Want to learn more about CivicAction’s DiverseCity Fellows program and Emerging Leaders Network? Join us for an orientation webinar on Thursday, July 27 from 12:00-1:00PM. Register online.

Fellows bring their own perspectives to the program, and each takes away something different!

Hear from some of the 2012 DiverseCity Fellows about their experience:

Diane Saldanha, Marketing Manager, AstraZeneca, and Co-Chair of the Young Leaders Council of the United Way of Peel

“The Fellows program has provided me with a better understanding of different leadership styles, the importance of collaboration and the value of multiple and diverse perspectives. Visiting different venues in the GTA where work is being done to improve the region, and having the opportunity to discuss issues with civic leaders and grassroots community members was extremely valuable. I’m now better able to evaluate situations, share ideas, and take action.”

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Brent Chamberlain, Executive Director, Pride At Work Canada

“After participating in the DiverseCity Fellows program, I now feel part of the city-building process in the GTHA. It has given me the experience and tools necessary to connect with and influence leaders in areas that I feel passionate about, and being part of a dynamic project team – with leaders from the private, public and non-profit sectors – provided invaluable career experience.”

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Seema Jethalal, Managing Director, DANIELS SPECTRUM: A cultural hub in Regent Park

“I appreciated the opportunity to connect to organizations and leaders across sectors who are committed to leveraging the Toronto region’s diversity to create profound change. Working in the arts and the non-profit sectors, I often have my blinders on; building bridges and friendships with a diverse group of people was critical in helping me move towards a collective impact methodology in my everyday life.”

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Kellie Sauriol, Regional Vice President, RBC

“I thoroughly enjoyed the program and gained a much deeper understanding of the complex issues we face as a region, as well as what role I can play to help.”

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Orlando Bowen, Executive Director, One Voice One Team

“After being in the DiverseCity Fellows program, my network has increased exponentially. I’ve had the opportunity to meet many brilliant and committed individuals from across various sectors. Throughout the program, we were connected with movers and shakers from across the region, each with their unique perspectives and journeys. It has been a powerful ride to date and the most beautiful thought is knowing that “we’ve only just begun.” Thank you Civic Action for your leadership in undertaking such a noble, noteworthy and transformative initiative.”

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Who should apply?

This fellowship is for high-performing rising leaders from all backgrounds living in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton area and working in the public, private, and non-profit sectors. Applicants should have at least 5-10 years of demonstrated leadership experience in a professional or volunteer environment.

Apply now to be a 2013 DiverseCity Fellow.

Recognition is a critical component of DiverseCity onBoard. It is a powerful tool on many fronts:

• Creating awareness of the need to include all members of the population in leadership positions;
• Influencing the behavior of other organizations and providing them with examples of approaches that work;
• Sharing with organizations the critical success factors, e.g. the importance of leadership, vision, and being intentional about change; and
• Celebrating the success of organizations that are diversifying their boards by providing a sense of achievement.

Change is difficult. It’s a journey that sends an extremely powerful message to every level of the organization, its clients, stakeholders, and community by giving a sense of pride and motivation to keep going.

Cathy Winter, Project Leader of DiverseCity onBoard at Maytree, reflects on why the Diversity in Governance Awards are essential to growing leadership diversity in the Greater Toronto Area.

Join us on June 19 for the 2013 Diversity in Governance Awards.

“It’s very important for residents to know about civic literacy,” explains Tara. “They need to know who they can go to. They need to know why they can go to them. And they need to know how they can do it.”

Providing civic literacy education has been important for the community, but equally important has been providing it in languages community members speak. It should be taught the way that the three Rs are taught, it’s that important. Adds Beatriz: “It’s like learning a skill that will help them in their day to day survival.”

Mobilizing voice through digital storytelling

NYCH is mobilizing the voice of local newcomer communities, especially living with low income, through its digital storytelling project. In this project, staff worked with residents to create videos to tell their life story through voice, images and music.  While the project provided newcomers with new computer and video skills, it also sought to combat the isolation felt by many newcomers.

Here’s one story:

Related:

• CollaborAction: Opening welcome from Alan Broadbent, opening panel – with Shelley Zuckerman, North York Community House
• Building Blocks – Create possibility where you live

“We recognize, value, and tap into the knowledge within communities and organizations. The work we do is a process of uncovering, stimulating, and building on the inherent strengths and knowledge of these groups. We aim not to supplant their capacity but rather enable them to develop and expand it. Public Interest respects the sharing of those skills by creating ‘open source’ tools for social change. We are happy to share the models and methods we develop for use in our projects with others doing similar work. We continually research best practices in social and public policy and promote these models in our work with clients.” – Public Interest

As we originally conceived of a train-the-trainer program for Building Blocks that would reach hundreds across the Greater Toronto Area with a civic literacy curriculum, Public Interest became a natural partner. A consultancy for social good, it has worked on innovative outreach strategies for public sector and non-profit organizations since 2002. Public Interest develops productive partnerships between community members, governments, businesses, and not-for-profit organizations.

Developing talent from within communities is integral to the way it delivers projects. It helps community members create the tools and skills they need to gather information and mobilize others in their efforts to bring about change.

Our relationship with Public Interest is built on shared values. Building Blocks is focused on working with leaders in diverse, low income communities to creatively find solutions to local challenges. Public Interest’s work helps people overcome language, culture and race barriers that have prevented full participation in civic processes and having a voice in decision-making. When Public Interest President Sean Meagher and Program Manager Effie Vlachoyannacos came on board, they quickly became part of the backbone of the Building Blocks program.

They developed a curriculum focused on the perspective of residents looking to influence how governments make decisions. They trained and coached 29 Building Blocks leaders from 15 communities who, in turn, trained others and led action projects in their communities.

Watch Sean describe what it meant to be working with Building Blocks, followed by a Building Blocks leader, Beatriz Alas from the North York Community House, on the impact of his training.

Related:

• Public Interest
• CollaborAction Summary – video, liveblog, sketchnotes

Thanks to our enthusiastic and interested participants, CollaborAction trended on twitter in Toronto!

It was a fantastic afternoon.

Alan Broadbent opened the conference with some words of reflection and inspiration, reminding us why we do this important work:

“Two years ago Building Blocks started to work with 15 organizations and their leaders. Those diverse leaders took on the task of reaching out to their own communities to build civic capacity and leadership within the communities. They have trained more than 1,200 people in the GTA, many of whom are now leading projects and enabling the involvement of many others.

“Building Blocks rests on a basic idea which lies at the heart of democratic governance, that the best person to represent community interests is embedded in that community. And we know that projects which help communities the most are those created and managed locally. To do this successfully, information and skills are required.

“Building Blocks helps people to understand what they need to know to organize in their community. Learning about public policy, leadership and governance allows them to be more effective in mobilizing their networks and drawing on a breadth of experience, perspectives and an eagerness to work toward local solutions. It shows how governments make decisions and how to impact those decisions and reinforces the idea that change often doesn’t come from those in power, but from the grassroots.”

Watch the entire opening panel:

At the end of the event, Ratna Omidvar summed up the afternoon, noting five key themes that emerged:

1. Grassroots activists taking leadership on change means we need a different kind of leadership. We need leaders who have the capacity and empathy to lead from behind and sometimes from the middle. The North American narrative of the single leader at the front leading his or her followers is not the leadership that we need for this kind of grassroots leadership.

2. The service delivery paradigm will never create systemic change. I will insist to you that the service delivery paradigm enslaves many community organizations. It prevents them from the engagement and the empowerment that we have heard of today.

3. Engagement is important but you have to have smart engagement. You have to engage with people in vivid and unusual ways.

4. Community engagement and digital engagement go hand in hand. If you want to engage communities, do not rely on old-fashioned strategies. You might have real affection for sitting down with people and having a cup of coffee – that is great – but make sure you enhance that with a whole backend of digital work.

5. If we want do this kind of work – bottom up, grassroots work which is sustainable because citizens in low income communities are at the front of change – then we have to move from thinking about “I” to thinking about “we.” A wise statement from Winnie Ng.

The conference is full. But there are still ways you can participate.

We’re encouraging participants to tweet what they’re learning, sharing and finding interesting during the day. Follow the Twitter conversation with the hashtag: #CollaborAction. Maytree staff Bonnie Mah and Piali Roy will be live blogging during the day as well. And we’ll be livestreaming the opening keynote panel of the conference. Both the liveblog and our livestream of the keynote panel will be available on the DiverseCity Toronto site. Keep an eye out for “sketchnotes” (visual summaries) from each session, which we will publish throughout the day.

We hope you can still join us virtually.

Watch the livestream of the keynote panel at 1 p.m.

• Keynote address and panel moderated by David Miller
• Panelists: Deena Ladd, Workers’ Action Centre, Deborah Littman, London Living Wage Campaign, Victor Willis, PARC and Shelley Zuckerman, North York Community House

Follow along with the workshops

Workshop 1 – The engagement imperative.

Learn how demographics are changing in the Greater Toronto Area, how active diverse, low income communities actually are in civic/political decision-making processes, and what we risk by failing to engage these communities. Panelists will provide insights leading to a group discussion on opportunities and ideas for future action in your communities.

Presenters: Alison Loat, Samara; and Myer Siemiatycki, Ryerson University. Respondent: Jehad Aliweiwi, Thorncliffe Neighbourhood Office.

Workshop 2 – Building a civic movement.

You may have the right idea, but how do you rally our community around it? This workshop highlights three case studies that have been successful within a community, between two communities and across an entire city. Discover how they might work in your own community. Learn about the Mennonite New Life Centre and the Latin America Campaign for Civic Participation; the Malton Community Building Project, groundbreaking in Canada for bringing Black and South Asian communities together to take action on common causes; and key lessons from United Way of Greater Toronto’s ambitious Action for Neighbourhood Change initiative.

Presenters: Niambi Marton-John, Malton Community Building Project; Adriana Salazar, Mennonite New Life Centre; and Jamie Robinson, United Way of Greater Toronto. Facilitated by David Meslin.

Workshop 3 – How can technology help organizing?

Community organizing relies on data, communication and coordination. A wide range of affordable web-based tools are now available to enhance grassroots campaigns. Learn practical methodologies to use digital tools such as NationBuilder and MailChimp to mobilize your community. Stories from the recent Wynne and Obama political campaigns will be used to illustrate grassroots organizing tactics.

Presenters: Chris Cowperthwaite and Adel Boulazreg

Workshop 4 – In their own interest, in their own voice.

Are you ready to take your community organizing to the next level? These presenters have gone beyond engagement to organizing and mobilizing diverse, low income communities. Their success comes from encouraging, working with and amplifying their community members own voices, telling their own stories. Their proven models and successful practices of community empowerment will give you new insights and tools to adopt in your community.

Presenters: ACORN-Canada; Winnie Ng, Ryerson University; Sonia Singh, Workers’ Action Centre. Facilitated by Effie Vlachoyannacos, Public Interest.

Building Blocks is in part funded by

Aird & Berlis LLP

by Alejandra Bravo

We’re little more than a week away from our CollaborAction conference and we’re getting excited! I thought I’d give you some more insight into what we’re reading, leading up to the conference.

Reading

It’s More than Poverty: Employment Precarity and Household Wellbeing (PDF)
It’s More than Poverty expands the discussion of the social consequences of Canada’s polarizing income distribution by examining the effects of precarious employment on people’s lives. It explores how employment precarity and income together shape social outcomes. What makes this issue all the more important is the finding that barely 50% of people in the study are in jobs that are both permanent and full-time.

Importance of public space for immigrant integration in Scarborough (PDF)
Atlas of Integrative Multiplicity In Scarborough (PDF)
This research explores the many ways in which “integration” is practiced and understood in Scarborough by looking at a group of diverse immigrant and refugee communities   that live and work in this part of the city. Based on past research, this study seeks to understand the different ways that integration has evolved (or is hindered) through local institutions.

A new mixed-raced generation is transforming the city: Will Toronto be the world’s first post-racial metropolis?
In this somewhat controversial article, the author explores the changing Toronto demographic and wonders how an increase in people with mixed-race backgrounds is perceived and might impact the city.

New research details barriers for Somali-Canadian youth
New research that suggests young Somali Canadians face barriers integrating into Canadian society is no surprise to those who are trying to reach out to struggling youth.

QBurst Powered School Cricket in Toronto Wins ICC Award
This initiative was launched in 2012 and gave Toronto youth an opportunity to participate in their own tournament which saw more than 50 school teams take part in the inaugural event. The award is a great way to recognize and celebrate some of the key achievements made by countries in the Americas region as the International Cricket Council (ICC) strives towards its goal of making cricket a bigger, better and global game.

Courting the ethnic vote in British Columbia
The campaign plan was to offer well-timed apologies for government treatment of certain ethnic minorities. Instead the strategy was leaked forcing a different kind of apology from BC’s Christie Clark and raising wider questions of how politicians target voters.

Analysis: Why we should worry about who we’re jailing
Akwasi Owusu-Bempah of the University of Toronto’s Centre for Criminology and Sociolegal Studies analyzes why blacks and aboriginals are overrepresented in Ontario’s correctional system, and why this matters.

Attitudes to Immigration and Visible Minorities
The topic of immigration is extremely controversial in Europe and America but typically has been a more muted concern in Canada. Over the past 15 years, just as immigration and pluralism has burgeoned to make Canada more ethnically diverse than at any point in its history, attachment to ethnic group has dropped sharply and attachment to country has remained robust and much higher. In other words, as we’ve become more diverse, ethnic identities diminished and national identity remained very strong.

Ontario off track for child poverty reduction, annual report card says
Campaign 2000 report warns that frozen minimum wage and delayed hike for Ontario Child Benefit could put targeted 25 per cent child poverty reduction in jeopardy.

Campaign 2000 Releases Its 2012 Report Card on Child and Family Poverty in Ontario
Campaign 2000 released its annual Report Card on Child and Family Poverty in Ontario on Thursday, February 28 2013 in Toronto.  The 2012 report card, Strengthening Families for Ontario’s Future, calls on Ontario’s minority government to reduce child and family poverty in the 2013 budget.  Policy recommendations are offered to all political parties to redress the persistence of child poverty in Ontario.

We’ve also got some useful news from our presenters that might be of interest.

• What the Workers’ Action Centre has called on new premier to do - “5 priorities for Kathleen Wynne’s good jobs agenda
• ACORN-Canada campaigning to regulate remittance charges and payday lending
• “Melt the Freeze” – Workers’ Action Centre and ACORN Canada campaign to increase the minimum wage after remaining frozen for three years
• Thonrncliffe Neighbourhood Office supports the call for extending municipal voting to permanent residents in Toronto
• United Way – It’s More than Poverty: Employment Precarity and Household Wellbeing (PDF)

Related:

• Read more about Building Blocks

Building Blocks is in part funded by

The answer appears to be a resounding yes. Countless phone calls, webinars and emails led to organizations from 20 cities – from London to Louisville – travelling to Toronto in October 2012 to learn, share and leave committed to replicate DiverseCity onBoard in their communities. These groups are equally committed to the idea that increasing diversity within public governance is essential for inclusion to succeed at home.

This year, the second Intercultural Innovation Awards were held in Vienna where DiverseCity onBoard Project Leader Cathy Winter presented on the impact of receiving an award that catapulted the GTA-based project into an international movement.

In this video, Cathy Winter speaks about DiverseCity onBoard’s journey to becoming a “community of practice” as well as exciting plans for year two of the replication process – creating a hub and e-learning platform to serve the new partners and the next grand convening in Berlin in June 2014.

Related:

• CBC Radio Metro Morning interview – March 8, 2013: UN Awards
• DiverseCity onBoard receives United Nations “Intercultural Innovation Award”
• Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty congratulates DiverseCity onBoard on being recognized as a model of diverse leadership by UNAOC (PDF)
• Building an international movement of diverse decision makers
• Great Canadian Exports: Maple Syrup, Hockey and DiverseCity onBoard
• Toronto Star oped: Is diversity still our strength? Now more than ever!
• As Toronto questions the diversity of its boards, a conference on board diversity

“Before I wrote the email to Maytree, I had no board experience. Maytree opened the door for me to be recognized. I felt that I had a lot to offer, but I didn’t have the connections. This initiative opened the door for me to use my skills and give back to the community.”

As a corporate lawyer at Bennett Jones, Rebecca Huang provides her clients with excellent services on a wide range of corporate legal matters. She also believes strongly in using her experience and skills in public service and making a contribution to her new community. But she long found it difficult to do so. Although trained and working as a lawyer in a high-paced firm in Toronto, she, like many newcomers, lacked the connections to take the first steps towards using her skills to serve the public.

Then, she came across a news story about a new program seeking help to diversify public boards. Thinking the idea was excellent, she took the initiative and wrote a short email to Maytree congratulating the foundation on the program and offering to help in any way she could. Not long after, she was contacted, interviewed, recruited and appointed by the Ontario government as a Lieutenant-Governor Appointee to the Council of Professional Engineers of Ontario (PEO) for a three-year term. She has since been re-appointed and in 2012 was also appointed to the Discipline Committee of Certified Management Accountants of Ontario.

Rebecca credits DiverseCity onBoard with helping her make these first connections. And she believes that the work onBoard does is not only important, but has much future potential:

“There are a lot of candidates out there with strong leadership skills, but who lack the connections to make things happen. We still have a lot of room to help leaders in immigrant communities to get there and to make contributions. This is just the beginning. There is still a lot more we can do to diversify boards.”

She exemplifies the skills, attitude and sense of community commitment that form the foundation of onBoard candidates. Our work exists, in part, to help connect diverse, natural leaders like Rebecca with organizations and boards that can benefit from her skills, experience and enthusiasm. Her story reminds and energizes us about the impact we can all make on our communities.

Related:

• DiverseCity Counts 5 – Leadership Diversity in the Nonprofit Sector: Baby Steps, Big Strides, and Bold Stances
• DiverseCity onBoard – Find board members
• DiverseCity onBoard – Join a board

We’re excited about our upcoming CollaborAction conference and hope you’ll be able to join us. We’ll have lots to share on the day of, and post-event. As we gear up for the day, we wanted to share some of the things we’re following that are relevant to the event.

Events

The Canadian Community for Dialogue and Deliberation is hosting a series of “big question” webinars.

On February 12, join them for their second in the series: What is the current trajectory of citizen engagement in Canada?  In this webinar, they will explore questions such as:

• What is the state and future of citizen engagement in Canada?
• What kinds of changes are we seeing in the spaces, places, and opportunities for citizen engagement?
• Where is the space shrinking or expanding?

If you’re a park person, you need to be at the 3rd Annual Toronto Park Summit on March 2. The Summit brings park advocates, city staff, and experts together with community groups, city councillors, and concerned Torontonians to network, brainstorm, and work together to build momentum for better parks in Toronto.

The theme for this year’s Summit is Good Parks for All Neighborhoods. Speakers and activities will focus on ideas and inspiration for ensuring that no matter where you live in Toronto, you have access to a great park. Parks are a vital part of any healthy community and it is important that all neighborhoods have the resources they need to generate and support a thriving park. Register.

Related to the Summit is a webinar series from Parks and Recreation Ontario - Community Building for the Recreation and Parks Practitioner (PDF). Their next session is on February 6: Planning Using a Community Development Approach.

The Centre for Community Learning & Development’s Civic Engagement Initiative is “for residents of Regent Park, Moss Park and St. James Park with a desire to be involved in promoting community development and strengthening civic engagement and volunteerism. Program participants will gain the knowledge and community engagement skills to motivate others to become more active citizens in community development.”

OCASI’s School of Social Justice is a “participatory capacity building initiative to be held over three two-day training sessions for both new and experienced change agents to strengthen analysis, community organizing and action on social, political and economic justice.” While it’s open only to OCASI member agencies, we think it’s a great idea to keep an eye on.

Articles

Creating Resilient Community, Through Design And Advocacy
Anne Fredericks and the Hester Street Collaborative involve citizens in redesigning their neighborhoods to create stronger communities. Read about how they work to turn the ideas of New York City’s underserved community members into physical reality, by teaching them about design and neighborhood advocacy. By building stronger neighborhoods, the HSC fosters resilient communities and strengthens New York City.

Pathways to Policy Change
The idea of “policy change” pops up regularly nowadays in conversations where people are doing whatever they can to dramatically strengthen their communities. They share a sense that public policies – e.g. income security policy for seniors, policies designed to manage the pace of oil sands development, regulations that determine what drugs are covered (or not) by public health plans – can yield the deep, broad and durable results people desire. Yet for all the increased focus on changing public policies, many advocates are unclear about precisely how to go about it. In her resource, Pathways for Change, Sharon Stochowiak helps de-mystify the policy change process by laying out six common theories or pathways for policy change.

Enabling City
At its simplest, Enabling City is a new way of thinking about communities and change. Guided by principles such as collaboration, innovation and participation, the pioneering initiatives featured in Enabling City attest to the power of community in stimulating the kind of innovative thinking needed to tackle complex issues ranging from participatory citizenship to urban livability.

Resources

CIVIX is a national, charitable organization and its mission is to grow young Canadians into engaged, committed and active citizens.

The Tamarack Learning Centre, established in 2003, is designed to create a fluid, creative system of documenting community building activity and delivering this learning to organizations. The centre has a threefold purpose: to broadly disseminate knowledge gathered through research and practical experience; to help communities increase their power through learning; and to generate knowledge about community engagement so as to advance the field. You may also want to explore Tamarack’s community engagement Resource Library, which includes research, articles and related links.

Related:

• Read more about Building Blocks.

If you’re in Toronto on March 20, join us at CollaborAction.

Building Blocks is in part funded by