The Latest

Evaluations that Work: Your Questions Answered

On June 22nd, Vibrant Communities Canada and the Ontario Nonprofit Network hosted a webinar ' Evaluations That Work: What the Non-Profit Sector Can Learn from the Ontario Nonprofit Network and Vibrant Communities'. The webinar unpacked real-life stories from three Vibrant Communities panelists, who showcased times where evaluation worked really well for them, and highlighted factors which contributed to their success. A successful evaluation was defined as one that led to insight and action.
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New Affordable Housing Initiative in Edmonton

Vulnerable and at-risk families in Edmonton will now have a chance at a safe place to call home. The City of Edmonton will be starting construction soon on a 70-unit apartment building, with mixed income units.

The project is expected to provide homes for approximately 230 people.

"We are pleased to see this kind of key investment in our community as everyone deserves a place to call home. Affordable housing is one of the critical components to ending poverty in Edmonton and we will continue to work with the Government of Alberta, housing providers and community support service providers to ensure these kinds of investments are made."
-Don Iveson, Mayor of Edmonton

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Innovation. What is it?

Innovation.

We all love it, want it, speak it, eat it, and it feels good when something we do is affirmed as innovative by others, especially those we admire. Sometimes, though, and perhaps often, when we don’t hear such affirmations, we create our own. We cite our own work as innovative.

However the recognition of our innovative work manifests, the cynic inside of me does wonder from time to time if our desire to be innovative gives birth to claiming innovation in much of the work we do. That cynic inside of me has wondered the same about me on occasion; just mention that to suggest that my inner cynic has no qualms about digging in on me, what I think, and what I do (and don’t)

What it is?

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Failing forward: Are the partners stretching?

 At the end of my accreditation as a partnership broker, we were required to agree to a contract of professional best practices. On the surface they might seem simple and straightforward but the truth is that they capture the true complexity of partnering across sectors.

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Sharing Successes from Saint John, NB

Saint John, New Brunswick is one of Vibrant Communities’ 13 original trail builder communities. They were among the first members to undertake the Vibrant Communities framework, establish a multi-sectoral collaboration, and work towards a set goal of poverty reduction. 

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Further Learning Around Deepening Community

In June 2016 the Tamarack Institute held one-day workshops on Deepening Community for Collective Impact, focused on exploring ways to deepen community for achieving social transformation. With plans to personally attend one of these workshops this month, I realized it would be timely to finalize my reflections on the event hosted by Tamarack last year that I had shared I was attending, both to prepare myself for the workshop, as well share with others the ideas that I learned so far.

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