The Coady Connection - April 2022

Connection The Coady

April 2022

In this Issue:

In this issue...

A Personal Reflection by Gord Cunningham Education Programs

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Projects and Partnerships

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Engage: Women's Empowerment and Active Citizenship Circle of Abundance

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$14.8 Million announced for ‘Rural Women Cultivating Change’ Pathy Foundation Fellowship Collaboration around the Globe Local Engagement in Nova Scotia Events and Engagements

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Do you have a story to share about how you are applying your learnings from Coady Institute?

If so, contact us at coadycom@stfx.ca

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WELCOMING EILEEN ALMA as INTERIM DIRECTOR Executive Director Gord Cunningham to Retire We are pleased to be welcoming Eileen Alma as the Interim Director of Coady Institute beginning June 1, 2022 as Executive Director Gord Cunningham retires.

Gord came to the Institute in 1997 as a Microfinance Specialist. Throughout his 25 years at Coady Institute, he served many roles including Program Teaching Staff, Assistant Director (including Director of Innovation), Interim Director on two occasions, and as Executive Director for the last three years.

After several years working with longtime Coady partner, the Self Employed Women’s Association (SEWA) in India, Gord and colleagues Alison Mathie, Brianne Peters, and Yogesh Ghore have worked to build the Institute’s Asset-based and Citizen-led Development (ABCD) thematic area.

During his time at Coady, Gord worked in more than 20 countries.

He taught dozens of courses on campus and off, coedited a book, wrote and co-authored several book chapters and articles for peer-reviewed journals, and worked on a number of long-term action-research projects in Eastern and Southern Africa.

We extend our deepest gratitude to Gord for his commitment to Coady Institute and citizenled development, and congratulate him on his retirement.

Interim Director, Eileen Alma, has served as the Director for Coady’s International Centre for Women’s Leadership for the past nine years.

In this role, she has overseen the expansion of the Institute’s programming on women’s leadership and gender equality nationally and internationally, directly supporting more than 2,000 women leaders. Eileen has also guided the expansion of Coady’s programming for Indigenous women

leaders and communities, leading to the growth of the team and development of the Circle of Abundance. She has successfully developed and managed major partnerships with a range of organizations in Canada and globally and currently oversees the Institute’s work on several significant key projects funded by Global Affairs Canada, other federal government departments, and a range of foundations and private funders.

Eileen has 30 years of interdisciplinary experience in international program development, management, research and practice.

Her work has covered several fields including peacebuilding, conflict analysis and postconflict reconstruction; migration and diaspora engagement; decentralization, local power and access to services; governance and state-building; and land access and rights. Prior to joining Coady Institute, Eileen worked with the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) for 20 years, most recently as a Program Officer in the area of Social and Economic Policy.

Eileen is currently the Co-Chair of the Board of Directors for Cooperation Canada, a national organization representing more than 90 civil society organizations across Canada working in the international development and humanitarian sector.

Locally, she is Board Chair for the Friends of the Antigonish Library (FoAL).

Eileen holds a Master’s Degree in Conflict Analysis and Management (ethno-political) from Royal Roads University, a Master’s Certificate in Project Management from Royal Roads University and has undertaken graduate studies on refugee and migration issues at York University.

We are very pleased to welcome Eileen into her new role.

A PERSONAL REFLECTION by GORD CU It is hard to believe that it has been 25 years since I walked through the doors of the Coady Institute for the first time. Over that time, I have seen many changes, both on campus and around the world.

One of the privileges I have had is the opportunity to go back and forth to certain countries as many as 20 times over a 15-to-20-year period. Recently, I had the chance to return to Bangladesh after a 32-year hiatus. In every place the changes I have witnessed have been far more positive than negative. The infrastructure in every country has improved, even smallholder farmers and street vendors have cell phones and thus more access to information. Children are on the whole healthier and more young people are getting a higher quality education than ever before.

I have also noticed positive changes in the community development discourse over the years. In the late 1990s, the prevailing community development paradigm was a focus on community needs, problems, and deficits and how to fix them.

The solutions were often programs and projects led by organizations external to the community.

Over the next two decades there has been a marked shift in the language and approaches of development organizations. Today, it is more common to hear development practitioners speak of starting with community strengths, assets, and agency. There is now even an international Movement for Community-led Development consisting of more than 80 non-governmental organizations large and small.

I am proud of the fact the Coady Institute has played a significant role in helping bring about a change in the community development discourse around the world. The three main vehicles Coady has used have been education programs, actionresearch, and publications. Coady’s courses, workshops, and webinars (on campus, offcampus, and online) have exposed thousands of

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development practitioners to citizen-led and assetbased approaches to community development.

Our work on the ground with partners in several countries over many years has allowed us to jointly test innovative new ways of promoting and supporting citizen-led community development.

Publications such as the article From Clients to Citizens: ABCD as a Strategy for Communitydriven Development, published in Development in Practice in 2003, has generated thousands of reads and led to the development of a book by the same name published by Practical Action in 2008.

The Compendium of Methods and Tools for ABCD Facilitation (2013) is now available for download on multiple websites. And specific tools developed here at Coady such as “Leaky Bucket” continue to be adapted and used all over the world every day.

I am proud of the fact the Coady Institute has played a significant role in helping bring about a change in the community development discourse around the world.

Today, the Coady Institute has more than twice the number of staff and annual budget of the Institute I joined in 1997. When I reflect on the work Coady colleagues are engaged in I am struck by both the breadth and depth of that work. From affordable housing, employment innovation, and women’s leadership in Indigenous communities in Canada to social accountability and ward-level planning in South Africa, to rethinking human capital and innovation in livelihoods resilience in India, to social enterprise in Ghana and Malawi, to youth leadership in Haiti and gender equality and the rights of women and girls in Tanzania and Zimbabwe to producer-led value chain development and climate change in Kenya, the range of Coady’s work is breathtaking.

UNNINGHAM But it is the deep relationships formed with key partners and funders over long periods of time that really sticks with me. Some of our relationships, such as with the Self-Employed Women’s Association (SEWA) in India span four decades.

Coady has several dozen graduates and five different initiatives currently underway with SEWA. Or the Comart Foundation and the relationships we have formed together with SEWA in India and ICRAF in Kenya and the amazing small producerled innovation that is happening in both places.

Others, such as with the Centre for Educational Exchange with Vietnam (now Stronger Together) or Ikhala Trust in South Africa have led to nationwide networks of Coady graduates. In both Vietnam and South Africa those graduate networks have organized their own training programs as well as national and international conferences. What I have learned is the value of relational rather than transactional partnerships. The value of a partnership is not in the size of the projects you hold together. It is in quality of the relationships between key people in each organization and the ability for either organization at various points in the relationship to put a new idea forward for potential collaboration.

If I had to pick one highlight of my time at Coady it would be attending the ABCD Imbizo (or “gathering” in Zulu) in Port Elizabeth, South Africa in 2018. This event attracted close to 250 participants from more than 20 countries including nine Coady colleagues. I am sure it was the largest gathering of Coady colleagues outside of Canada in the Institute’s history. What was magic about it for me was that it was organized by a network of Coady graduates in South Africa many of whom had met each other through their engagement in a Coady course or workshop. Everyone at the event was drawn together by a very simple idea – that communities could and should be driving their own development.

As I absorbed the energy and sense of “movement” at that event and watched the participants become the presenters and workshop leaders and then transform back to participants as others presented and led, I could see a connection to another movement and to the origins of the Coady Institute itself. In my mind I could draw a straight line between what was happening at that moment in South Africa and what had happened during the Antigonish Movement in northeast Nova Scotia almost a century ago. In both cases, people came together to bring about change in their communities motivated by what they had and could do, refusing to be disempowered by what they didn’t have and couldn’t do. I have to admit that I cried that day, and it will be a memory that I carry with me for my next 25 years (Inshalla!!!).

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EDUCATION PROGRAMS

Coady is offering an extensive program of online, on-campus, and in community courses this year as we continue our commitment to developing knowledge and skills for social change. Join us as we explore subjects ranging from climate change and community resilience, to the future of work and workers, to feminist leadership for justice, equity, and ecology, and more!

Feminist Leadership For Justice, Equity and Ecology This course aims to inspire and empower you – women leaders across the world – to engage in purposeful and justice-oriented leadership, and to design ways to inculcate processes, systems, and structures towards the above issues in the communities you are engaged with.

Future of Work and Workers This ambitious course will help participants better understand the magnitude and intensity of the current changes shaping the world of work and provide a peek into what is to come.

Learn More & Apply Now

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Indigenous Women in Leadership This course is for First Nations, Métis, and Inuit women of all ages and backgrounds who have some prior leadership experience and are interested in engaging in social change and becoming active members of a national network of supportive Indigenous leaders.

PROJECTS and PARTNERSHIPS For the last 63 years, Coady Institute has been working with community leaders and organizations supporting leadership and knowledge building at the grassroots level.

In collaboration with partners in Canada and across the globe, the Institute is committed to Asset Based Community Development and reducing poverty and transforming societies by strengthening local economies, by building resilient communities, and by promoting participation, accountability, and governance.

Coady continues to find ways of supporting the efforts of our partners despite various restrictions that impacted our ability to travel.

Read more

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Projects and Partnerships

ENGAGE: WOMEN'S EMPOWERMENT and ACTIVE CITIZENSHIP A key component of the ENGAGE program is learning.

The ENGAGE Newsletter features updates, key lessons, and changes which partners are seeing. This issue features SEWA’s Food Systems Webinar Series, which brought visibility to the informal women farmers and their issues, challenges, and solutions to food systems transformation.

It also provides updates and success stories from the other partners: Centre Haitien du Leadership et de l’Excellence (CLE), Christian Commission for Development in Bangladesh (CCDB), Tanzania Gender Networking Programme (TGNP), and the Organization for Women in Self-Employment (WISE) in Ethiopia.

ABCD AND HUMANITARIAN RESPONSE/AID:

MIXING OIL AND WATER? ABCD Kitchen Table Talks February 3 2022

ENGAGE!

Women's Empowerment & Active Citizenship

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March 2022

ENGAGE!

Vol. 1 Issue 1

Women's Empowerment & Active Citizenship

NEWSLETTER

In this Issue: Feature: SEWA Food Systems Webinar Series Highlights ABCD Kitchen Table Talk with WISE Christian Commission for Development in Bangladesh (CCDB) Project Update Centre Haitien du Leadership et de l’Excellence (CLE) Program Update COP26 Webinar

The Coady Institute partners with five organizations to implement the ENGAGE program in Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Haiti, India, and Tanzania. A key component of the ENGAGE program is learning. The ENGAGE Newsletter feature updates, key lessons, and changes which partners are seeing. The March 2022 issue features SEWA’s Food Systems Webinar Series, which brought visibility to the informal women farmers and their issues, challenges, and solutions to food systems transformation. It also provides updates and success stories from the other partners: Centre Haitien du Leadership et de l’Excellence (CLE), Christian Commission for Development in Bangladesh (CCDB), Tanzania Gender Networking Programme (TGNP), and the Organization for Women in Self-Employment (WISE) in Ethiopia.

If you have come to Nova Scotia, you will notice that we often do a lot of our talking and decision-making informally at our kitchen tables. The Antigonish Movement was organized around them and Moses Coady and Jimmy Tomkins, our founders, were known for them. We wanted to revive these discussions around the burning issues that are keeping us up at night about ABCD approaches. These talks are provocative, candid, and critical discussion circles on how to deepen our practice and thinking on ABCD. This Kitchen Table Talk was framed around how humanitarian response, direct supports to communities and individuals, and ABCD approaches exist, co-exist, and can be in tension.

Projects and Partnerships

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Projects and Partnerships

CIRCLE of ABUNDANCE New from Circle of Abundance – Amplifying Indigenous Women’s Leadership is an online magazine aimed to highlight the experiences of Circle of Abundance program graduates, mentors, Elders, staff, and advisors.

This second issue highlights the work, experiences, accomplishments, and reflections of the Indigenous leaders connected to the Circle of Abundance.

“The Circle of Abundance at the Coady Institute has a story that starts over 10 years ago with Indigenous women gathering that have all shared stories of their homes, their hearts, their legacies and identities of self ... The Indigenous Women in Community Leadership flagship program is a game changer.

This Ezine has been created to hold and share space so we can share stories, highlight alumnae successes, experiences and learning about life after living through the Circle of Abundance networking at Coady.”

Andrea Curley Editor-in-Chief

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Projects and Partnerships

$14.8 MILLION ANNOUNCED for ‘RURAL WOMEN CULTIVATING CHANGE’ Global Affairs Canada has announced $14.8 million for Rural Women Cultivating Change, an initiative led by SeedChange in partnership with eight civil society organizations including Coady Institute.

“This program will reach 32,500 women farmers and their allies of all genders to promote women’s leadership in ecological agriculture. ‘Rural Women Cultivating Change’ will also aim to increase women’s access to the resources they need, as well as help them better combat climate change and violence against women in their community.” – SeedChange In addition to SeedChange and Coady Institute, partner organizations include WE-Action Ethiopia, Institute for Sustainable Development Ethiopia, GROOTS Kenya, SeedSavers Network Kenya, HIVOS East Africa, PELUM Tanzania, and longtime Coady partner, Tanzania Gender Networking Program TGNP.

“Women and girls are disproportionately vulnerable to the devastating effects of climate change, biodiversity loss and natural disasters. Women and girls are the ones most impacted by natural disasters and the first to go without food when crops fail. At the same time, they are essential change leaders and knowledge keepers in adaptation and mitigation efforts. More needs to be done to take their needs and expertise into account, which is why we will continue to support increasing the participation of women as leaders in climate change action around the world.”

Harjit S. Sajjan

Minister of International Development Minister responsible for the Pacific Economic Development Agency of Canada

About Rural Women Cultivating Change This project will target remote rural regions of Ethiopia, Kenya, and Tanzania, where farming is the primary occupation and principal use of women’s labour. The target regions are negatively impacted by climate change, food insecurity and patriarchal norms and practices that severely limit women’s household and community leadership roles, including with regard to agricultural practices. Through the use of agro-ecological approaches that encourage equitable production, sustainable resource management and market access, this project will empower women and encourage gender-transformative change.

Working in collaboration with women’s rights and agriculturally-based organizations, support will be provided to advance climate adaptation, increase food security, enhance gender equality, reduce sexual and gender-based violence and improve livelihoods for rural women.

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Projects and Partnerships

PATHY FOUNDATION FELLOWSHIP We are pleased to announce the incoming young leaders for the 2022-23 Pathy Foundation Fellowship at Coady Institute.

The 12-month Fellowship provides communityfocused experiential learning opportunities for graduating students of Bishop’s University, McGill University, Queen’s University, University of Ottawa and St. Francis Xavier University.

The seven incoming Fellows will attend skill-building sessions and planning workshops at Coady Institute before commencing the nine-month community phase. Fellows will work with community partners to implement a broad diversity of projects, from network-building with Black and Indigenous activists in Ottawa, to collaborating with Inuit youth of the Canadian Arctic, to community-building within supportive housing in Dartmouth, and more.

Meet the 2022-23 Fellows Félix Aupalu (McGill) Community: Inuit people of the Canadian Arctic (Puvirnituq, Nunavik, Québec), Montreal, Canada Initiative Synopsis: Inuit Youth Collaborating for a Bright Future

My initiative has a very clear and concise goal. I want to host small events and gatherings (online and inperson) that allow Inuit youth to share and discuss important topics and subjects; my initiative will aim to create spaces that encourage togetherness, celebrates excellence, and contributes to our vision of our future. By creating these spaces for Inuit youth, this project will address our community's ability to feel heard, collaborate on solutions, heal through community, and share stories of success.

The gatherings will be both formal and informal in a way, and will be informed both by traditional and contemporary methods of community building.

Jami Horne (StFX) Community: Horton High School Learning Centre, Greenwich, Canada Initiative Synopsis: Leading for Change

My proposed initiative for the Pathy Fellowship is dedicated to the community who first inspired me, believed in me, and encouraged me beyond measures - the Horton High School Learning Centre.

My aim is to implement a combined after-school/

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lunch-hour program for interested Learning Centre students who identify as having a physical or intellectual disability. The main goals of this program would be to create increased leadership positions, employment opportunities, and lasting community connections for the students in the Learning Centre.

This initiative would ultimately result in heightened disability representation, visibility, and platforms for sharing lived experience, not only within Horton High School, but within the surrounding community.

Jamal Koulmiye-Boyce (uOttawa) Community: Black and Indigenous youth activists organizations, Ottawa, Canada Initiative Synopsis: Building Networks for Black & Indigenous Activists

My initiative will build a formal network among Black and Indigenous activists engaging in antiracist and decolonial organizing across Ontario. It will achieve this through 3 main outputs: a virtual map that highlights existing organizations and initiatives, a dynamic social media presence, and an annual symposium. Together these pieces will provide a centralized space to share resources; address local, regional, and national level issues; and share knowledge on how individual organizations were created and scaled, making it easier for others to do the same. Ultimately, it will help build and sustain these movements by providing structures that encourage and facilitate collaboration and community building among Black and Indigenous activists.

Charlotte Langley (Queen's)

Courtney McKay (StFX)

Community: Mobile Outreach Street Health (MOSH) and Housing First, Dartmouth, Canada Initiative Synopsis: Community

Community: Indigenous Women and Girls in Atlantic Canada, Ulnooweg Development Group, Atlantic Region, Canada Initiative Synopsis: Empowering

Building Within Supportive Housing

My proposed initiative would work within a supportive housing project in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, which will house individuals who are experiencing homelessness and living with two or more mental health, addiction, and chronic health issues. This initiative has two primary objectives. First, it will facilitate community relationships and provide support to residents. This aim will be addressed through a weekly community meal program and the development of volunteer services. Second, it will improve access to harm reduction services in the building and for the greater community.

Implementing these programs would help to strengthen the community of support for individuals who are transitioning into stable housing and minimize the harms associated with substance use.

Attou Mamat (McGill) Community: Montreal Steppers, Montreal, Canada Initiative Synopsis: Practicing Transformative Justice Through Art

My initiative is a participatory art-based workshop program to introduce young Tioh;tia:ke/Montreal students to the feminist, anti-racist, and antioppressive principles of transformative justice.

Although schools would serve as entry points for this program, my hope is for the project to be expanded to other community spaces where youths gather.

Through poetry, dance, visual arts, and more, this project would help young people in Tioh;tia:ke/ Montreal, with particular attention given to Black, Indigenous, and other racialized youths, develop the tools they need to provide care to each other and their communities.

Indigenous Girls Through Business

My project idea centres around young Indigenous women and facilitates knowledge sharing related to business acumen. The participants will attend sessions that are structured around necessary skills such as marketing, finance, management, entrepreneurship, and e-commerce. Simultaneously, participants will undergo activities related to confidence building, networking and engagement with their culture and community, providing a space, knowledge, and supports that will enable them to realize their full potential in the business world.

Jackie Stendel (McGill) Community: At-risk youth, LOVE, Montreal, Canada Initiative Synopsis: Art and Environmental Belonging with AtRisk Youth

My initiative is to introduce a program that explores social and environmental sustainability with at-risk youth through transformative social engagement.

The program will engage youth by looking at the multifaceted nature of the climate crisis, possibilities to form reciprocal and grateful relationships with nature and methods of fighting for sustainability with art-creation methods. Through art-making and leadership activities, youth will find personal connections to environmental issues, form relationships to local ecologies, develop meaningful communities and work as a leader to inspire others.

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COLLABORATION AROUND the Eric Smith (Project Manager, ENGAGE) recently visited World Agroforestry (ICRAF) in Nairobi, Kenya to support the Farmerled Tools, Dashboard Development and the Future of Farming initiative. Supported by the Fund for Innovation & Transformation, the initiative aims to advance gender equality and economic empowerment by providing farmers with access to financial tools for business planning and management. Read more about this initiative.

Julien Landry (Program Teaching Staff) joined colleagues in South Africa where a research team is exploring how asset-based community development (ABCD) approaches can be leveraged to effectively engage excluded or underrepresented communities in local governance. Read more about this initiative.

Krista Hanscomb (Program Teaching Staff, Circle of Abundance), Karri-Lynn Paul (Teaching Staff, Indigenous Programs), and Eileen Alma (Director, International Centre for Women’s Leadership) attended a Community Gathering in Red Deer, Alberta hosted by the Urban Aboriginal Voices Society (UAVS).

Along with Coady graduate Tanya Schur, Coady and UAVS are working to co-create a community-driven Indigenous lens and health assessment tool. The Gathering included an opportunity for the team to share their work to date and connect with the community to ensure their priorities have been captured authentically and respectfully.

Learn more about the Red Deer Urban Aboriginal Voices Society.

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e GLOBE

Gord Cunningham (Executive Director), along with Coady graduates Ashit (George) Singha and Mousumi (Mo) Halder, facilitated training in Asset-Based and Citizen-Led Development (ABCD) for staff and partner organizations of Christian Commission for Development in Bangladesh (CCDB). Read more about this initiative.

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Collaboration Around the Globe

Eric Smith (Project Manager, ENGAGE) joined the team at the Tanzania Gender Networking Programme (TGNP) to support their ENGAGE initiative which focuses on empowering women to lead gender equitable change in their communities through use of Gender Responsive Budgeting (GRB) and feminist movement building.

Learn more about ENGAGE.

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Collaboration Around the Globe

Yogesh Ghore (Strategic Partnerships Advisor; Senior Program Teaching Staff) and Alison Mathie joined the Self Employed Women’s Association (SEWA) in Ahmedabad, India to advance work on developing innovative participatory tools for measuring women’s vulnerabilities, gender-based violence and their priorities for change.

Yogesh then travelled to Gujrat, India to support the Farmer-led Tools, Dashboard Development and the Future of Farming initiative project piloting producer-led value chain development tools with smallholder women farmers producing salt and fresh vegetables.

Read more about this initiative.

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LOCAL ENGAGEMENT in NO Build Together: Strengthening the Community Housing Sector in Nova Scotia The Build Together: Strengthening the Community Housing Sector in Nova Scotia project took place in 2021 and was comprised of four provincial consultations designed to engage members of the community housing sector concerned about housing issues in the province. Findings from the consultations (A, B, C, and D) can be found here, as well as seven thematic briefs that were written based on information shared.

A model was also drafted for the creation of Nova Scotia Non-Profit Housing Association (NSNPHA). Build Together II will explore the creation of the Association by holding sharing circles with underrepresented groups, engaging potential members and, with members of the sector, drafting governance and business plans for a NSNPHA. The culmination of this work will happen at a community housing sector conference in October of this year.

United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and Affordable Housing in Nova Scotia The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) provide a global framework for considering affordable housing in Nova Scotia. To raise awareness of the SDGs and to consider how they can inform and support the development of affordable housing, a series of education and engagement activities are happening across the province including: three webinars, five people’s schools, 20 local workshops, and an asset mapping process to showcase sustainably developed affordable housing, all of which are intended to increase information sharing, knowledge creation, linkages and collaboration across the housing sector.

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OVA SCOTIA Collective Impact for Inclusive Youth Employment (CIIYE) The Centre for Employment Innovation recently launched its Collective Impact for Inclusive Youth Employment (CIIYE) Initiative. Alongside partners and program participants, CIIYE strives to support the labour attachment of equity-seeking communities through an innovative approach that focuses on securing meaningful employment for young people across the span of the two-year initiative.

Some of these innovations include: • Youth-Centered Mentorship • Wraparound Supports • Community Engagement • Communities of Learning April 1, 2022, CIIYE held its first communities of learning with young people and employers. Currently, the focus is filling the remaining openings in the program and preparing to launch the mentorship component this summer. Learn more about CIIYE

Josslyn Gabriel Collective Impact for Inclusive Youth Employment (CIIYE) Coordinator

EVENTS and ENGAGEMEN IDW with WHM

In partnership with the Atlantic Council for International Cooperation (ACIC), we were pleased to welcome Mohawk Olympian, Mother, and Motivator, Waneek Horn-Miller for International Development Week.

“Anger is important. Anger is like a fire. But if you only act from a source of anger, that anger will cannibalize your spirit. It will take over your mind. [My mother] would say, ‘anger will get you up and moving, but you always have to move back to love’.”

- Waneek Horn-Miller

Women Planting Seeds of Change: Stories of Transformation with Jane and Jane This year’s Antigonish International Women’s Week theme was Seeds of Transformation: Feminist Organizing for Change and Growth, in consideration of the change – past, present, and future – for women’s rights, gender justice and ending patriarchy, and the women who do this work.

Recognizing the ordinary and extraordinary women who work for and seek change in communities and nations, this webinar brought together two phenomenal Indigenous women, both named Jane, from different continents, who are committed to change for women, their families, and communities.

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NTS

We stand with Ukraine Friday, March 4, StFX University and the Town of Antigonish raised the Ukrainian flag in a virtual ceremony titled, We Stand with Ukraine.

Dr. Robin Neustaeter, who leads Coady Institute’s work in peacebuilding and conflict transformation, gave moving remarks about the lived realities of war and the precariousness of peace.

Watch the video or read the transcript for Robin’s full words.

ABCD Unconference (Save the Date) The theme for the 2022 ABCD Unconference is Communities Leading Change.

The Unconference aims to provide an energetic and transformative teaching and learning space for people to: •

Discover new ways of working

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Develop future networks

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Practice new learnings

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Deepen practice

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Turn ideas into positive action

Stay tuned for more information.

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Events and Engagements

Topshee Memorial Webinar Series April 27, Coady Institute and the Nova Scotia Federation of Labour hosted their fifth Topshee Memorial Webinar. The session entitled Worker Health and Safety was held on the evening before the National Day of Mourning (Canada) and explored what occupation, health and safety measures mean for workers in today's world.

The Topshee Memorial Webinar Series is sponsored by the Topshee Memorial Fund, which was established in 1984 to honour the memory of Rev. George Topshee.

Topshee was the Director of the StFX Extension Department from 1969 to 1982. He worked to maintain close links to organized labour, co-operators, and credit unions.

Topshee saw workers in their trade unions and consumers and producers in their cooperatives and credit unions as part of the same cause for social justice and economic democracy. The death of Fr. Topshee prompted leaders in the Labour Movement in Atlantic Canada to establish the Topshee Memorial Fund. From 1984 to 2004, the StFX Extension Department hosted 18 Topshee Memorial Conferences attracting an average of almost 300 people per conference.

Coady Institute and the Nova Scotia Federation of Labour continue to work together to honour the history of the StFX Extension Department and leaders such as Rev. George Topshee.

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Do you have a story to share about how you are applying your learnings from Coady Institute?

If so, contact us at coadycom@stfx.ca