Leading Change: How conversations make stronger communities and healthier democracies
Toronto, Ontario, Canada – October 22-25, 2009

Shape the conference program. Send C2D2 a proposal
C2D2’s 2009 Conference will use large and small group sessions to help participants build knowledge, practical skills and hands-on experience in dialogue and deliberation. C2D2 invite your ideas for a session that showcases the work you are doing leading change using conversation to build stronger communities and healthier democracies. You might wish to lead an interactive session, a field visit, a marketplace showcase, or a night-cap dialogue. You can also do more than talk – we encourage you to describe your work in other media including music, art, dance or other creative ways. C2D2 send a special invitation out to youth to share the innovative and impactful things you are doing.

To find out how to submit your ideas, visit www.c2d2.ca and read the call for submissions (http://www.c2d2.ca/sites/default/files/C2D2%20Call%20for%20Contributions%202009.pdf).

Note: presenters must register for the conference. Save at least $200 CAD now. Take advantage of the early bird rate until July 31, 2009! Register online (http://www.karelo.com/register.php?BID=282&BT=10#Ev7676)

The former Automotive Building, now Allstream, has
been restored to LEEDS Silver standard and is easily
accessible by public transit.

For more information, please contact the Good Jobs For All Coalition
goodjobsforall.ca
Judy Persad 416-441-3663 ext. 224
Julius Deutsch 416-892-4380
Ana Fonseca 416-441-3663 ext. 221

A Social Planning Toronto Symposium
October 2nd, 2009

This symposium will bring together a broad range of individuals and organizations to explore the ways in which the current economic and social crisis may provide opportunities to rethink how government, the non-profit sector and business can renew our social safety net for the 21st century.

Keynote Speaker

Hon. Edward Broadbent
Former Leader, New Democratic Party of Canada, and
Past Director, International Centre for Human Rights and Democratic Development

Speakers

John Cartwright
President, Toronto and York Region Labour Council
Don Drummond
Senior Vice President & Chief Economist, TD Bank
Marvyn Novick
Professor Emeritus, Ryerson University
Ratna Omidvar
President, Maytree Foundation
Armine Yalnizyan
Senior Economist, Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives

Panels

Ending Poverty
Social Infrastructure
Good Jobs
Social Security and Economic Stabilizers

Friday, October 2, 2009
9:00 am to 4:00 pm
New College, University of Toronto
$50.00 (includes lunch and refreshments)

More information & registration package to follow.

Download the flyer in Word or PDF to share.

Sunday, July 5, 2009
1:00 p.m.
Wellesley Street East and Ontario Street

Music, performers and speakers!
Refreshments served

For more information call the Caregivers Action Cente at 416-361-6319

The resource guide was created to help immigrants residing in Toronto without Canadian immigration status to access essential community and social programs and services (education, health care, housing, legal advice, etc) safely and without fear of having to divulge their immigration status, or having their status disclosed to immigration officials. This multi-lingual tool also functions as a referral guide for community workers and front-line staff, so that they can better assist their clients without status.

Since its release, over 600 copies of the guide have been distributed along with numerous visits to our online version. The current edition of the guide can be found here. The guide is still being requested by individuals and agencies across the city – a recognition of the numerous barriers that non-status residents are confronted with and the precarious situation they live in everyday. With an estimated 20,000 to 500,000 non-status immigrants living in Canada, many of whom are residing in Toronto, it is imperative that they can access necessary services.

SPT is currently beginning work on a second edition of the guide. This new version will include a list of additional services and resources, updated information, as well as providing maps of each agency’s location in the city. We will also be translating the document into additional languages to broaden its use in other ethno-specific communities.

In order to build upon the number of programs and services that non-status people in the city can access, we would like to include your organization in the second edition of the guide. In order to ensure that people lacking status can safely access your services and programs, we would greatly appreciate you completing a brief online survey detailing your work with this population. This is to, above all, ensure the safety of non-status residents and their families.

Complete the survey!

We are asking that you please fill out the online survey and review your organization’s information at your earliest convenience. We appreciate your participation on this important initiative. If you have any inquiries please feel free to contact Navjeet Sidhu at nsidhu@socialplanningtoronto.org or at 416-351-0095×219.

Thank you very much for your cooperation.

TORONTO – The Community Use of Schools (CUS) program is approaching its 5th anniversary of sustained and enhanced provincial investments to lower fees and help open up access to schools as ‘hubs’ of community activity and support. The new study Progress and Pitfalls, by Social Planning Toronto and the SPACE Coalition, finds that while access to schools is improving, more action is required.

Outlining research and recommendations for strengthening Ontario’s CUS programs and increasing access to municipal space, the 2009 report titled Progress and Pitfalls: A Review of Community Use of Schools & Access to Municipal Spaces will be released today.

“Schools need to have a greater purpose in our communities. They need to be funded adequately to act as community hubs where community members of all ages can access services, programs and support,” says Neethan Shan, Executive Director of the Council of Agencies Serving South Asians.

The CUS program was launched in July 2004 with a $20 million investment, and a public commitment was announced in 2008 to further enhance funding to an annual level of $66 million by 2012. In 2008 funding was increased to $33 million across Ontario, a 65% increase over 2007. Further demonstrating its commitment to this program, when the Province launched the Focus on Youth program in 2007 it included free access to schools in high need areas in Toronto as a core component of this new program. Despite the investment disparity in access continues.

“Our research shows that thanks to the provincial Community Use of Schools program we are seeing the return of community groups to schools, helping to put the heart back into communities,” says John Campey, Executive Director of Social Planning Toronto. “We must now ensure that all groups are able to gain access equitably.”

“From my past experiences getting recreational space for programming has been difficult and somewhat frustrating due to the way in which the system has been set up. However, as of late it seems easier to get our permits for the space we have requested. I feel this is because of the knowledge and experience my new fellow co-workers have in navigating the system,” says Khalid Samuels, Recreation Coordinator, For Youth Initiative.

“By 2012, the Ontario government has committed to spending $66 M on the Community Use of Schools. More engagement with community, especially marginalized groups, and more accountability is needed by the Province and boards to make sure the funds are used in the most effective way, opening up our schools to all for the well-being of the community,” says Susan Fletcher, Chair of the SPACE Coalition and Executive Director of Applegrove Community Complex.

This year the survey also included a component investigating community experience in permitting municipal space to operate programs or activities. Each municipality has its own fee structure. Some non-profit organizations can access space for free, while other organizations can face fee increases with little advance notice. Provincial action is needed to ensure that municipal space is accessible and affordable to all.

Find the report here.

Download the full proceedings in Microsoft Word format (39 pages)

Date: Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Time: 9:30 am
Place: Kensington Community School – Library | 401 College Street | East of Bathurst

Panel

• John Campey, Executive Director, Social Planning Toronto
• Susan Fletcher, Chair of SPACE Coalition; Executive Director, Applegrove Community Complex
• Paulina O’Kieffe, Director of Community Engagement, FYI -For Youth Initiative
• Neethan Shan, Executive Director of Council Agencies Serving South Asians (CASSA)

For more information

Lesley Johnston – 416-351-0095 x216; ljohnston@socialplanningtoronto.org,
Ann Fitzpatrick – 416 924-4646 x 3482; amfitzpatrick@torontocas.ca.

We invite you to nominate your own Urban Hero for Etobicoke.

This exciting awards program – a Toronto Community News initiative – looks to recognize grassroots heroes (14 years and up), groups and businesses who make a real difference in Etobicoke in the categories of Education, Community, Sports, Health & Sciences, Environment, and Arts & Culture.

Nominations will be accepted until August 14, 2009.

Please take the time to consider all the people you know. Perhaps you know someone worthy of a nomination!

Visit www.urbanheroes.ca for more information.

The Council of Agencies Serving South Asians (CASSA) will be holding a FREE course, consisting of six sessions, for all frontline workers who work with South Asian families and youth on a regular basis.

Participants will learn how to effectively address the needs of South Asians as well as receive peer-based support and training. This course will allow for frontline staff to share best practices and learn from each others experiences.

Upon the completion of the training, the frontline workers will receive a certificate of completion for the ‘Working with South Asians – Breaking Barriers’ Training program.

Please forward this message to all frontline workers and agencies that work with South Asians. This course is a unique opportunity for frontline workers to further develop their skills in providing services to South Asians through peer-based learning.

The first training session is Tuesday, June 16, 2009 from 6:30pm to 8:30pm at the North York Civic Centre, Committee Room 1 and dinner will be provided.

For questions or to confirm your attendance please feel free to contact Loveleen Kang at 416-932-1359 or loveleen@cassa.on.ca

When: June 20th 2009, 10:30 am – 4:30 pm
Where: 155 College Street, Toronto (Near Queen’s Park Subway), LSB Faculty of Nursing, University of Toronto

For questions or to register, email tahira.gonsalves@utoronto.ca.

SPACE is limited – please register immediately!

Dear Friends,

It has been a while since you have heard from us, but we have not been idle! We have a few new developments to tell you about, but we want in particular to ask your help on a new and important project.

PPT’s New Project: A Community Planning Resource Centre

In our 2007 and 2008 forums, you told us loud and clear that you felt disenfranchised from the planning process. You said that you wanted to participate, but found the public consultations inadequate and the City’s process confusing and complex. In response, PPT has been hard at work on a new project for a centre that would help break down the barriers between people and the planning process, foster a more collaborative approach between communities, developers and the City, and, we hope, lead to better planning and stronger neighbourhoods across the City.

The Centre could, among other things, provide clear and useful information about planning, design, and Toronto’s planning process to citizens and community groups; facilitate the provision of professional assistance to communities who are seeking to respond constructively to development proposals; help with pro-active community planning initiatives; and enable communities to share information and build relationships amongst each other.

We’ve been gathering feedback from a range of people, and we now need specific input from you, the involved residents of the city. Would you please take five minutes to fill out a very short survey? Your input over the last two years has informed our initial vision for the Centre; but your feedback will be crucial to help us refine its mission and priorities.

Click here to fill out our survey

We thank you for your assistance! You can find more background information on the Community Planning Research Centre project on our website at http://peopleplantoronto.org/cprc.

New Civic Engagement Initiative

Over the course of the past year, PPT has been meeting with the City to urge them to provide information about planning that is easier to access and understand, and to engage citizens more meaningfully in the planning process. Well, it appears someone has been listening. A new civic engagement initiative driven by the Mayor includes a course called “Civics 101″ and the presentation of “learning material”, including a clear and accessible explanation of the planning process. All this is online at http://www.toronto.ca/civic-engagement/

New Draft Zoning By-law

Some of you may have already heard about the new draft harmonized zoning by-law. There were apparently 43 zoning by-laws inherited as a result of amalgamation. These by-laws regulate the use of land and buildings (including the bulk, height, location, and use of buildings) as well as parking and other similar matters. In other words, they matter. To find out more information (including access to an interactive map that will show how this will affect your neighbourhood), go to the City’s website at http://www.toronto.ca/zoning/. The City is also holding a series of public consultations on the by-law over the next month: see http://www.toronto.ca/zoning/pdf/torontostar_notice.pdf for when and where.

Volunteers

PPT is looking for volunteers who can help with our web site, provide analysis or commentary on planning issues, and help with the Community Planning Resource Centre project. If you’re interested in any of these things, please write us at info@peopleplantoronto.org

It’s a great privilege to be here today with my fellow panelists for this important event in the early history of the Ontario Nonprofit Network.

The nonprofit sector is big, it’s important, and it’s vital to the health of our society and economy. But it’s also fragmented and often poorly-organized.

The sector faces a number of challenges. It needs to increase its profile, professionalism, and effectiveness. And that can only be done by pulling together, by finding common cause, and by inserting itself into the policymaking process – an area where it has often been conspicuously absent.

Fortunately, the Ontario Nonprofit Network is making significant strides on all of those fronts, and I congratulate all of you for your well-placed efforts.

The relationship to policy-making and policy-makers is one of the most important issues facing the nonprofit movement. The ONN itself grew out of the realization that Ontario’s nonprofits are under-represented in the halls of government. The sector will not be as successful as it should be without being better at capturing and holding the attention of government.

If we lose sight of this aspect of our work, we will one day look back with regret. We will see that our lack of involvement in policy development was a strategic error that undermined and eroded our effectiveness.

Influencing policy is a tricky business, but there is a huge payoff for doing it well. Good government policy can magnify the nonprofits sector’s efforts exponentially.

Think of the sheer size and might of government – its wealth, its reach, its infrastructure and its unique lawmaking authority.

With government applauding us and backing us, we can put the wind in our sails and achieve outstanding results. Without government support, it’s like rowing into the wind, struggling to make even the smallest difference.

So how do we get our friends in government to listen to our voices?

We start by speaking their language, and that means talking about economic impact and demonstrating real, definable, and achievable results. We need to approach our political and policy leaders differently — not by asking “what our country can do for us” but by saying “here’s what can we do for our country.”

I may be preaching to the choir, but we also need to think of ourselves as important. We are, after all, a big business.

The Canadian auto sector has always had the attention of our governments, as well as its ready support. That support (bailout) is now approaching something like $13 billion. But based on its collective economic impact, the nonprofit sector is arguably more important to our country’s financial well-being.

The Johns Hopkins Comparative Nonprofit Sector Project – sponsored here by Imagine Canada – found that our country’s nonprofit sector accounts for 6.8 percent of gross domestic product. With the value of volunteer work included, that number rises to 8.5 percent of GDP or roughly $80 billion.

By comparison, the automotive industry represents just 2 percent of our GDP and employs, depending on how you count, between 100,000 and 150,000 people nationally. Nonprofit organizations – excluding health care, education and all part-time workers – create 373,000 jobs … in this province alone. That’s the equivalent of every man, woman and child in Halifax.

To give you some global context, as a percentage of GDP, Canada’s nonprofit sector is the second largest in the world, behind only the Netherlands. And you’re probably wondering, so I’ll tell you that the US ranks fifth.

As a sector – and as an industry – the first thing we have to do is state our economic role more clearly and emphatically. We must gather our facts and share our knowledge more broadly and strategically. We’re doing more of both already. But I think we can do better.

If any organization is still making its case to potential donors, sponsors and investors (including government) based only on need and social impact, they should reconsider that approach. At a time when the national preoccupation is the economy, this is a filter we should also use to present our public positions.

The second thing we need to do better is increase our reliance on solid and compelling research. We need to have deep pockets of data every time we try to convince legislators to see things our way. Yes, heart-warming stories should always be in our arsenal, but they should illustrate a problem and point to a solution that is supported by facts and impact that can be measured.

It’s not just a matter of collecting data from various credible and independent sources. Those organizations with sufficient scale and scope need to create and collect their own information.

The Ontario Trillium Foundation is doing more of this by using our reach, research and resources to support the sector with information that can help it advocate for itself. Let me share two examples with you.

Early this year, the OTF had in-depth conversations with more than 100 diverse nonprofit organizations in Ontario. We asked what they were experiencing, what impact the economic downturn was having on their communities, and how OTF can effectively help.
We heard about the impact of shrinking endowment funds and the challenges of increasing demand for services. On the other hand, we also saw some effective strategies for surviving and thriving in this economy.

Some of these included greater levels of collaboration, the diversification of funding sources, and creative ways of achieving efficiencies. Doing more with the same or less, in other words.

None of these challenges or positive stories was terribly surprising in retrospect. But we used this anecdotal research to turn our theories into far more compelling evidence-based conclusions.

The Foundation is already using these findings to target the grants that have the greatest potential to succeed and address particular challenges nonprofits are facing now, and likely in the future.

A second example is the Your Community in Profile series commissioned by the Foundation and produced by Statistics Canada. These reports cover the 16 granting regions of OTF and focus on economic, social and demographic trends in each catchment.

Knowing the trends over time makes it easier to anticipate change and to address future needs. We encourage charitable organizations, governments and grant applicants to use this data as they plan programs and services to build Ontario communities.

This research does more than help OTF be more effective in our work; it enables nonprofit organizations to be more successful in their work. Plus, it provides a more reliable platform to support their and our arguments to governments when it’s time to seek their support.

Finally, the most important and possibly effective way to influence government policy and policymakers, is to do our jobs well and make sure our friends in government know about it.

We think of ourselves as their constituents. Well, perhaps we should be treating members of federal and provincial parliament as our constituents too – and very important ones.

Invite them get to know us better, but don’t inundate them with information. Remember, there are tens of thousands of organizations competing for their attention.

And this leads me back to the power of collaboration. If you have one well-crafted brief submitted collectively by 1,000 organizations, that will send a much stronger, more coherent message than having 1,000 briefs submitted by a miscellany of self-interested organizations.

If you want materials to land on policymakers’ desks, and not go straight in their recycling bins, a coordinated approach is the way to go.

As someone who has spent most of my professional career in government, I can tell you that policy decisions are often founded on familiarity with, and respect for, an approach that has achieved proven success at the community level.

Don’t tell anyone I said so, but our governments are not exactly quick to foster innovation; they prefer safe and proven strategies.

An organization like Trillium Foundation, though we are a government agency, is not like government in this regard. We are a lot more tolerant of risk and more nimble in distributing dollars. OTF is often a “first-funder” for both new organizations and pilot projects. Our grants open doors to other opportunities, including government funding and support from corporate or other sources.

We also play a critical role as a catalyst with community partners. In fact, when we spoke to more than 100 organizations that I mentioned earlier, they wanted us to do things like take a greater role in sharing best practices and helping organizations learn from each other.

They wanted us to help leverage collaboration and reduce duplication.

They wanted us to work with partners and funders to leverage OTF grants.

And they want us to take a role in helping shape a coordinated approach to policymaking on behalf of the sector.

We played that role recently with the Poverty Reduction Strategy for Ontario, which references at least nine examples of initiatives supported by OTF grants. We believe those programs played a role – perhaps small, perhaps significant – in shaping the direction of government strategy.

The nonprofit sector should have an ever-louder voice in guiding public policy. We are doing great and important work. We are a social and economic force. We have access to data that supports the value of our organizations and programs. We have a track record of success.

I think we also have an opportunity in this economy, when so many people, corporations, organizations and sectors are going to our government leaders with requests based on need, to go with a different message.
We can be the ones looking to our governments not for rescue, but for partnership.

The Ontario Nonprofit Network is poised, I think, to play an important role at this juncture. Your presence here today is a strong signal that the sector is getting its act together, that it is positioning itself to partner with government, not approach it as a supplicant, and help in the shaping of good public policy.

Thank you for inviting me to take part in this panel. I look forward to the other speakers and the discussion to follow. Most importantly, I am excited to see where we go next as a sector.

Speaker: Fiona Crean, City of Toronto Ombudsman

What will she talk about?

Services provided by the Office of the Ombudsman

• How to complain to the Ombudsman
• How to make a client referral
• …and much more

1652 Keele Street
(at Rogers Road, South of Eglinton Avenue West and adjacent to George Harvey Collegiate)

Wheelchair Accessible

RSVP

Yasmin Haq (Khan)
416-652-9772
yhaq@socialplanningtoronto.org

Deb Wharton
416-392-7094
dwharto@toronto.ca
TTY: 416-392-7100

The Recession Relief Coalition will release a Bulletin outlining the impact of this severe recession on people and community organizations and the failure of our social safety net to support people’s urgent needs. We are working with community groups and organizations to monitor the impact of the recession and call for action and solutions and hope other communities across Canada will replicate this work in their communities.

Speakers:

• John Stapleton (Recession Relief Coalition, Fellow -St Christopher House/Metcalf Foundation);
• Winnie Ng (Co-Chair, Good Jobs for All Coalition),
• Laurie Campbell (Executive Director of Credit Canada);
• Michael Oliphant (Daily Bread Food Bank);
• Mike Creek (Coordinator Voices from the Street).

People attending this event will include community based agencies and people affected by the recession.

The Recession Relief Coalition is a broad-based group of organizations and individuals concerned about the impact of the recession on Canada’s most vulnerable people.  Over 260 organizations and over 1,100 individuals endorsed the coalition’s call on the federal government to create a recession relief fund to prevent cuts to non profit agencies serving vulnerable communities and to increase funding to support vital social services including homelessness programs, settlement services, and employment supports.

Contacts: John Stapleton (416-988-5936) or Ann Fitzpatrick (416 -924-4646 x.3482)

Ten+ Years Later – We Are Visible updates the innovative community-based research project, We are Visible, conducted in 1996, and highlights the experiences of health and health care of ethno?cultural/racialized women with disabilities in Toronto. Through community-based research and a literature review, this project works to understand the barriers to health and health care that ethno-cultural/racialized women with disabilities face and whether any progress has been made to address the issues discussed by the women in the original We Are Visible project.

Both Ten+ Years Later – We Are Visible and the original We are Visible report are available online at http://owhn.on.ca/wearevisible.htm

Overview of the key findings of Ten+ Years Later – We Are Visible:

• A noticeable decline in the general quality of health care services
• Changes noted specific to the participant’s understanding of themselves as ethno?cultural/racialized women with disabilities
• Improvements in the system, including the increase in information and material available on-line and that the face of health care has become more diverse
• Participants identified numerous barriers that prevented their access to health care services and/or compromised the quality of service they receive
• Participants noted the numerous ways they access information as well as the facilitators and barriers to high quality and timely information
• A disproportionately high number of women with disabilities live in poverty and are facing increasing financial strain and barriers with the increased delisting of services and medication
• Participants talked at length about the impact of providers’ attitudes on the quality of their care and cited the need for training to better equip providers to meet their needs as ethno?cultural/racialized women
• About half of the participants identified experiencing and/or witnessing the discrimination of others in a health care setting

The project findings reveal that issues raised in the first We Are Visible project are still present and in urgent need of attention. The recommendations gathered from Ten+ Years Later – We Are Visible draw on the lived experiences of ethno-cultural/racialized women with disabilities and have important implications for current policy development, service provision and research.

Project Partners: Ethno-Racial People with Disabilities Coalition of Ontario (ERDCO) and Ontario Women’s Health Network (OWHN)

For more information: OWHN at owhn@owhn.on.ca or 416-408-4840; or ERDCO at erdco@erdco.ca or 416-657-2211

Click here for further information and/or buy a ticket for the event.

Where: Ottawa Public Library Main branch 120 Metcalfe Ottawa ON K1P 5M2
When: June 10th, 2009 at 7pm

Speakers include:

• Michael Geist – law professor at the University of Ottawa where he is Canada Research Chair in Internet and E-commerce Law, blogger
• Charlie Angus – NDP MP, Heritage and Culture
• Rocky Gaudrault – CEO, Teksavvy Solutions Inc.
• Introduction by Steve Anderson – Co-founder, SaveOurNet.ca
• Discussion Facilitator: Marita Moll – TeleCommunities Canada

Special guests:

• Jacob Glick – Canada Policy Counsel, Google Canada;
• Mike Gifford – founder of Open Concept Consulting Inc;
• Leslie Regan Shade – Communications Professor, Concordia University;
• Graham Cox – Canadian Federation of Students;
• David Fewer – Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic (CIPPIC).