In This Issue
CED Profile: The Winnipeg River Learning Centre
Canadian CED Network Publication: Time to Choose
- Sustainable Financing for the Social Economy
- Adapting the Housing First Model in Canada
- CCPA Responds to the 2009 Federal Budget
- Local Food Initiatives in Canada
- Impact! The Co-operators Youth Conference for Sustainability Leadership
- 2009 National CED Conference
CED Profile: The Winnipeg River Learning Centre
Sustainable Community Economic Development
The Town of Powerview-Pine Falls, located just 132 km northeast of Winnipeg, has come up with an innovative way to address concerns involving youth retention, out-migration and a shortage of skilled labour in the community - problems faced by many rural towns across Canada. The Winnipeg River Learning Centre was established in 2007 to combat these issues and further develop the region and surrounding communities.
Efforts were made to look outside the box for a creative solution. Community consultations and a feasibility study determined that the needs and interests of members of the community and potential employers included providing training and post-secondary educational opportunities locally. With support from Community Futures Winnipeg River, the Whiteshell Community Adjustment Fund, Sunrise School Division, Manitoba Model Forest, Manitoba Hydro, North Eastman Health Authority, the Town of Powerview-Pine Falls, the RM of Alexander, and Black River First Nation, the Winnipeg River Learning Centre became a reality. Current and upcoming curriculum includes college and university Certificate and Diploma programs; electrical, carpentry, welding, and mechanical trades; entrepreneurial and business management programs; environmental sciences and watershed management programs, and a variety of short courses and workshops.
The Winnipeg River Learning Centre is committed to life-long learning and developing individual and community capacities by:
• contributing to the growth and sustainability of Powerview-Pine Falls, and surrounding rural communities;
• supporting economic and social development by developing entrepreneurial activities that contribute to community livelihoods; and
• contributing to the sustainability and health of communities in rural Manitoba by building on existing community capacity.
Powerview-Pine Falls and surrounding areas have major growth potential in the resource industries of forestry, hydro and mining as well as the growth of their business sectors. The investment in a well-educated and trained employment force will allow the community to respond to these opportunities.
Canadian CED Network Publications
Time to Choose: Community Economic Development or More ‘Have' and ‘Have Not' Neighbourhoods?
by Nicole Chaland - CCEDNET's B.C. / Yukon Coordinator
Within a community economic development (CED) approach, housing initiatives can strengthen neighbourhoods by rehabilitating or adding to housing stock, while also contributing to relationship building and social cohesion, employment opportunities, access to services and an improved quality of life for all residents...read on.
CED Tools
Community Supported Agriculture Project: Putting Culture Back into Agriculture
A Community Supported Agriculture project is an alternative food supply system that gives local people the power to help protect the environment, connects local growers to local consumers in cooperation and a model to develop a healthy regional food supply system. The model of food distribution is open and flexible, depending on the members' and farmers' needs. Groups exist with varying levels of member participation payment arrangements.
National News and Events
Sustainable Financing for the Social Economy: A Two Phase Look at Financing Social Enterprise
Phase I - A Scan of Financing Providers
This Scan of Financing Providers is the first phase of a two phase study. The aim is to enhance capacity of social economy organizations, specifically social enterprises, through access to a greater range of appropriate financing options. The scan identifies and describes the providers and types of financing instruments available to social enterprises in the study region: Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and northwestern Ontario.
Phase II - An Enterprise Perspective
Phase II focuses on financing from the social enterprise perspective, including a brief discussion of the financing strategies as they change throughout the life of the enterprise. Strategies of development are highlighted with four Winnipeg social enterprise case studies. The profiled enterprises - including Inner City Renovation, Natural Cycleworks, Neechi Foods Co-op Ltd., and Tall Grass Prairie Bread Company - have developed as independent, market driven entities with blended financial and social objectives.
Adapting the Housing First Model in Canada
Increasingly in North America, policy-makers and decision-makers are using the Housing First model - an approach that focuses on new means of rapid and sustained re-housing of the homeless in order to combat homelessness. In spite of its development, which began in 1992 in New York City, little has been written on its adaptation and transferability to Canadian municipalities. CPRN Housing Intern Nick Falvo, of Carleton University, looks at Housing First in his paper Homelessness, Program Responses, and an Assessment of Toronto's Streets to Homes Program and its potential value to Canadian communities.
Click here to access the full paper.
CCPA Responds to the 2009 Federal Budget: Federal Budget Leaves Unemployed in the Cold
The 2009 federal budget leaves hundreds of thousands of vulnerable Canadians hanging on a very short rope and won't provide the immediate stimulus our economy needs, says the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA).
The budget fails to expand Employment Insurance (EI) to ensure laid-off Canadians are eligible for benefits and its infrastructure promises require the provinces and municipalities to match funding -- a condition that will stall many projects. The omission of major EI reforms in the face of massive unemployment stands as its biggest weakness. Broad-based tax cuts are also a problem; the average Canadian will only get a $300 tax break with low-income Canadians receiving a maximum of only $33.
Local Food Initiatives in CanadaLocal Food Initiatives in Canada
An Overview and Policy Recommendations, written by the Canadian Co-operative Association (CCA) to educate officials who were developing the new Agricultural Policy Framework, Growing Forward, has now been released publicly so others may use it for education and advocacy.
CCA representatives attending the various consultations observed that there was no mention of domestic food sustainability or the role of local food systems that are being organized to meet the needs of local people in communities and regions across Canada.
This brief examines the local food initiatives or components that comprise new "local food systems", some of the research results, the social and economic benefits, and the role that the co-operative movement and governments can play to facilitate the development of local food.
Impact! The Co-operators Youth Conference for Sustainability Leadership
Achieving sustainability requires a multi-disciplinary approach and a broad social commitment. It also requires the energy and passion of youth. That's why The Co-operators has launched an unprecedented partnership of business, academia and non-government organizations to bring together students from all fields of study from across Canada to develop and implement real sustainability solutions for their current lives and their future careers.
The conference is being held September 24-27th, 2009 at the University of Guelph in Guelph, Ontario. All conference related expenses will be covered for selected participants. To learn more visit www.impactyouthsustainability.ca or contact impact@cooperators.ca.
2009 National CED Conference
June 3-5, 2009
University of Winnipeg
Winnipeg, Mantioba
The theme of this year's conference is Full Circle: Sharing a Vision for the 7th Generation. Our inspiriation is an original law kept and maintained by generations of Aboriginal people: just as our actions will affect generations to come, we are living in a world that was shaped by those before us. Aboriginal elders remind us to think and decide in a way that is conscious of the seven generations of people that will be born in the future - ensuring that we respect our Mother Earth and her spirited beings.
Hosted at the University of Winnipeg, this year's conference includes over 45 learning and information sharing sessions, as well as exciting site visits, networking opportunities and the Canadian CED Network's 10th Anniversary Gala Dinner.
The 2009 National CED Conference is hosted by the Canadian CED Network in partnership with SEED Winnipeg and Ka Ni Kanichihk.
Visit the Canadian CED Network's website for updates, information and registration.