Why I am supporting my friend and former colleague Jeff Henry, for Waterloo City Council

From the website campaign testimonial page:

“During my time as the Vice-President, Administration and Finance for the University of Waterloo’s Federation of Students, I worked closely with Jeff Henry, and can attest firsthand to his skilled leadership and collaborative approach. Among Jeff’s broad set of advocacy skills, his in-depth knowledge of municipal affairs helped to ensure an optimal outcome when we worked with the Region of Waterloo to provide a universal transit pass for University of Waterloo undergraduate students. Thanks to Jeff’s leadership and teamwork skills, more than 24,000 students now have access to affordable and reliable transit that connects them more closely with the Waterloo community.

Even during the more challenging executive experiences that arose during our time working together – and there were many – Jeff showed an even temperament, well thought-out arguments, a team-focused mindset, and capable leadership. I am pleased to support him in his bid for city council, and believe he would serve as an excellent bridge between the community and university students.”

Please visit www.jeffhenry.ca to learn more about Jeff and the issues surrounding Central-Columbia Ward 6 in the City of Waterloo.

Join the Facebook fan page, follow Jeff on Twitter, or subscribe to the campaign blog RSS feed to keep updated on the campaign as it progresses.

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Founded in March 2007 by Nick Petten while an undergraduate student at the University of Waterloo, Out in the Cold is a grassroots, student-run event held every November, where students and community members are invited to spend the night outside on campus, to raise money and awareness of homelessness issues in their local community.

We are continuing the Out in the Cold initiative by sharing a model by which other schools and universities can adapt to their respective campus and local community. www.outinthecold.ca was launched in October 2009 as an online portal to document the growth of this grassroots initiative. It is our goal to provide the tools necessary for people in other schools and universities to organize similar events in order to provide a better understanding of issues surrounding homelessness, poverty and housing stability.

Causes of homelessness include poverty and a lack of affordable housing. Root causes of poverty include low income, unemployment or underemployment, social isolation, racism, low literacy, poor education, and many more. Addressing homelessness is effective social, health, and economic policy.

• Learn more about the issues

After three years at the University of Waterloo, the Out in the Cold model was successfully adapted at the University of Toronto campus. In November 2009, Out in the Cold was run simultaneously at both campuses, and was organized by teams of students led by Kaija Saarinen (Waterloo) and Jenna van Draanen (Toronto).

• Learn more about Out in the Cold 2009
• Out in the Cold in the news

Out in the Cold Timeline

Out in the Cold has raised over $10,000 for organizations tackling the issues of poverty and homelessness in the local community.

March 2007: University of Waterloo

November 2007: University of Waterloo

November 2008: University of Waterloo

November 2009:

University of Waterloo & University of Toronto

www.outinthecold.ca launched

November 2010:

Our goal is to apply this model to schools and universities across Canada. Please contact us if you would like to host Out in the Cold in your local community.

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Out in the Cold 2009

A big THANK YOU to InsideToronto.com for putting together this video of Out in the Cold, held at the University of Toronto on November 20-21, 2009.

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When tackling the issues of poverty and homelessness, one begins to recognize immediately that the solutions to these problems are not always cut and dry.

An example of a simple approach would be to throw more funds/resources towards homeless shelters or similar-type organizations without really attempting to address the complexities surrounding the question:

“Why do we even have homeless shelters in the first place?”

This question extends far beyond the problem of a lack of housing for youth and people on the streets, and goes into questions regarding employment and job training programs, education, healthcare, family, mental health, drugs and crime to name a few.

Taken from this perspective and recognizing that a complex solution is certainly required to address a complex problem, the Hamilton Roundtable for Poverty Reduction aims to tackle the issue of poverty reduction by “making Hamilton the best place to raise a child.”

Think about it.

Instead of tackling the issues of poverty and homelessness in silos, individuals and organizations in Hamilton are working in a multi-collaborative approach (community, business, voluntary sector, government, education, health, etc.) in order to make Hamilton the best place in Canada to raise a child.

In other words, they are creating a movement towards reducing poverty within their city by working together and recognizing that each individual/organization has a role to play in creating change – they currently have more than 300 people on their leadership team and are working with more than 900 organizations and individuals on community solutions to reducing poverty.

More from the HRPR’s report to the community, dated June 5, 2008:

***

Action

So what can you do within your community?

A great example of ‘action’ to raise awareness and empathy (in order to move towards reflective dialogue) that can easily be done at other schools and university campuses is Out in the Cold, an event held last Friday, November 21 2008, at the University of Waterloo campus for the third year in a row.

From the Waterloo Chronicle:

Now in its third year, the program hopes by simulating the conditions that the homeless face on the streets that more people will work to end poverty.

“The main part of the event is for people to stay outside overnight to experience what it might be like to be homeless during the cold winter months,” said the recent UW grad [Nick Petten]. “Of course, it doesn’t come close to it but people will understand how hard it is, and how cold it is.

“You can multiply that by 10 or 100 and that’s what it’s actually like. It’s a very sobering experience.” Petten said he started the Out in the Cold fundraiser to get students to understand issues surrounding homelessness and raise funds to tackle the growing problem. Students aren’t immune to homelessness either as there are various levels of it out there, including people who have to couch surf just to get by with rising tuition costs.

(News coverage on Out in the Cold from last year)

This year, funds raised went to ROOF which stands for Reaching our Outdoor Friends, a non-profit organization “committed to providing for the safety, support and overall well-being of homeless youth and youth-at-risk, age 12-25, in the Waterloo Region.”

***

Voice

Matt Levicki from Elite Life Media, produced a short video on Out in the Cold, highlighting the event as well as ROOF.

Video after the jump.

(Note: I have a cameo in the video, thanking the Federation of Students for their support)

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Laurel Centre conference featured Marc Kielburger keynote

By Suzanne Gardner

The Laurel Centre for Social Entrepreneurship hosted their second Annual Conference on Social Entrepreneurship from November 14-16, 2008. Over the span of three days, roughly 200 people came together in Waterloo, Ontario to talk, learn, and live social entrepreneurship.

The weekend kicked off on Friday night with a lecture from Free the Children’s chief executive director Marc Kielburger. After an engaging and impassioned speech about his own experiences living and working in developing countries, Kielburger stayed for over an hour longer to chat with each and every attendee waiting in the massive line up to meet him!

Photo by Michelle Attard

Throughout the rest of the weekend there were talks about keys to success, attracting and retaining talent, decreasing high school drop-out rates, (the ever important) revenue generation, and much more. Key leaders in the areas of health, education, and international development came together to talk about their efforts, successes and challenges. With non-stop keynotes, workshops, and panel discussions, it was no wonder everyone was tired out by the end. Tired, but inspired.

“We are pleased to see such an overwhelming interest in social entrepreneurship, and we embrace the opportunity to inform, engage and connect our delegates in such an inspiring field,” says Andrew Dilts, Chair of the Laurel Centre.

“We find that knowledge of social entrepreneurship techniques is in great demand in today’s economic climate, and take pride in helping our delegates work towards positive change in the world.”

The Laurel Centre’s leadership team would like to thank all the delegates, speakers, and volunteers for joining us for the weekend, bringing along their energy, enthusiasm, and passion for changing the world. We’d also like to thank our sponsors for their generous support without which this event would not have been possible.

Photo by Michelle Attard

For more information on the Laurel Centre, please visit www.laurelcentre.ca. For more event photos, click here.

Suzanne Gardner is the Director of Communications at the Laurel Centre for Social Entrepreneurship in Waterloo, Ontario. The Laurel Centre features business-minded discipline with passion for social change.

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I also had the pleasure of meeting Karim and Michael, the guys behind SocialFinance.ca, at the Social Finance Forum in Toronto last week and they are working hard to build SocialFinance.ca as the place to discuss the advancement of social finance in Canada.

Karim also does an excellent job of providing a recap of the Social Enterprise Summit as well.

Their website is certainly a great resource, and if you have not already checked it out, I would encourage you to do so.

That being said, with social finance and sustainable revenue generating models being such hot topics in Canada and around the world right now, the themes for next year’s 3rd Annual Conference on Social Entrepreneurship hosted by the Laurel Centre may focus on these two topics.

Watch this space for more details.

***

Photos and online media coverage

(With Marc Kielburger at the 2nd Annual Conference on Social Entrepreneurship)

Photos taken at the 2nd Annual Conference on Social Entrepreneurship

November 23, 2008: SocialFinance.ca: Laurel Centre’s Annual Conference Recap

November 19, 2008: The Cord Weekly: Marc Kielburger encourages social change

November 6, 2008: Skoll Foundation: Marc Kielburger to kick off Social Entrepreneurship Conference

November 5, 2008: The Record: It’s about more than money

October 10, 2008: Imprint: Social Change

October 2, 2008: @UW: Laurel Centre hosts Marc Kielburger

September 30, 2008: Exchange Morning Post: A step forward in changing the world

Posted via web from Renjie Butalid

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It’s about more than money

Delegates to hear from many seeking to change world for the better

November 05, 2008

Rose Simone

RECORD STAFF WATERLOO

Making money is a good goal, but more people now want to tie that to changing the world for the better, say organizers of an annual conference being put on by the Laurel Centre for Social Entrepreneurship.

About 150 delegates are expected at the second annual conference on social entrepreneurship, which takes place Nov. 14 to 16 at the University of Waterloo and Wilfrid Laurier University, said Suzanne Gardner, a spokesperson for the Laurel centre.

Most delegates are from area universities and community not-for-profit organizations, but the conference has also drawn people from as far away as Alberta, British Columbia and Minnesota, she said.

“They are passionate if they are coming all this way,” Gardner said.

The Laurel Centre aims to help people take the skills normally used in launching business enterprises and use them in creating successful organizations and projects where the primary purpose is to change the world for the better.

This year’s conference features speakers from health, education and international development initiatives.

Gardner said about 300 people are also expected at a Nov. 14 evening event at the University of Waterloo Humanities Theatre, featuring keynote speaker Marc Kielburger of Free The Children and Me to We Social Enterprises.

People not attending the conference can still buy tickets separately for Kielburger’s talk.

Kielburger’s younger brother, Craig, was only 12 when he began a campaign in 1995 to stop the labour slavery and exploitation of children around the world. The two brothers now run organizations involved in building schools in those countries.

Andrew Dilts, chair of the Laurel Centre, said there is interest in social entrepreneurship both among students in business programs who want to use their business skills in organizations that have “a heart and a soul,” as well as among students in international development, environmental studies or sociology-based programs, who have an idea or a passion for social change and want to use entrepreneurial skills to achieve those goals.

But young people are not the only ones now interested in social entrepreneurship.

There is also growing interest in the broader community and the non-profit sector, he said.

Besides Kielburger, other speakers at the conference include: Sue Horton, a Wilfrid Laurier University economics professor and visiting scientist at the Micronutrient Initiative which is dedicated to ensuring proper vitamin and mineral nutrients for all children; Frances Westley of the University of Waterloo, who heads up Social Innovation Generation, which is researching better ways of fostering social change; John Colangeli, chief executive of Lutherwood; and Carolyn Acker, chief executive of Pathways Canada, an organization dedicated to lowering the dropout rate among high school youth.

Information about the conference can be found at www.laurelcentre.ca

Read more

View newspaper PDF

Posted via web from Renjie Butalid

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Executive Director of Free the Children Marc Kielburger will be in the spotlight on Friday, November 14, 2008 to kickoff the Laurel Centre’s 2008 Annual Conference on Social Entrepreneurship. Kielburger, also the co-founder and director of  Me to We Social Enterprises, will share the knowledge and experience that has led him to become one of Canada’s youngest and most successful social entrepreneurs.

This keynote is OPEN TO THE PUBLIC. Tickets are available online at http://www.laurelcentre.ca, by phone at (519) 888-4908, or in person through the Humanities Theatre box office at the University of Waterloo from noon to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday. Tickets are $6 for students and $15 for community members.

Get your ticketes today, they are selling out fast!

Posted via web from Renjie Butalid

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The Laurel Centre for Social Entrepreneurship in the news:

A step forward in changing the world Kielburger to kick off second annual social entrepreneurship conference in Waterloo

Waterloo — For a weekend in November, promising and existing social leaders will converge in Waterloo, Ontario to learn, discuss, and further their individual quests to change the world. Free the Children Chief Executive Director Marc Kielburger will help launch the weekend with his keynote lecture at the 2008 Annual Conference on Social Entrepreneurship.

From November 14-16, 2008, the Laurel Centre for Social Entrepreneurship will host their second annual conference, an event that will bring together students and practitioners of social entrepreneurship for a three-day conference jointly hosted by the University of Waterloo and Wilfrid Laurier University, both in Waterloo, ON.

Through a series of workshops, keynote lectures, panel discussions, and an exhibition, the conference, under the title “Change the World,” will explore the advancement of social entrepreneurship both internationally and here at home, featuring the three key themes of health leadership, education, and international development.

The Laurel Centre was founded in late 2007 after the success of the first Waterloo Conference on Social Entrepreneurship, which saw more than 200 people come together from around the world to collaborate on the bridging of the passion for social change together with a business-minded discipline.

Please click here to read more

Posted via web from Renjie Butalid

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Register today

Posted via web from Renjie Butalid

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