing projects, and examples of implementation.

Speakers:

Margaret Critchlow, Director, Canadian Senior Cohousing Society & founding member, Harbourside Cohousing (BC)

Daniel Savard, Planner & Member, Sustainable Communities Partnership, Department of Environment & Local Government, Government of New Brunswick (NB)

SOURCE: Canadian Housing and Renewal Association (CHRA)

Creating Opportunities 2017 is a summit organized by Lorne Sossin (Dean of Osgoode Hall Law School), Professor Jamil Jivani (founder of the Citizen Empowerment Project), and the Osgoode Hall Law Journal. The purpose of the Summit is to explore local, regional and national economic development issues in Canada. Our focus will be strategies, initiatives and policies that can create opportunities for economic prosperity and remove barriers to inclusion for disadvantaged and underserved communities, and particularly for youth seeking educational and employment opportunities.

Register for the Creating Opportunities Summit 2017

Over the course of two days, the Summit will address the following economic development issues: transportation and transit, housing, youth employment, social procurement, community benefit agreements, entrepreneurship, pro bono business law, financial literacy, business improvement areas, technological innovations and government regulation. The Summit will celebrate 150 years of Canada by looking at the best examples we have across the country for furthering social and economic development and prosperity, and looking forward to how we can continue to create opportunities for youth into the 21st century.

Keynote Speakers include:

Gillian Smith, Chief Marketing Officer for the Toronto Board of Trade

JD Vance, Author of Hillbilly Elegy

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Ending poverty is everyone’s business. Vibrant Communities Canada and the City of Hamilton welcome you to join the 3rd annual poverty reduction summit on April 4-6, 2017 in Hamilton, Ontario where they will build on the work of their previous national summits in 2015 (Ottawa) and 2016 (Edmonton). In 2017 they will be expanding the conversation to examine the role of business and multi-sectoral approaches to poverty reduction from across Canada.

The Cities* Reducing Poverty: When Business Is Engaged summit will bring major business leaders together with community organizers, mayors and municipal staff, federal and provincial/territorial governments, Indigenous leaders, as well as funders, policy makers, and persons with lived experience with a focus on ending poverty.

Let's take collective understanding of multi-sectoral poverty reduction to the next level.

Register for Cities Reducing Poverty: When Business Is Engaged

At Cities Reducing Poverty, participants will work to:

• Consider key roles that businesses play in poverty reduction collaboratives, from contributory to core leadership; 
• Learn how mayors and municipalities have been progressing with poverty reduction efforts since the 2016 Cities Reducing Poverty summit; 
• Discover innovations in poverty reduction work;
• Identify evaluation strategies that help us learn and create accountability in our work; and
• Explore some of the most promising practices across the country.

This is a time of real hope as citizens, cities, provinces/territories, the federal government and the business sector join together and support one another to significantly reduce poverty in Canada. Be a part of this monumental discussion. Meet allies, access new tools, share resources, and discover new practices with sector leaders from across the nation.

*Vibrant Community Canada usse the word cities mainly to differentiate local poverty reduction efforts from provincial and federal initiatives and strategies. Please note that the event will feature communities of all sizes and will have intentionally invited smaller and rural municipalities to attend in addition to big cities.

2pm to 3pm Eastern Time

Presently, 36 million independent workers in the United States work outside the traditional employer-employee model. By 2020 this number is projected to swell to between 50 and 75 million.

This Stanford Social Innovation Review (SSIR) webinar, The Gig Economy, will explore the following: 

• Map the current and emerging landscape of independent work
• Identify the most promising and troubling elements of independent work
• Generate ideas on what could make independent work more stable and sustainable for workers, especially vulnerable and/or lower skilled workers
• Highlight promising innovations that are already underway and might be ripe for scaling
• Share strategies for supporting independent workers and dig into some of the most promising innovations

Register for The Gig Economy webinar

This webinar is highly relevant for social entrepreneurs, researchers, philanthropists, policy makers, leaders of private and public businesses, and, of course, independent workers themselves. It is inspired by SSIR's article, "The Freedom, Insecurity, and Future of Independent Work" and brought to you in conjunction with The Bridgespan Group. 

Thanks to the generosity of The Rockefeller Foundation, this webinar is complimentary. Registration to this webinar will include access to the live webinar, unlimited access to the webinar as many times as you’d like for twelve months at your convenience, and downloadable slides.