In 2007–2008, Canada spent an estimated $14.3 billion in public expenditures for mental health services and supports.1 According to a 2009 report by the Mood Disorders Society of Canada, costs for disability due to depression are fastestgrowing disability costs for Canadian employers.2 The Centre for Mental Health in the Workplace claims that the economic cost of mental illnesses is equivalent to 20% of corporate profits.3 Furthermore, evidence sugge

Financial cooperatives have fared better than the investor-owned banks in times of crisis. Savings and credit cooperatives, cooperative banks and credit unions have grown, kept credit flowing especially to small and medium sized enterprises, and remained stable across regions of the world while indirectly creating employment.

In 2004, the community movement in Quebec finds itself at a crossroads. The new Liberal government (which won the April 2003 election under Jean Charest) wants to break with the approach taken by earlier governments in the nineties.

This workbook explores these questions: How do you build your rural community from the inside out? How do you find and mobilize the assets of your small town and rural area?