Hazel Corcoran It is very exciting and energizing to be working under CWCF’s new Strategic Plan. The two main areas of focus are to Engage and Support our Members, and to Build Awareness and Scale Up Worker Co-ops, including collaborating with our members in the Solidarity Economy. Thanks especially to significant member feedback, we have the sense that we are on the right path, and that we’re on the path together. I’ll lead a one-hour webinar re: the new Strategic Plan on May 9th, at noon Eastern Time. To RSVP, please click on this link. In keeping with this new Strategic Plan, I am traveling more to meet with worker co-op members, and to help raise the profile of the worker co-op movement in the Solidarity Economy. I attended and spoke on a panel early in March for a well-attended screening of the film A Silent Transformation in Toronto.…
Category: General News
Bringing Our Strategic Plan to Life
Since its founding in 1991, CWCF has had a vision of growing and strengthening the Canadian Worker Co-op movement, and in recent years, we’ve decided to take it to the next level. At the 2017 CWCF conference, members asked the Board and staff for a bold strategic plan, one that went beyond the status quo. As a result, a team led by Russ Christianson of Rhythm Communications conducted extensive consultations with CWCF’s members and others on their vision for the future of Canada’s worker co-op movement. In the consultation process, one participant came up with the idea of a bicycle as a metaphor for the movement – a bicycle on a sunny day, propelled by a tailwind. It’s an apt metaphor for our state of affairs, for we believe the future of the worker co-op movement in Canada is bright, provided we can harness our members’ energy behind it. CWCF’s…
Procurement and Investment Readiness Fund
The Procurement and Investment Readiness Fund (PIRF) is a fund for revenue-generating social enterprises in Ontario to assess their procurement and investment readiness, and to access the services and capacity building supports necessary to successfully compete for procurement and investment opportunities. The Fund is administered by the Canadian Community Economic Development Network (CCEDNet) in partnership with key leaders from the social enterprise sector. Available grants Capacity stream: (i) Assessment Grant (up to $5000); leading to the (ii) Capacity Building Grant (up to $50,000) Social enterprises that need help to assess their level of investment or procurement readiness can choose to apply to the Capacity stream for a preliminary Assessment Grant. If successful, the social enterprise will be eligible to apply for a larger Capacity Building Grant to build that required capacity. Catalytic stream: (iii) Catalytic Grant (up to $100,000) Organizations that have identified an investment or procurement which they are…
Toronto Foundation’s social impact investment: open call for proposals
Toronto Foundation has long been dedicated to supporting positive social and environmental change to make life more equitable for everyone. Now, for the first time in its history, it is offering Social Impact Investments to the public through an open call for proposals. *** THIS IS NOT A CALL FOR GRANTS. INVESTMENTS MUST BE REPAID *** These one-time investments, made in partnership with MaRS Centre for Impact Investing, will range from $250,000 to $1,000,000 and will go to approximately five Ontario-based organizations that are creating positive social and environmental change for people across Ontario. A total of approximately $1.6M will be invested. The 2019 Social Impact Investment call for proposals is now open and will close at 5 p.m. on Wednesday, February 20, 2019. Access the submission guidelines and application form. The following organizations are eligible to apply for social impact investments: Incorporated not-for-profit organizations For-profit organizations with public benefit clearly…
CWCF Arts and Cultural Granting Program Seeking Submissions
The Canadian Worker Co-op Federation’s past president Mark Goldblatt died of an apparent heart attack in 2015, a great loss to the Canadian co-op community. Thanks to Mark’s bequest, however, his legacy lives on in the form of small grants, up to $1000, to help pay for arts and cultural projects to promote co-operatives, (preferably worker co-operatives). The project must be youth-generated (individual or a group/organization) and take place within Canada during the year following the application deadline (between May 1 to April 30). Eligible projects include visual art, music, a video, theatre, a cultural event, etc. Go to http://canadianworker.coop/co-op-world-music-project/ for examples of projects involving video and music, especially projects 3 and 4, which were created by youth. The deadline for application is March 22nd each year, and the successful applicant will be notified by April 30. CWCF will publicly share the project description, and eventually the project. If you or…
Fourth Pig Construction Cuts Carbon Emissions Through Green Building Techniques
Fourth Pig cofounder Matt Adams (left) In CWCF’s recently approved strategic plan, one of the priorities established was increased member engagement. Members want to build greater connections with each other and learn from each other’s successes and challenges. That’s why we’re going to start profiling one of our member co-ops in each issue, beginning with Fourth Pig Construction. We hope these brief profiles will be engaging and informative and lift up the human side of co-ops. When Fourth Pig Construction launched in 2007, its founders were out to make a difference, both in the type of buildings they made and the type of business they established. They were going to make and renovate buildings using green building methods that would reduce carbon emissions. And they were going to be a worker co-op. “Our feeling was that if we want to build differently then we should also have an organization that’s…
CWCF Awards – Please Submit Nominations!
Nominations are sought by July 27th, 2018 for either or both of the CWCF Awards which can be given at each annual Conference. CWCF strongly encourages worker co-ops to nominate either their own or another co-op for the Worker Co-op Best Practices Award, or an individual for the Worker Co-op Merit Award. Award winners, who are generally from the region in which the Conference is held, will have their registration and expenses covered to attend the Conference. Submit your nominee(s) to Kaye Grant, communications@canadianworker.coop, with a brief write-up as to why you are nominating the co-op or the individual. The award winners will be chosen by the Board of CWCF. The details of each Award can be found here.
Be Part of Creating a Strategy to Grow Canada’s Worker Co-op Movement
by Russ Christianson Over the next few months, Dominique Bernier, Cathy Lang and I will be working with CWCF board members and staff, members of worker co-operatives and co-op developers to co-create a strategy for scaling Canada’s worker co-op movement. In addition to CWCF insiders, we will engage key opinion leaders inside and outside of the broader co-op movement, including social entrepreneurs, unions, community development organizations, anti-poverty organizations, economic activists, Chambers of Commerce, Community Futures Development Organizations, and Municipal EDOs. We’re excited to be using Loomio – a worker co-operative Internet platform– that encourages dialogue, document sharing and decision-making. Loomio is designed to be user-friendly and to engage people with the use of decision-making tools such as Check and Dot Voting polls. The software also provides multi-language support and includes a comment translation. The combination of discussion and decision-making is Loomio’s unique advantage. Over the course of the strategic planning…
Eastern Conference for Workplace Democracy (ECWD) 2017
By Tommy Allen The Eastern Conference for Workplace Democracy (ECWD) was an inspiring demonstration of how much engaged citizens and workers care about their community. There were hundreds of participants, and the program was 36-pages long. Canada’s worker co-op community is less than a quarter of the size in comparison, but if you compare that per capita, Canada is doing really great. The first surprise was that this program was bilingual, but with English and Spanish. Not only was some of the written material available in Spanish, but most of the sessions included live translation into Spanish via headset, and that work was contracted to a local NYC translation worker co-op. The tour of Brooklyn worker co-ops included a grocery store, a co-op incubator, and a hospital. The Center for Family Life in Sunset Park was a unique place that not only helped immigrants and low-income people to form new…
RFP an innovative approach to strategic planning for CWCF
CWCF is seeking proposals to engage staff, board, members and friends in an innovative and stimulating process to develop a multi-year strategic plan. This strategic plan will be developed between January and November, 2018 – a correction from the year inadvertently noted in the CWCF newsletter. Request for Proposals Other relevant information CWCF Strategic Plan 2017_ presented to members AGM Strategic Plan_2014-2017_fnl 2017 Annual Report Accountability Report 2017 CWCF Member Survey Results 2017 A_fnl CWCF Ideas from Strategic planning Nov 4 2017