Register Now for Collective Impact! The Environment & Our Diverse Society on June 3 @Evergreen Brick Works

Collective Impact! The Environment and Our Diverse Society

Location: Evergreen Brick Works
550 Bayview Ave., Toronto
Time: 8:00am - 5:00pm
Reception: 5:00pm - 7:00pm

Registration Fee: $100

Collective Impact! The Environment & Our Diverse Society is a signature event of the Environment & Diversity Project, a collaborative initiative led by the Sustainability Network.

Collective Impact! will bring together environmental nonprofits, settlement agencies, and community and faith groups and is designed to help the environmental movement change to better reflect various ethno-cultural and Aboriginal communities. Thought leaders will share insights and facilitated discussions will showcase success stories. There will be opportunities to explore numerous existing diversity initiatives and ample time to network and develop key contacts.

Keynote Speakers
Michael Adams, President, Environics
Robin Cardozo, CEO, Ontario Trillium Foundation
Melissa Shin, Contributing Editor, Corporate Knights Magazine
Rosemarie Powell, Assistant Executive Director, Jane/Finch Community and Family Centre

Register Now!

Diversity Project Manager Sonia Dong Speaks on Diversity in the Environmental Movement

Sustainability Network’s Diversity Project Manager Sonia Dong speaks about diversity in the environmental movement on the DiverseCity Toronto website. Check out her video story.

Sustainability Network Partner Clean Air Partnership Hosts Webinar on Building Better Relationships with First Nations

Sustainability Network is pleased to announce that Environment & Diversity Project collaborative partner Clean Air Partnership is hosting a one-hour webinar on Building Better Relationships with First Nations on Wednesday, October 6th @ 10 am EST.

The webinar will feature:

Ron Plain and Kathleen Padulo who will share their expertise and experience on what environmental NGOs and municipalities can do to improve relationship building with First Nations and how groups unwittingly undermine those relationships.

Ron is from Aamjiwnaang First Nation, a small community located in Sarnia, Ontario. He co-founded the Aamjiwnaang Environmental Committee, has worked with Environmental Defence Canada and Kathleen is from the Oneida Nation of the Thames. She has 15 years working experience planning, developing and coordinating programs with Aboriginal organizations and First Nations communities.

Join the webinar to find out more about First Nation priorities and perspectives.

Register for the webinar.

Bay Area Restoration Council and SISO Host Successful First Annual Multicultural Festival

Photo credit: L. Tessier

Sustainability Network's Environment & Diversity Project partner Bay Area Restoration Council (BARC) co-hosted a very successful First Annual Multicultural Festival with Hamilton's Settlement and Integration Services Organization (SISO) last weekend!

Generous donors covered the cost of an HSR shuttle to bring people from Hamilton's diverse East End out to the Bay Front. Said BARC's Rhoda deJonge, "New Canadians were invited to try out canoes, sail boats, kayaks and dinghies in a fun and safe environment. They loved it!"

Photo credit: T. Wiercioch

Over 300 people came to the boating event which also included activities such as fishing lessons from FutureWatch, henna and face painting as well as door prizes from Mountain Equipment Co-op. BARC also partnered with local boating clubs, police, firemen, other local non-profits, the power squadron and even the navy to pull of a wonderfully fun-filled gathering!

Check out more pictures and find out more about BARC's engaging and working with Hamilton's diverse communities on BARC's Facebook page.

HR Council launches new project to increase cultural diversity in Canadian nonprofits

The HR Council recently launched a new project to increase the cultural diversity of Canadian nonprofits.

The project aims to:

• identify key issues preventing nonprofits from accessing the talents of visible minorities
• deliver practical and realistic outcomes to help the sector develop a more inclusive labour force

This is an important project because cultural diversity in the nonprofit sector is very low - take a look at the following statistics from the HR Council’s 2008 survey of nonprofit employers and employees:

• 6% identified themselves as a visible minority (compared to16.2% visible minority across Canada)
  
• 88.9% of respondents were born in Canada
• 8.6% born outside of Canada (compared to 19.8% foreign-born across Canada)
  
• 1.8% considered as landed immigrants

The HR Council is introducing the project and seeking questions, thoughts and perspectives during an interactive, live conversation today at 1pm EST. Sustainability Network will be joining the discussion because we are working to improve the diversity of environmental nonprofits.

Will you be joining the conversation?

Charity Village features Sustainability Network's Environment & Diversity Project

We're pleased to announce that the Sustainability Network's Environment & Diversity Project was featured in Village Vibes - Charity Village's monthly newsletter!

Check out the article here.