In this Issue
- Profile: Kids in the Hall Bistro
- Canadian CED Network News
- Alberta CED News
- CED Tool
- National CED News
- CED Book Club: New publications from the Rural Development Institute
- Canada Without Poverty’s Letter to PM Harper - News he needs to hear
- Social Enterprise: Are There Really Legislative or Regulatory Barriers?
- New Report - The Road Half Travelled
- The Rationale for Worker Co-operatives - New CWCF Campaign
- Take the Pledge – 10 Percent Shift
- Research Network Launches Webinar Series
- Job Postings
Profile: Kids in the Hall Bistro
There’s always something interesting cooking at Kids in the Hall Bistro, but it’s not just the menu that makes this Edmonton eatery unique. Alongside eclectic and delectable dishes, this lively restuarant serves up second (or first) chances and meaningful opportunities for hundreds of inner-city youth.
Many young people secure their first jobs by greeting patrons or washing dishes at restaurants. Kids in the Hall Bistro not only offers first job experience, but it also offers first opportunities at success. The majority of employees at Kids in the Hall have faced multiple barriers to education and employment in their young lives. Many have been involved with the criminal justice or child welfare systems, grappled with homelessness, or depended on social assistance.
The idea of the Kids in the Hall Bistro was borne out of the need for a safe environment where vulnerable youth could go and gain valuable life and employment skills. This social enterprises' approach to youth engagement is three-fold. Participants begin by attending workshops, which teach life skills like anger management, and career planning. Many youth move on to the education component by taking a variety of courses in a supportive, hands-on environment. Upon graduation, participants are offered a job either working in the Bistro, or with its catering service. From workshops to school to employment, the Kids in the Hall nine-month program supports its participants every step of the way. Its ongoing youth outreach programs has helped upwards of 200 youth, which includes most of the Bistro’s employees.
The Kids in the Hall Bistro is geared to tackle the barriers and issues that have prevented young adults from succeeding in school, at work, and in life. The Program has maintained a high rate of success, which they define by the number of youth who secure employment or continue their education after they have completed the program. Program participants graduate with concrete work experience, life skills, and basic understandings of business practices.
Restaurants are, by their very nature, chaotic places. More often than not, a successful restaurant is one that hides its chaos behind closed kitchen doors, while providing its customers with a calm, yet vibrant atmosphere. While Kids in the Hall Bistro delivers this environment, the restaurant actively seeks out Edmonton youth who are struggling with chaotic domestic lives and offers them a safe haven of opportunity. By providing paid work and priceless skill building opportunities, Kids in the Hall Bistro is a true CED initiative helping inner-city youth transition out of chaos and into successful adulthood.
More information:
cravery@kidsinthehallbistro.com
Phone: 780.413.8060
www.kidsinthehallbistro.com
Canadian CED Network News
Meet our Members
Northern Alberta Development Council
The Northern Alberta Development Council (NADC) is a regional development council with a focus on advancing the development of the northern economy. The mission of the NADC is to identify and implement measures that will advance northern development, as well as advise government on opportunities and issues. The NADC is involved with projects and initiatives in transportation, value-added agriculture, tourism, educational initiatives and inter-jurisdictional projects.
CCEDNet on Facebook & YouTube
Looking for more information? Want to stay in the CED loop in between CCEDNet newsletters? Visit CCEDNet's Facebook Fan Page for all the latest updates on CED events, news, and reports from around the country!
You can also subscribe to our growing YouTube Channel for great profiles on CED initiatives and informative talks with CCEDNet staff on community development issues.
- Featured Video: A Food Policy for Winnipeg? focuses on the issues of food security in an urban centre, and it explores the possibilities and potential benefits of having a municipal food policy
Meet a Create Action Intern
Each year, CCEDNet member organizations hire emerging CED leaders for six month internships with the help of the CCEDNet's Create Action Internship Program. There are currently 40 interns working across the country with various CED initiatives, organizations, and programs.
Tricia Young is the most recent participant in the Create Action Program, having joined CCEDNet - Alberta just last month. She grew up just east of Red deer, Alberta on a horse ranch. Although Tricia is new to the culture of community economic development, she has a great deal of experience working with international and local communities to develop healthy life skills and positive relationships. She holds a diploma in Human Relations, Family Counseling and Life Skill Coaching. For the past six years, Tricia worked as a Youth counselor in social work. As an intern with CCEDNet-Alberta, Tricia will be helping to plan a regional CED event.
Alberta CED News
Update on 10 Year Plan to End Homelessness
Three years ago, on January 29, 2008, Calgary launched a 10 Year Plan to End Homelessness. The goal: By January 29, 2018, an individual or family will stay in an emergency shelter or sleep outside for no longer than one week before moving into a safe, decent, affordable home with the support needed to sustain it. This goal is within reach.
Watch this video to learn more about the Plan's history, progress made and next steps.
Calgary Non-Profit Innovation Awards
The Calgary Chamber of Voluntary Organizations is seeking nominations for The Calgary Non-profit Innovation Awards. This project is part of a larger initiative called the National Non-profit Innovators Network. The Non-profit Innovation Awards will provide recognition and financial awards to organizations which have demonstrated significant innovations that involved risk-taking, adaptation and reflective learning.
The application deadline is February 28th, 2011.
New Strategic Plan for Thrive
Acknowledging that Community Economic Development is inherently collaborative and complex, Thrive invited community members and leaders to help map out the CED organization's actions and priorities for the next two years. The event helped Thrive re-articulate its mission and its understanding of CED. Through the Theory of Change exercise, those in attendence identified Thrive's overall goal: Creating a thriving local economy for all, forever.
Download Thrive's new Strategic Plan (pdf)
Support for Social Enterprises Announced
Trico Charitable Foundation recently committed $2 million to three major Foundation initiatives that will encourage and promote social entrepreneurship in Calgary and across Canada. Part of the funding will be used to launch an Enterprising Non-Profits program in Alberta (enp-ab). enp-Alberta's objective will be to empower Alberta non-profit organizations to enhance their sustainability by providing grants and technical assistance in support of the development and growth of their "profit-generating" social enterprise.
The Foundation has also established the Social EnterPrize, which will award a cash prize to four social enterprise initiatives to assist them in personal and organizational development and the advancement of their work.
CED Tool
Community Based Planning: Engagement, Collaboration, and Meaningful Participation in the Creation of Neighbourhood Plans
Planning can help communities create a vision for the future and a roadmap for achieving that vision. There are, however, many challenges to community and human-centred approaches to development planning. These challenges can entrench stakeholder positions and magnify interpersonal conflict, inhibiting achievement of desired outcomes. Various planning tools and approaches can help mitigate conflict and maximize opportunities to build a common vision and collaborative partnerships, which leads to successful community development.
This document, written by Karin Kliewer, reviews planning theories, differentiates types of statutory and non-statutory plans, explores different engagement and participatory planning strategies, and considers ways to deal with some of the most likely challenges in the process.
Download Community Based Planning (pdf)
National CED News
CED Book Club: New publications from the Rural Development Institute
Brandon University’s Rural Development Institute (CCEDNet member) recently published two new books on Canadian rural development, both of which include strong CED themes. Dr. Doug Ramsey was one of the editors of Geographical Perspectives on Sustainable Rural Change, while Dr. Kenneth Beesley edited The Rural-Urban Fringe in Canada: Conflict & Controversy. Both are professors in the Department of Rural Development at Brandon University.
Click here for more information or to purchase the books
Canada Without Poverty’s Letter to PM Harper - News he needs to hear
Rob Rainer, Executive Director of Canada Without Poverty, began his January letter to Mr. Harper with the following statement: “Leadership, it has been said, ‘is about telling people what they need to hear, not what they want to hear.” With that, Mr. Rainer reminds the Prime Minister that he has failed to address Canada’s urgent poverty issues and growing inequality gap in his public statements. The letter presents Canada’s critical poverty challenges with hard statistics, and offers some possible policy avenues to address the problem. Mr. Rainer concludes by challenging the Prime Minister to make poverty a “top five” policy and legislative issue in 2011.
Social Enterprise: Are There Really Legislative or Regulatory Barriers?
Staff members of Enterprising Non-Profits wrote this article in response to widespread concern about the legalities of non-profits and charities operating businesses or social enterprises. The authors claim that their collective experience has demonstrated that there have never been legal or regulatory barriers that have prevented a non-profit or charity from launching a legitimate social enterprise. The article also offers key advice for planning a legitimate social enterprise.
New Report - The Road Half Travelled
The University of Maryland’s Democracy Collaborative recently published The Road Half Traveled: University Engagement at a Crossroads. This report examines the challenges and opportunities universities face in leveraging university intellectual and economic activity to benefit local communities.
The Rationale for Worker Co-operatives - New CWCF Campaign
The Canadian Worker Co-op Federation has created an effective strategy to help raise awareness of democratic and co-operative workplaces based on equality. This promotional campaign includes a new poster and brochure which feature a photograph Manitoba’s Neechi Foods Grocery Store prominently on the cover. Also included in the project is a brief report titled “The Rationale for Worker Co-operatives,” which provides a brief history of the co-operative model and considers its potential role in Canada’s future.
Click here to view the paper, the new poster and brochure.
Take the Pledge – 10 Percent Shift
The Canadian Union of Public Employees in BC recently launched a new online campaign titled the 10 Per Cent Shift. The aim of the Shift is to encourage citizens to shift 10 percent of their household spending towards locally produced goods and services from locally owned businesses. The campaign hopes to revitalize local economies while capturing “the imagination of current and future entrepreneurs by demonstrating that there is serious and growing demand for locally made products sold at locally owned businesses.”
Visit the website and take the Pledge
Research Network Launches Webinar Series
The Measuring the Co-operative Difference Research Network, a five-year project aimed at researching the economic, social and environmental impact of co-ops and credit unions, is planning a series of free webinars over the next three months.The Webinars will focus on co-operative development and the relevance of co-operative enterprise today and in the future.
The first webinar, which will take place at 12 noon EST on February 18, will be on The Co-operative Model: A Durable and Sustainable Enterprise and feature co-operative historians Ian MacPherson and David Bent.
Job Postings
For the latest CED postings visit the National and Regional job pages on CCEDNet's website
National | AB | SK | MB | North
Positions to post? Send them to breimer@ccednet-rcdec.ca