CEDworks! Vol 7, No 1

Making Waves Magazine
The next edition of Making Waves has much to say about leadership in community economic development and social economy.

The Demonstrating Value Initiative
Imagine a performance assessment tool that is practical, affordable, accurate, and applicable across the sectors, structures, and strategies which social enterprise calls home! That's what the Demonstrating Value Initiative is after. Read about it now.

Little Place, Big Story
A school of the arts combines theatre and education with the building of support organizations and programs, housing, and other community assets in the hamlet of Rosebud, Alberta. Read about it now.

A New Beginning for Social Economy in Québec?
Premier Charest's commitment to the 2006 Summit on Social and Solidarity Economy has finally borne fruit. Québec's new Action Plan for Collective Entrepreneurship will devote an additional $16.7 million over the next five years to the priorities identified at the Summit. Read about it now.

A Window on the "Laboratory of Social Innovation"
International conferences on the social solidarity economy will occur this spring in Massachusetts and
Luxembourg. Could there be a better time to articulate, reinforce, and broadcast the possibility of a just, people-centered approach to the economy? Read about it now.

Click here for more stories from this edition of Making Waves. Many people receive the magazine as a benefit of membership in the Canadian CED Network.
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Local Food Systems Hotlist!
Our national food system has fallen into disgrace over its lack of safety, affordability, quality, and social and environmental responsibility. The debate is on over viable alternatives and how to build them. How important a role will communities play in the process?

Check out the Local Food Systems Hotlist. Its 12 articles, all selected from Making Waves magazine (and free of charge), will help bring you get up to speed on the questions, experiences, and dilemmas involved in creating a food system that satisfies a multiple bottom line.
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Transition for Transition Workshop
Abbotsford, B.C. March 20-21
"Training for Transition: moving from oil dependence to community resilience" is a 2-day workshop that introduces all the steps and principles that have been instrumental in the replication of the Transition Town model. Transition Towns around the world are engaging citizens and organizations in action to become more self-sufficient in the face of climate change and peak oil. Find out how!
To register or for more information contact Stacey
Corriveau,
B.C. Centre for Social Enterprise.
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CED's Information GAP
Laura Syms, a Business and Data Services Librarian at Cape Breton University, has been surveying CED practitioners to see how they find and use information. What has she discovered? Most trust social contacts more than published sources; few consider web searching an important way to gather information; over 18% do not rely on books and magazines; and less than half consult the local library. How about you? Please click here to complete a 10-minute survey about your "information habits" in CED and social economy. Click here to read Laura's article about it in the next edition of Making Waves.
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A Change of Name&Strategic Focus
Since 1988, the Centre for Community Enterprise has partnered with the Canadian Centre for Community Renewal to unlock issues in community economic development and social economy. Each organization brought its own suite of skills and resources to the task.

The magnitude and complexity of the issues faced by communities today requires a different approach - one that will enable still more creative action at both the local and regional levels. We are therefore reconfiguring staffing and structure in order to focus more effort on community resilience, local food systems, and community-based carbon reduction, and on social enterprise as a vehicle of change. We have also combined the two organizations into one, the nonprofit Canadian Centre for Community Renewal (CCCR).

We look forward to working with you!
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Concentrated Poverty
"Poor people living in poor places" are the ones most at risk for disadvantage prolonged across generations and (witness Hurricane Katrina) for devastation in instances of natural disaster.

The Enduring Challenge of Concentrated Poverty (2008), a study by the Federal Reserve System and the Brookings Institute, profiles 16 high-poverty communities across the United States (including immigrant, Aboriginal, urban, and rural) and the policies needed to bring both people and
places into the economic mainstream. Highly recommended reading!

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