We know that there are many ways to practice community engagement. New ideas and concepts are generated every day in many fields of work.

Here's the spot on our site where you'll find links and resources to ideas and community engagement methods that excite us. These are ideas that we haven't yet had a chance to explore more fully.

Featured Resources

Supporting Vulnerable Communities - A new research report released by the Social Research and Demonstration Corporation (SRDC) provides evidence that governments, by supporting the capacity of voluntary organizations in vulnerable communities, can bring about sustainable benefits to these communities and help improve their circumstances. Read the full report here.

Social Programs Stimulate the Economy - A just released paper by The Caledon Institute is calling for strong social programs to play a vital part in an economic stimulus package. Ottawa has at its disposal several effective social programs that can play an important part in an economic stimulus package to combat the recession. Boosting three geared-to-income programs – the Canada Child Tax Benefit, refundable GST credit and Working Income Tax Benefit – would put additional money into the hands of lower-income households who are most likely to spend it immediately. Employment Insurance, which now serves only four in ten unemployed Canadians, must be restored and strengthened. Ottawa should also bolster its transfers to the hardest hit provinces and territories so that they do not bear the full burden of social assistance and other recession-linked cost increases. Read the full paper, The Forgotten Fundamentals, here.

Canada’s World - Shauna Sylvester, one of Canada’s leading social innovators, writes in a recently released paper entitled, Moving Beyond Dichotomies: Canada’s Role in the 21st Century?, “We learned that our country is fragmented - the spaces where we come together to learn and share as Canadians are few and far between. Finding the voices that are not a part of the foreign policy choir requires finding those spaces and playing within them. It also means creating new spaces where citizens can come together as citizens to really hear each other, explore nuances, grapple with complexity, make informed choices and express their desires and wants for their country.”

This report was generated by randomly choosing citizens to come together to talk about their visions for Canada, to share their thoughts about Canada’s historic contributions to the world, to build their literacy about global issues and to offer their collective perspectives on how to move forward. Read the full paper here.

We're also following ideas in the following fields:

Cities & Urban Growth

Poverty, Housing and Homelessness: Issues and Options - The June 2008 report of the Subcommittee on Cities of the Standing Senate Committee on Social Affairs, Science and Technology proposes solutions to the challenges confronting Canada's large urban centres, and the women, men, and children living in them, including those living in low income and coping with exclusion, and those in government and civil society labouring to help them. Download the report here. [Source: Senate of Canada]

Living Cities - This extraordinary philanthropic, corporate and public sector partnership was established to bring opportunities and the power of mainstream markets to urban neighbourhoods and residents historically left behind in the United States. Visit the website here. [Source: Living Cities]

Senate Subcommittee on Cities - The Senate Subcommittee is currently examining the social issues pertaining to Canada's largest cities. "Cities are both intimately local and internationally important - and yet they are chronically underfunded." said Senator Eggleton, the subcommittee's Chair.  "They are home to 80% of Canadians and account for more than half of the nation's wealth - and yet they are not even officially recognized in federal-provincial discussions. We have to find solutions for the chronic problems faced by our cities." The subcommittee has taken on a five-pronged approach to studying this issue, choosing to focus on the five "Building Blocks" that, when assembled, represent a holistic view of contemporary urban reality. Paul Born, Sherri Torjman and Judith Maxwell recently appeared before the subcommittee to speak about place-based approaches to housing, homelessness and poverty. Learn more here.

2006 Census: Community Profiles - These profiles on the Statistics Canada website present community-level information from the 2006 Census of Population. Learn more here. Source: CSRL newsletter]

Rural and Regional Development Policies and Programs – This CPRN review describes innovative approaches in polices and programs for rural and regional development from 13 jurisdictions in Canada, Europe and the United States. The study finds that new governance models are increasingly being adopted. For example, new roles for governments as an “enabler” or “convenor” have become a common and necessary approach. Learn more here. [Source: CPRN]

From Roads to Rinks: Government Spending on Infrastructure in Canada - This article finds that the volume of infrastructure capital has rebounded since 2000 after two decades of neglect. While infrastructure growth has been similar across regions, there are sharp differences in the type of assets targeted by the regions, especially when spending slowed after 1980. Learn more here. [Source: Culture + Communities]

Danger Ahead - The physical foundations of Canada’s cities and communities are “near collapse,” according to a report on the state of municipal infrastructure from the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM). Danger Ahead: The Coming Collapse of Canada’s Municipal Infrastructure says that Canada has used up 79 percent of the service life of its public infrastructure. It sets the price for eliminating the municipal infrastructure deficit at $123 billion.  Download the full report here. [Source: Culture + Communities]

Civic Engagement in Camden, New Jersey - Perhaps more than most cities, Camden, New Jersey, has suffered from the declining fortunes of urban centers in the United States in the past half-century. The steady exodus of middle-income residents and businesses that started in the postwar years has left the city with concentrated poverty, falling property values, a dwindling tax base, and inadequate resources to cover the city's basic costs and services. Recently, however, Camden has been at the center of private and public redevelopment activities and reforms that seek to transform the city. Learn more here. [Source: HandsNet WebClipper]

What Happened to Canada's Urban Agenda? - In the forthcoming book, The New Federal Policy Agenda: On the Cutting Edge, CPRN Research Associate Neil Bradford contributes a chapter on what has happened to that issue entitled "Whither the Federal Urban Agenda? A New Deal in Transition." Learn more here. [Source: Creative City News]

Artist-Driven Gentrification - "From Soho to the Lower East Side to Williamsburg, the story has been more or less the same - artists move in, eventually helping to cause the neighborhood to go through sweeping changes, which results in hardship for local families and businesses - as well as for the artists themselves." Read more here. [Source: Creative City News]

Centre City Plan envisions 'livable' core - The City of Calgary has released its vision for city centre that will balance more people living and working downtown and improve the way people move around. The city's heart is greater than the sum of its parts. Learn more here. [Source: Creative City News]

Orienteering Over New Ground: A Neighbourhood Theory of Change - This policy dialogue tool describes Action for Neighbourhood Change’s (ANC) action learning regarding the interrelationships and role of transformational change among neighbourhoods, bridge builders and the systems of support. Knowledge about why strong neighbourhoods matter sets the stage for a theory of change. Blending ANC experience and international research, a preliminary neighbourhood well-being index and logic model are provided. Download this paper here. [Source: Caledon Institute of Social Policy]

Where Did They Go? The Decline of Middle-Income Neighborhoods in Metropolitan America - Published in June 2006, this paper includes an analysis of 1970 to 2000 decennial census data for families and neighborhoods in the 100 largest metropolitan areas. For more information and to download the full report, click here. [Source: LISC eNewsletter]

World Urban Forum closes after drawing 10,000 people - Drawing some 10,000 participants from over 100 countries, the Third Session of the World Urban Forum closed by paving the way for a new drive forward on the international urban agenda in a world of rapidly growing cities. Learn more here. [Source: UN-HABITAT]

The case for/against 'cool' cities - For about a year, Richard Florida and Joel Kotkin were criss-crossing North America and Europe, with their physical paths coming perilously close a dozen times, the trajectories of their competing theories colliding at the nexus of the debate over the future of cities. Read this article here. [Source: Creative City News/Ottawa Citizen online]

Fiscal Gap Widening in Cities - If you're sick of potholes, rusting bridges and inadequate transit systems, you can blame a tax system that fails to put enough revenue back into cities. Download the report from FCM here. [Source: CBC Online]

Artists' Centers: evolution and impact on careers, neighborhoods and economies - This study finds that artists' careers are strengthened and urban neighborhoods and smaller city downtowns are revitalized with the presence of dedicated space for artists to convene, share workspace and equipment, find mentors, and compete for grants and opportunities to exhibit/publish/present. Download the study here. [Source: Creative City News]

Urban and provincial income disparities - Statistics Canada reports that provinces whose populations are more heavily concentrated in small cities and rural areas tend to have significantly lower per capita employment incomes. Data from the 2001 Census was analyzed to test the long-held view that provincial income disparities are at least partly the result of variations in the level of urbanization from province to province. Read more here. [Source: Canadian Social Research Newsletter]

Aboriginal people living in metropolitan areas faring better - Aboriginal people living in the nation's largest metropolitan centres were faring better overall in 2001 than they were two decades earlier. Nevertheless, these Aboriginal urban dwellers still faced many challenges, especially those living in western urban centres. Read more here or download the full report, Aboriginal Conditions in Census Metropolitan Areas, 1981 to 2001 here. [Source: Canadian Social Research Newsletter]

Social inclusion reports released - New social inclusion reports on Saint John, Toronto, Burlington, Edmonton and Vancouver have been released by Inclusive Cities Canada, a unique, participatory research initiative that uses a social inclusion framework to build people-friendly cities, promote good urban governance and develop strategies for supporting urban diversity. The reports examine important dimensions of social inclusion, such as how cities respond to diversity, levels of civic engagement, living conditions, opportunities for human development, and community services. The reports can be downloaded from the Inclusive Cities Canada website. [Source: OHPE Bulletin]

Information and Market-Based Community Development - Two complementary papers from the Brookings Institution examine the role of information resources in spurring markets and creating investment strategies to boost urban neighborhoods. Together, both papers offer a framework for market-based community economic development, presenting business-planning tools for inner city communities. Access the papers here. [Source: HandsNet WebClipper]

Place-based Public Policy: Towards a New Urban and Community Agenda for Canada - This CPRN paper by Neil Bradford argues that the increasingly complex challenges that govern the quality of life in our cities cannot be solved by one or two players acting on their own. Instead, Canada's future competitiveness depends on its ability to set aside traditional, segmented and aspatial approaches and develop a "place-based public policy" rooted in "collaborative, multilevel governance". Access the paper here. [Source: CPRN]

Turning Around Downtown: Twelve Steps to Revitalization - While any approach to downtown revitalization must be customized based on unique physical conditions and institutional assets, this paper from the Brookings Institution lays out 12 fundamentals of a downtown turnaround plan and the unique "private/public" partnership required to succeed and return "walkable urbanity" to downtown. Read more here or download the full brief by clicking here. [Source: HandsNet WebClipper]

Why Strong Neighbourhoods Matter: Implications for Policy and Practice - This report, prepared for the Strong Neighbourhoods Task Force, reviews the renewed interest in neighbourhoods, what makes a strong neighbourhood and why they matter, and provides examples of neighbourhood policies and investment programs. Download the report. [Source: Strong Neighbourhoods Task Force]

The Role of Community Infrastructure in Building Strong Neighbourhoods - This report, also prepared for the Strong Neigbhourhoods Task Force, focuses on the role of community infrastructure. The paper defines community infrastructure and its components and role and provides case studies and examples of success. Download the report. [Source: Strong Neighbourhoods Task Force]

How Kid-Friendly Is Your City? - The Population Connection releases the ninth edition of its report on children and cities. Its mission is to present the best available data on the social, economic, educational and physical environment in our cities--exactly where our children live, grow, learn and play. Population Connection is America's largest grassroots population organization working to educate people about the impacts of rapid population growth on all aspects of peoples' lives and their environment. http://www.kidfriendlycities.org/2004/ [Source: HandsNet WebClipper]

Canada's Standard of Living - The TD Bank Financial Group has called for a "new way of thinking about Canadian cities". The report, A Choice Between Investing in Canada's Cities or Disinvesting in Canada's Future, was prepared under the auspices of the TD Forum on Canada's Standard of Living, a collaborative venture with The Conference Board of Canada. Click here to view the report or click here to access the TD Canada's Standard of Living final report. For further research by TD Ecomomics, click here.

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Civil Society

Connecting with Canadians - A new five-year public policy research and dialogue program that will engage Canadians to address key issues such as citizenship, diversity and skills barriers, has been launched by CPRN. To read Connecting with Canadians, Shaping Our Future, click here. For more information about the Connecting with Canadians research and dialogue program, click here. [Source: CPRN]

Artist Space Development - The development of affordable spaces for artists to live and/or work is certainly an important matter for artists, but it can also be an important issue for people concerned with a range of social issues, including economic development, civic engagement, community collective action and community quality of life. This report considers how artist space developments have been positioned and the arguments made to garner support for them, the advocacy strategies used, and the impacts claimed or anticipated.  Learn more and access other research and reports on Artist Space Development here. [Source: Urban Institute]

Art and Innovation - This paper explores the economic and cultural contribution of the arts, and its affect on economic growth and evolution. The crucial connection is supplied by an innovation systems perspective on the creative industries, which contribute not just to value-added and jobs, but to the evolutionary process by which economic systems grown. Read the full paper here. [Source: Culture + Communities]

Rural Areas Home to Significant Culture Clusters - Canada's largest cities are the country's arts and culture hubs, with the size of an area's cultural workforce depending largely on the area's total workforce. Despite this reality, a number of rural areas and small cities, particularly in British Columbia, Nunavut and Quebec, show unusually high proportions of cultural workers, according to a new study. Learn more here. [Source: Charity Village, Statistics Canada]

Public Space and Interaction between Diverse Communities - This Demos report offers an analysis of how public spaces can contribute to building positive relationships and bridges between different communities. Drawing on expertise from the fields of regeneration, community activism and education, the report explores people's motivations for entering public spaces, and assesses the potential for interaction that can be found herein. Read the report here. [Source: Policy Hub]

Exploring Gratitude - The Summer 2007 issue of Greater Good magazine explores the new science of gratitude. More than a simple "thank you," studies show gratitude can build physical health, personal happiness, and strong social connections. Contributors discuss some of the most exciting research on gratitude and suggest how it can apply to everyday life. Learn more here. [Source: Greater Good]

21st Century Social Evils - The UK-based Joseph Rowntree Foundation has launched an 18-month project, What are the 21st Century's social evils?, to discover what people believe causes the most damage to society. You can learn more about this project here. Anyone wishing to contribute to the debate can submit their views on the website here. [Source: Policy Hub]

Way-of-life Wake up Call for Canada's Communities Issued - The Who Cares? project is a national conversation about the future of our communities. Drawing from comprehensive data on volunteerism in Canada, the project's series of engaging audio conversations serves to enlighten and inspire Canadians with a way-of-life wake-up call based on compelling but troubling research findings. Learn more here. [Source: Charity Village]

Organizing for Neighbourhood Revitalization - This paper explores neighbourhood revitalization within the context of complexity theory. Prior to embarking upon work to build resiliency, communities and neighbourhoods must organize themselves strategically in order to tackle complex issues. The paper discusses the main components of effective local governance and can be downloaded here. (aussi disponible en français) [Source: Caledon Institute of Social Policy]

Way-of-life wake up call for Canada's communities - The Who Cares? project is a national conversation about the future of our communities. Drawing from comprehensive data on volunteerism and Canada's declining volunteer rates, Who Cares? has produced a series of audio conversations to enlighten and inspire Canadians with a way-of-life wake-up call based on compelling but troubling research findings. Learn more here. [Source: Charity Village]

To Remake the World - Something Earth-changing is afoot among civil society. Read this article by Paul Hawken here. [Source: Orion Magazine]

Social Entrepreneurship - Social entrepreneurship is attracting growing amounts of talent, money, and attention. But what exactly is a social entrepreneur? Download the article here. [Source: Stanford Social Innovation Review]

Libraries that Matter - The creation of the "information superhighway" threatened to make libraries obsolete, but today they are as prominent as ever. The old model of the "reading room" has been replaced by a community "front porch." Read this article here. [Source: Creative City News]

Social Entrepreneurship: The Case for Definition - Social entrepreneurship is attracting growing amounts of talent, money, and attention. But along with its increasing popularity has come less certainty about what exactly a social entrepreneur is and does. Some say that a more inclusive term is best, but the authors argue that we need a more rigorous definition. Download the article here. [Source: Stanford Social Innovation Review]

Money and Meaning: Blended Value in Community Enterprise - This commentary from the Caledon Institute describes the value of community enterprise in terms of both economic and social return. It points out that, unlike the US and the UK, Canada does not have financial incentives such as tax credits to promote essential investment, particularly from private investors, in this significant sector of the economy. Read the commentary here. [Source: Caledon Institute of Social Policy]

The Handbook on Democratic Dialogue - This handbook, developed jointly by CIDA, International IDEA, OAS and UNDP, explores current issues and practices in the field of dialogue and acts as a guide for designing and implementing a dialogue process. Learn more here or download a full copy of the handbook here. [Source: @philia]

Cultural Planning and Cultural Mapping Toolkits released - 2010 Legacies Now and the Creative City Network of Canada have developed two new resources to assist local governments, as well as arts, cultural and heritage organizations, plan for the future.

Cultural Vitality in Communities - This Urban Institute report defines cultural vitality as evidence of creating, disseminating, validating, and supporting arts and culture as a dimension of everyday life in communities. Learn more here. [Source: Urban Institute]

Diversity Matters - This action plan from abcGTA highlights nine practices aimed at dismantling barriers to potential applicants for public appointments. These candidates bring an increasingly diverse set of experiences, skills and perspectives to civic life. Learn more here. [Source: The Maytree Foundation]

Next Wave of Cultural Programming - Adapting to an increasingly multi-ethnic audience is one of the challenges facing the Japanese American National Museum, which recently sponsored a photo exhibit by artist Kip Fulbeck about mixed-race Asian Americans. The work is being funded through the James Irvine Foundation’s new Artistic Innovation Fund. Read more here. [Source: IQ: Irvine Quarterly]

Shared Space: The Communities Agenda - This paper by Sherri Torjman is the first in a series on the "communities agenda." The paper defines this term and develops it within the context of theories on resilience and innovation and its application as cluster-based economic development. It also builds on community experience in designing and implementing comprehensive local initiatives. The goal of the communities agenda is to promote resilience in order to build strong and vibrant communities. The paper argues that resilience is the result of strategic actions taken in four independent yet associated clusters which comprise the substance of the communities agenda. Read the paper in full here. [Source: The Caledon Institute of Social Policy]

A Primer on Public Involvement - This report from Canadian Policy Research Networks explores the role of public involvement in democratic governance. The Primer reviews the different methods and necessary conditions for successful public involvement and identifies several key messages, such as: there are different levels of public involvement; public participation should be seen as a strategy for democratic renewal; different perspectives exist about what constitutes successful public involvement; evaluation should be built into the public involvement program; and the challenges to public involvement should not be underestimated. Learn more here. [Source: Charity Village]

Aboriginal Peoples and Postsecondary Education in Canada - The success of Aboriginal people in our postsecondary education (PSE) system is of vital interest to all Canadians. Aboriginal Peoples and Postsecondary Education in Canada reviews the empirical data about how Aboriginal peoples are doing in the PSE system and what the data suggests about strategies to improve these results. Download this Caledon paper here. [Source: Caledon Institute of Social Policy]

Research on small community organizations - Imagine Canada has released a study of small- and medium-sized community organizations in Canada. Building Blocks For Strong Communities compared the structure, development and supports for Canada's small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and small- and medium-sized community organizations (SMOs), and also examined supports available to SMEs and SMOs in other countries. Drawing on learnings from Canadian and international experience, the study made recommendations on how public supports for SMOs in Canada could be improved. For more information or to download the full report, click here. [Source: Charity Village]

Preparing for the Demographic Tsunami - This commentary responds to the Conservatives’ search for its next top priority ideas. The paper speaks to the need for investment in technical aids and personal supports, such as attendant care and homemaker assistance. Canada’s rapidly aging population will soon swamp the health and community care systems unless there is careful planning now to meet the surge in demand for these supports. Read more here. [Source: Caledon Institute of Social Policy]

Toward Squaring the Circle - In this report, Richard Chaykowski reviews the Canadian evidence and identifies the various issues associated with work-life balance. His objective is to clarify the policy stakes in order to help define the appropriate role for governments in addressing these issues, relative to the roles of firms and individuals. Read the full report here. [Source: CSRL-news]

Skills and Knowledge for Canada's Future - A new volume of research papers - the product of a research program managed by CPRN, the School of Policy Studies at Queen's University [SPS] and Statistics Canada, provides a synthesis of recent research on human capital development in seven different academic disciplines. The authors identified areas for new research and specifically research that would cross disciplinary boundaries. Learn more here. [Source: CPRN]

From Restless Communities to Resilient Places: Building A Stronger Future For All Canadians - The External Advisory Committee on Cities and Communities (EACCC) was created in February 2004 to help rethink the way Canada and its communities are shaped to ensure Canada will be a world leader in developing vibrant, creative, inclusive, prosperous and sustainable communities. EACCC is focused on a long-term vision of cities and communities that are economically, socially, environmentally and culturally sustainable. The final report was submitted to the Prime Minister on Thursday, June 15, 2006. Learn more here. [Source: Government of Canada]

From System to Citizen: New Directions for Democratic Renewal - This report, the result of a two-part engagement process that included consultations with citizens and elected officials and a national poll, concludes that it's not a choice about whether or not to extend the public space that steers government. Rather, it's about how far to extend that space. Download the report here. [Source: CBNC]

Getting to Ground: Democratic Renewal in Canada - This paper is a consolidation of the findings from an 18-month consultation with experts from across the country on approaches to democracy and democratic renewal. One of the conclusions is that 'ordinary Canadians' must have a major voice in any meaningful consultation on democratic renewal. Download the paper here. [Source: CBNC]

The Social Economy - The February 2006 issue of Horizons explores the social economy in Canada, and asks why governments should be interested in the social economy and what their role should be. View the issue online here. [Source: Policy Research Initiative] For more on the Social Economy in Canada, check out Tamarack's web seminar here.

The Story of Somewhere: A New Narrative for Community - The themes of globalization and virtualization dominate the economic and political domains of our life today. In an increasingly globalized world, it sometimes feels as if the real world of place has been quietly vaporized. But a profound longing for community is beginning to reassert itself, says Eric Young, President of E.Y.E. This tells us that community is essential to our true nature; that we can’t have a successful society - or a satisfying life - in its absence. Read more here. [Source: @philia]

The Power of Community Participation - This Ashoka report describes how the tragedies of 2005 (tsunami, hurricanes, earthquakes) give us surprising insights about the best ways to prepare for and respond to disasters. Read more here. [Source: Ashoka/Changemakers]

Close-Knit Neighborhoods May Help Prevent Childhood Obesity - According to a study from the RAND Corporation, adolescents living in close-knit neighborhoods where adults provide social support "such as watching out for youngsters and seeking to correct their misbehavior” are half as likely to be overweight or nearly overweight as other children. Read more here. [Source: HandsNet WebClipper]

Community is the Linchpin - One hears a lot about community these days but apart from the fact that community is a word that is always used positively, it isn’t easy to discern precisely what it means. The reason for this obfuscation is that community does not jive with our current cultural fixation on the individual. They don’t fit together nicely. That means that while we talk a big story about the fantastic power of community, we don’t very often do much about creating or sustaining it. To read on, click here. [Source: The Bubble Magazine]

Community belonging and self-perceived health - Nearly two-thirds of Canadians aged 12 and over have a strong sense of belonging to their local community, according to a new report that examines the link between this sense of belonging and an individual's self-perceived physical and mental health. Read more here and check out a related report Community belonging and self-perceived health: Early Canadian Community Health Survey findings here.

Social Capital & Health - What impact does social capital have on the health of Canadians? This working paper concludes that networks are indeed very important for maintaining good health. Moreover, while instrumental support from strong ties are clearly useful (though they can be easily exhausted if demand for support is too great), networks of ties to organizations can be even more important in the context of health. Read a summary of the report here. [Source: Policy Research Initiative]

Making the Case for Culture - Making the Case for Culture is an original collection of web profiles and resources exploring the impacts and value of culture in communities and cities. Visit the website here. [Source: Creative City News]

Enhancing Cultural Capital - This research highlights the contribution that community-based arts organizations are making in Winnipeg 's inner city. The project reveals that there is not only a wealth of artistic and cultural resources in the inner city, but that these resources make an enormous contribution to building community capacity, energizing community-based revitalization efforts, educating young people, improving our public spaces, and invigorating local economies. Through a broad-based consultation process, including a case study of the arts scene in Minneapolis Minnesota, the project provides a basis for an enhanced integration of arts-based policies and programs aimed at supporting inner city communities. Download the full report here. [Source: WIRA]

Measurement of Social Capital - How do we measure social capital for policy purposes? Drawing on the tools of social network analysis, this guide proposes a series of indicators for public policy research, development and evaluation. It examines advantages and limitations of various measurement tools and methodological strategies, both quantitative and qualitative, for examining social capital in the context of public policy, both at the individual and collective levels. Download the report here. [Source: Policy Research Initiative]

Social Capital in Action - The ways in which social capital can play an important productive, or sometimes destructive, role vary enormously across an array of issues. To investigate its role in eight thematic policy areas, the PRI partnered with several federal departments to commission a series of studies. Undertaken by Canadian experts, the studies explore the significance of social capital for: Poverty reduction, Aging well, Settlement of new immigrants, Education outcomes of Aboriginal youth, Youth civic engagement, Community crime prevention, Policing in First Nations communities, Community development. Download the study here. Learn more about PRI's Social Capital as a Public Policy Tool Project here. [Source: Policy Research Initiative]

Social and civic engagement high among Canadians - A survey by Statistics Canada reveals that Canada is rich in social capital. The majority (61%) of Canadians belong to at least one group or organization. Sports and recreational organizations were reported most often, followed by unions and professional associations; cultural, education or hobby groups; religious-affiliated groups; and school, neighbourhood or community-associated groups. About 8% of Canadians belonged to a service club or fraternal organization. In terms of political activities, 28% of Canadians report that they have signed a petition in the past year. About one-fifth have attended a public meeting, 13% expressed their views on an issue by contacting a newspaper or a politician, and 6% have participated in a march or demonstration. Check out the report at http://www.statcan.ca/Daily/English/040706/d040706b.htm. -- Statistics Canada [Source: Charity Village]

CCC Launches Community Voting Project to Amplify Voices of Low-Income Communities - The Center for Community Change, as part of a broader effort to build power for low-income people and impact the national debate on issues of poverty, has launched the Community Voting Project, which will increase the scale and effectiveness of non-partisan voter programs in low-income communities. The Community Voting Project will target 250,000 low-income, minority, and new immigrant voters during the 2004 election cycle. http://www.communitychange.org/issues/cvp/ [Source: HandsNet WebClipper]

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Community Capacity Building

Increasing the Power of Community Activists - A report from the UK government provides useful recommendations for both government and community activists. Communities in Control: Real People, Real Power, attempts to give power back to communities by suggesting, for instance, that there should be an "obligation to respond" to public petitions. Many of the recommendations are useful to community builders in any country. Download the paper here. [Source: Charity Village]

Community Organizing Toolkit - This toolkit is a set of resources that supports face-to-face training for residents and community leaders. The computer-based component (the "Organizing Game") is used to introduce concepts, prompt discussion, and allow residents to practice skills in a safe, non-threatening environment. Learn more here.

Community Organizing and Development - The Online Conference on Community Organizing and Development, COMM-ORG was founded in 1995 with the mission to link academics and activists, and theory and practice, toward the goal of improving community organizing and its related crafts. Visit the website here. [Source: WIRA]

Profile of Effective Practice: Ma Mawi Wi Chi Itata Centre - Ma Mawi, Canada's first and largest major urban native child and family support program, is a great example of a community taking charge of their own challenges and opportunities and empowering those who experience barriers to participation in society. They have reclaimed control over family and community support services available to Aboriginal people, thereby ensuring that the services are culturally appropriate and serve to empower and build the capacity of individuals, families, and the broader community. In addition to improving these services, Ma Mawi employs 140 Aboriginal individuals who engage in a wide variety of community and family support initiatives. Download full profile here and check out Ma Mawi's website here. [Source: WIRA]

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Community Economic Development

Social Profits - This essay discusses the various dimensions of the social economy - a unique and burgeoning sector of the economy in which business enterprises and economic activity seek not only to generate revenue but also to advance social goals.  This paper explores their many different forms and puts forward policy proposals to bolster social enterprises within the Canadian economy. Download the paper here. [Source: The Caledon Institute of Social Policy]

Get Ready for the Big One - The baby-boomers retiring from business require a new approach to succession planning - one that recognizes how social enterprise can express an owners' commitment to family, neighbourhood, and community, as well as good financial returns. Read the article here. [Source: Making Waves]

Sustainable Planning & Community Development - Infrastructure Canada has released an online resource centre for sustainable community planning and development. Access the resource centre here. [Source: Infrastructure Canada]

Engaging Communities in Support of Local Development - The Community Employment Innovation Project (CEIP) is a demonstration project that is testing an alternative form of income transfer payment for the unemployed, which simultaneously encourages work and supports local community development. The latest in a series of reports released by SRDC presenting the results of CEIP, looks at the effects on communities. It indicates that communities can play an important part in improving local development and helping populations at risk of social exclusion. Read the full report here. [Source: SRDC]

"Constructive Failures" Provide Valuable Insights - A new "Mistakes, Learning, and Adaptation" project compiles stories about constructive mistakes that are relevant to the practice of community economic development. This project calls into question key design assumptions about problems, strategic interventions, implementation, partners, and even methods of documentation and evaluation. Most importantly, it provides invaluable insights into problems and solutions. The project continues to solicit articles and has issued a new "Call for Papers" for a second round of submissions. Learn more here. [Source: Annie E. Casey Foundation]

Community-based Work Can Improve Skills and Social Capital - Can community-based employment help the unemployed develop their transferable skills and social capital? A major Canadian study released by SRDC reveals promising results in that respect. "Improving skills, networks, and livelihoods through community-based work: Three-year impacts of the Community Employment Innovation Project" presents interim results from the Community Employment Innovation Project (CEIP), a program designed to encourage the longer-term employability of participants while supporting local community development in regions of continuing high unemployment. Download the full report here. (aussi disponible en francais) [Source: SRDC]

The Anatomy of Success - Two expert community development practitioners, Anita Miller and Tom Burns, have written a new guidebook on comprehensive community development. Going Comprehensive: Anatomy of an Initiative that Worked examines the Comprehensive Community Revitalization Program (CCRP), a groundbreaking community building program that launched in 1992 and operated for more than six years and helped produce one of America’s most remarkable urban turnaround stories, that of New York’s once-stricken South Bronx. Learn more here. [Source: LISC enewsletter]

CED & social inclusion - As part of the Canadian CED Network's Social Inclusion action research project, practitioners were asked to share tools and resources they found useful in developing integrated approaches to improving social and economic conditions. These have been compiled into an online, searchable toolbox in both English and French. Search the toolbox here. [Source: The Canadian CED Network]

Building Community Wealth - Fully revised after extensive field testing, this manual from the Centre for Community Enterprise, is packed with the information your non-profit or charitable organization needs to launch and maintain a viable social enterprise. What does "ready" look like? How do we get there? What should we do now, next year and the year after that? Learn more here. [Source: CEDworks!]

Communities Under Pressure: The Role of Co-operatives and the Social Economy - How can organizations help individuals and communities respond to and benefit from globalization? Why should governments support some organizations but not others? How can research inform the development of best practices? This synthesis report provides some answers and suggestions for future research. Download the report here. [Source: Public Research Initiative]

Peak Oil, Marginal Communities, & You - If you don't think that our way of life will take a serious hit from the increasing cost of oil, dream on. If you do, it's time to think through how expensive energy will reverberate through the various sectors of our intricate economy. Read this article here. [Source: CEDWorks!]

Federal Investment in the Social Economy - This discussion paper, prepared on behalf of Social Development Canada, discusses the nature of the social economy, identifies issues and challenges involved in evaluating its activities and proposes a learning-oriented approach to its evaluation. The paper also presents a logic model for conceptualizing the work of the social economy, including the broad societal objectives it seeks to achieve, major types of investment and support to sustain this activity, and results for households, organizations, communities and the social economy sector as a whole. Download the paper here. [Source: Caledon Institute of Social Policy]

Women & CED - This special edition of Making Waves offers reports from across Canada (and south of the line) about the impact that women are having on community-based action. CED by and for women is re-asserting values of creativity, inclusiveness, and sustainability in economic decision-making. Each article is available in PDF here. [Source: CEDWorks!]

Break-on-Through: Communities and the New Economy - A study from the Crossing Boundaries National Council (CBNC) shows how smart people, smart planning and smart government can help disadvantaged communities reach the global marketplace. According to the report a "community-directed approach" to economic development could help communities who feel left out of the New Economy to participate more fully in it. Download the full report here. [Source: CBNC]

Tracking the Social Impact of Solidarity Co-ops - In addition to goods and services, our "post-modern" societies seem able to generate social exclusion at an unprecedented scale. This may place the co-operative, and especially the solidarity co-operative, at a strategic nexus. As an organization that reconciles enterprise with association between diverse local actors, is the solidarity co-operative an effective way to strengthen social cohesion? Read this article in PDF here. [Source: Making Waves: Canada's Community Economic Development Magazine]

The Social Purchasing Portal - An innovative partnership between merchants, suppliers, and nonprofit agencies is adding social value to everyday business purchases in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside. The Social Purchasing Portal closes the loop for employment development programs by building local demand for the goods and services of firms that employ their graduates. Read this article in PDF here. [Source: Making Waves: Canada's Community Economic Development Magazine]

The High Road - On the strength of 23 years with the Center for Labor and Community Research (Chicago), Dan Swinney calls upon practitioners of CED and social economy to contend for power as strenuously in the marketplace as they do in the political arena. There is now a great need to defend and develop the productive capacity that Low Road business practices have so cavalierly undermined. Access issues of The High Road here. [Source: Making Waves: Canada's Community Economic Development Magazine]

Small Business and Microenterprise as an Opportunity - and Asset-Building Strategy - A brief from the Urban Institute examines small business and microenterprise programs and subsidies, and offers recommendations to improve the evaluation and administration of these programs. Small business and microenterprise are important because of their role in the economy, their role in the American dream, and their economic development and self-sufficiency objectives. They are attractive because they create more economic development and self-sufficiency than income redistribution or meeting a minimum consumption level do. However, small business and microenterprise subsidies are often criticized because they are directed toward a narrow, entrepreneurial segment of the population that is not necessarily disadvantaged. Download the report here. [Source: Handsnet Webclipper]

Strategies for Community Investment - A new resource guide from the Annie E. Casey Foundation, Community Investments for Family Economic Success, offers strategies that can work to level the economic playing field for low-income families by helping communities and neighborhoods to plan, secure and direct new investment. The guide provides community leaders with a set of tools and resources for planning, implementing, attracting and financing new investment, with the goal of better connecting a community to the regional economy. Read the guide here. [Source: Annie E. Casey Foundation Family Economic Success Quarterly Newsletter]

Community Investment Study - From March to September 2003, the Social Investment Organization, a national non-profit organization dedicated to the advancement of socially responsible investment in Canada, and the Riverdale Community Development Corporation, a local community economic development organization, conducted a national study of the current state of community investment programs in Canada with a view to learning how to expand the scale, size, sustainability, and effectiveness of community investing for Community Economic Development. The Final Report of the Community Investment Study and other community investment information is now on the Social Investment Organization's website. Please see http://www.socialinvestment.ca/comminvestment.htm [Source: elist contribution by Susannah Cameron, Riverdale CDC]

Bell Canada donation supports community economic development - Bell Canada announced a $1 million gift to Carleton University's Community Economic Development Technical Assistance Program (CEDTAP) to undertake the management of the Bell Community Economic Development Fund. The contribution will be matched by CEDTAP and the J.W McConnell Family Foundation for a total of $2 million. "This is the first time that the private and public sectors have partnered at such a high level in the field of community economic development in Canada," said Katherine Graham, Dean of the Faculty of Public Affairs and Management at Carleton. "Drawing on the different strength of the various partners, CEDTAP will mobilize this knowledge to strengthen government policy and replicate community-based models of economic opportunity and social fairness." For more information, visit: www.bce.ca. [Source: Charity Village]

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Corporate Social Responsibility

Integrating Corporate Citizenship: Leading from the Middle - Researchers from the Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship analyzed eight companies and discovered it is often mid-level managers who lead efforts to integrate corporate citizenship. In a few of the cases, the managers have made substantial progress in the face of daunting business downturns. Learn how they successfully lead from the middle here. [Source: The Voice of Corporate Citizenship]

A New Era for Business - More business leaders recognize that their company's future is increasingly intertwined with the needs and demands of society. What many executives don't understand is how best to manage that changing relationship. This article provides a model for incorporating sociopolitical issues into the strategic decision-making process. Learn more here. [Source: Stanford Social Innovation Review]

Ernst & Young work to transform education - New research shows how companies can help transform public education and tackle concerns over workforce readiness. Learn more here. [Source: Voice of Corporate Citizenship]

Converging Needs - The International Business Leaders Forum has produced a set of guidelines showing how companies can develop successful products and services where business growth and the needs of the poor converge. Learn more here. [Source: Voice of Corporate Citizenship]

Strategy and Society - Michael Porter and Mark Kramer introduce a new approach to CSR in this article for the Harvard Business Review. Moving past generic CSR principles, they see societal influence as the new frontier of competitive advantage. Listen to the podcast or download the article here. [Source: FSG Social Impact Advisors]

1% For the Planet - Mountain-Equipment Co-op (MEC) has called upon the Canadian business community to join them in making a significant commitment to the environment. MEC has recently joined the 1% For The Planet program, a multinational alliance of companies who have agreed to donate 1% of their yearly revenues toward environmental causes. Learn more here. [Source: Community Foundations of Canada]

The Leadership Challenge - In today’s climate where business is known more for its focus on profits, the U.S. Climate Action Partnership, a coalition of business leaders urging the federal government to enact strong national legislation to control greenhouse gas emissions, seems like an anomaly. Or is it? Read more here. [Source: Voice of Corporate Citizenship]

The Other CSR (Consumer Social Responsibility) - Consumers often say they want to be socially responsible when it comes to buying food, clothing, office supplies, and the like. But consumers’ noble sentiments are not often reflected in their actions at the checkout. What causes this discrepancy, and what can companies do about it when entering the socially responsible market? Read more here. [Source: Voice of Corporate Citizenship]

Business contributions to communities - Imagine Canada has released a report on the community investment practices of Canadian companies that reveals: why businesses contribute to charitable organizations; how they organize those contributions; how contributions are assessed and evaluated; and the challenges companies face when contributing to community. Learn more by downloading the report here. [Source: Charity Village]

Business launches disaster response web site - Business Roundtable, an association of 160 chief executive officers of leading U.S. companies, has launched a web site to provide a comprehensive clearinghouse of information to help the business community better prepare for disasters. Visit the site here. [Source: Voice of Corporate Citizenship]

The true test of corporate social responsibility - Want a true test of a company's commitment to corporate social responsibility? Look no further than the company's employee volunteerism program. Read more here. [Source: Voice of Corporate Citizenship]

Corporate Citizenship and Urban Problem-Solving - Business-led civic organizations have historically played an important role in urban policy making, planning and renewal. However, shifting economic forces - including corporate consolidation, industrial decline and the suburbanization of many businesses - have diminished the capacity of these organizations, potentially stripping cities of a significant advocate. Learn more from this Brookings Institution study here. [Source: HandsNet WebClipper & the Brookings Institution]

Saltspring More Affordable for Workers - At Moonstruck Organic Cheese on Saltspring Island, owners Julia and Susan Grace believe in sharing the benefits of living on a farm. Learn how these business owners are making Saltspring more affordable for workers in the latest story from the Quality of Life CHALLENGE here. [Source: Quality of Life CHALLENGE]

Public attitudes and perceptions of corporate social responsibility - More than environmental stewardship and philanthropy, nearly one in two Americans believe the most important proof of corporate social responsibility is treating employees well. Read more here. [Source: Voice of Corporate Citizenship]

An Enterprising Failure - How a British social enterprise that was embraced by the likes of Tony Blair collapsed into bankruptcy. Read this case study here. [Source: Stanford Social Innovation Review]

Changing the Game - Corporate social responsibility hasn't had a noticeable impact on society because most companies are still playing by the old rules. That may soon change as innovative firms adopt a new model that directly involves them in solving society's problems. Read this article by Mark Kramer and John Kania here. [Source: Stanford Social Innovation Review]

Is Philanthropy Enough? - Twenty years ago the social contract in most western countries was clear. Governments took care of society and made sure business could operate effectively, business took care of business and growing the economy, and nonprofits and charities filled in the chinks in the social fabric that governments missed. Today this social contract is fast unraveling, and as it does, business is suddenly finding itself expected to play a different role in society. Read this article by Chris Pinney here. [Source: Voice of Corporate Citizenship]

The Myth of CSR - As nice as it is to think that modern corporations can do well while also doing good, there are serious limitations that the market imposes on their CSR initiatives. In addition, the legal obligations of corporations to their shareholders further restrict CSR’s potential to help solve social and environmental problems. At some point, writes Deborah Doane, we should be asking ourselves whether or not we’ve been promoting a strategy more likely to lead to business as usual than to tackling the fundamental problems of our time. Read the article here. [Source: Stanford Social Innovation Review]

Corporate connections: Why the business world needs nonprofits - Corporations have a role to play in the nonprofit sector, but exactly what that role should be depends on an organization's strategic vision, the partners they've chosen, and the goals they've adopted. Find out about some of the different approaches that companies are taking, and what nonprofits need to know. Read the article here. [Source: Charity Village]

State of Corporate Citizenship in 2005 - What do U.S. businesses actually make of corporate citizenship? The attitudes and expectations of nearly 1200 small, medium and large businesses are unveiled in the results of the 2005 State of Corporate Citizenship survey. Learn more here. [Source: Voice of Corporate Citizenship]

How Costco Became the Anti-Wal-Mart - This article by Steven Greenhouse, first published by the NY Times in July 2005, profiles Costco's human resources policies and the thinking behind the company's generous employee compensation program. Read the article here. [Source: Canadian Social Research Newsletter]

Rebuilding Trust in Canadian Organizations - This report examines the reasons for low levels of public trust. It concludes that organizations can rebuild public trust by enhancing their own trustworthiness. This approach alone, however, is not sufficient. Journalists, auditors, editors, financial analysts and others also play a critical role in enabling trust in our society. Learn more here. [Source: Conference Board of Canada]

BMO tops list of Canada's best corporate citizens - Corporate Knights magazine recently unveiled its list of the best 50 corporate citizens in Canada for 2005. All of the major banks made it onto the list, including the Bank of Montreal, which came in first overall. Shoppers Drug Mart came in second, followed by IGM Financial Inc, Laurentian Bank of Canada, Husky Injection Moldings Systems, Torstar Corporation, TELUS, Interface Inc., TD Bank, and CIBC. Key indicators that helped determine the rankings include: shareholder conflict, lobbying, toxic releases, work stoppages, pension plan coverage, key executive retention, and board independence and diversity. For more information, click here. [Source: Charity Village]

Report identifies strategies for incorporating ethics into organizational culture - The Business Higher Education Forum (BHEF) recently released the results of their study on ethical business practices. Entitled Embedding Ethics in Business and Higher Education: From Leadership to Management Imperative, the report diagnoses the problem of corporate corruption, explains available management options to address organizational ethics, provides new strategies for weaving ethics into the culture of an organization, and offers a practical application of that strategy for businesses and nonprofits. This new methodology calls for "explicit accountability for the ethical performance of an organization" and "increased transparency or the ability for those with a stake in an organization to assess its ethical condition." For more information, click here. To download the full report in PDF format, click here. [Source: Charity Village]

Philanthropy, Inc. - In a broad, historic shift, and under a variety of names - like cause marketing or strategic philanthropy - large corporations are changing the way they view their charitable donations. Most appear to want a closer alignment with their business objectives. Read this article by Keith Epstein here. [Source: Stanford Social Innovation Review]

Majority of people expect corporations to help solve social problems - An American survey finds that 77% of people believe that "companies have a responsibility to help support causes" through charitable donations, while 92% say corporations should be more socially responsible. Almost half of the survey respondents (43%) reported buying a product from a company in the last 12 months after hearing about its commitment to a social cause. A much higher percentage (90%) said they might stop purchasing goods and services from a company that did not have a good record of social responsibility. And although 87% of respondents said a company could earn their trust by donating to charity, 98% said it is the quality of services and products that determines their opinion of that enterprise. -- Cone [Source: Charity Village]

RBC Financial Group: From Accommodation to Inclusion - This community story profiles a Canadian employer with an exemplary attitude and demonstrated ability to change its operations for the good of all employees. By adopting the principle that everyone needs help accommodating to life circumstances in some way – be it maternity or parental leave, religious observance, recovery from an accident coping with illness or managing a disability – RBC Financial Group has established services and programs for its employees and customers which make special needs a regular part of doing business. Read the story