Strategic Sessions underway:
a) Shared Platforms Community of Practice (Open) - This is a chance for the Shared Platforms Community of Practice to strategize and share information based on research, knowledge sharing and partnerships that have taken place over the last six months. (There is no one definition of a Shared Platform, but in general Shared Platforms provide administrative support and an organizational home to initiatives that would otherwise be unincorporated).
b) Organizing Renewable Energy Community Power Projects (Open) - Ontario's Feed-in Tariff (FIT) Program for renewable energy is a potential source of funds for NFPs and other community groups as well as a way to address the climate change challenge. Join the Climate Change Lawyer's Network to learn more about how NFPs can participate in the FIT Program. The session is relevant to any NFP with an interest in participating in a renewable power project, and particularly those NFPs which own or control roof space suitable for renewable energy installations. The speakers will provide information on the key elements of successful projects, how to obtain project funding (including the Community Energy Partnership Program), how to contract out the building and maintenance of the project, and many more practical tools. For a full agenda, please visit http://climatechangelawyers.ca/.
c) Policylicious Presents: Policy Engagement, Advocacy, and Charitable Law (Open) - The focus of this upcoming event will be to look at how frontline workers and youth-serving networks can engage in public policy work in tandem with a direct service mandate. The tagline for the first Policylicious event in 2011 hosted by Frontline Partners with Youth Network (FPYN) was “when youth policy gets built from the ground up, it becomes Policylicious." To continue the conversation that began in 2011, FPYN is hosting a discussion on the importance and limits of advocacy and policy engagement in the non-profit sector. We will explore this topic utilizing the research and information provided in the paper by our Public Good Initiative students (Fardowsa Hashi, Christopher Langlois, Adina Serbanescu), “Building Advocacy Strategies: Formal and Informal Challenges to Advocacy, and Promising Ways Forward.”
d) Ontario Social Economy Roundtable (Open) - Join this open session to learn about the Ontario Social Economy Roundtable's past & planned activities, discussion document for Principles for Community Financing in Ontario, and its strategic plan for the coming months. This is also a chance to share information about what has been happening and what is planned in other spaces (Ontario, across Canada, and internationally), and network with others interested and active in strengthening the social economy.
e) Partnership Grants Working Session (By Invitation) - This year the Ontario Ministry of Citizenship and Immigration awarded 27 Partnership Grants to advance the capacity of the sector. Mowat NFP and the ONN will convene the Partnership Grants Working Session to provide Partnership Grantees with a rare opportunity to discuss our projects, including research agendas, common goals, and challenges and successes to date. The goals of this session are to exchange knowledge, create a stronger network, and build organizational and network capacities.
f) Human Capital Renewal Strategy (By Invitation) - Due to the rapid pace of policy work, QELN, as well as ONN's Governance and Funding Reform groups, are no longer meeting at this time. Please see details and contact information below.
g) Child Care - Responding to the Minister's Discussion Paper (hosted by the Quality Early Learning Network) (Open) - The Minister of Education has issued a discussion paper and is seeking the input of the child care community on the future of child care. The Quality Early Learning Network has responded and will share our response with a broader network of agencies delivering services to children and families seeking their additional input which will be shared with the Ministry. This is a critical time for Child Care in the Province and the session offers a real life example of Policy moving to Practice.
Governance (Rescheduled) - At ONN's last governance meeting, Jillian mentioned Capacity Waterloo Region’s fantastic work including their board governance bootcamp and Executive Director In Residence programs. We're excited that Cathy Brothers can come and speak with us about some of the work Capacity Waterloo Region is doing, what works and what doesn’t, some governance trends she is seeing in Waterloo Region, etc.
