Yvon Poirier is the Chair of the International Committee of the Canadian Community Economic Development Network (CCEDNET) since 2007. He was a member of the Board of Directors of the Groupe d’économie solidaire du Québec (GESQ) from 2004 to 2008. He is also a member of the coordination committee of RIPESS North America.  He has been actively involved in the Intercontinental Network for the Promotion of the Social Solidarity Economy (RIPESS) since 2004. This involvement has brought him to attend RIPESS meetings in Dakar (2005) and Luxemburg (2009), as well the first two Asian Solidarity Economy Forums in Manila (2007) and Tokyo (2009). He has also participated in meetings of US SEN (Solidarity Economy Network) since the foundation of the network in 2007. Furthermore, he participated in the World Social Forum in 2005 (Porto Alegre) and in 2009 (Belém).

He is also co-publisher, since 2003, of an International Newsletter on Sustainable Local Development.  In 1998, he was on the organization committee of an International Meeting on local development held in Canada.  He was founding president of the Quebec City Community Economic Development (CED) organization in 1993-1994.

After his university studies in political science, he was a teacher in a college for 29 years, until his retirement.  During those years, he was very active in the union movement in Quebec province and was involved in many social movements (for example against the North America Fair Trade Agreement – NAFTA).  

He is a member of the Workgroup on Solidarity Socio Economy (WSSE), now known as ALOE, of the Alliance for a responsible united and plural world since 2005.