The Latest

Education Beyond School Walls

What do you do when you have children craving adult attention in a neighbourhood with disconnected adults fearful of ‘trouble-making’ youth? A school in Wisconsin, USA conducted a community survey and learned that the community did not know anything about the school.  What the neighbours did identify in the survey was that there were young people running around the neighbourhood causing trouble. The survey results prompted the school to ask: How do we extend education beyond the walls of the school and utilize the gifts and the assets of the neighbours, organizations and institution in the community?

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Tackling the Challenge of Disruption

Disruptive times have many pieces shifting at the same time. We can feel overwhelmed by the changing demands of our workplaces as our offices become more digital; navigate different generational perspectives; and respond to increasing complexity.  Likewise, there are significant shifts in the political and work environments - in our social and digital relationships and increasingly in changes we are experiencing in the natural environment.

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Turning the Narrative on Community Engagement

This past month the Tamarack Institute was joined by Max Hardy, a citizen engagement expert from Australia. During his webinar Max outlined some principles and practical steps we can take to ensure that we are meaningfully engaging and empowering ordinary citizens in our community change work.

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12 Bold Ideas to Eliminate Poverty in Saskatoon

On February 7, 2019, the Saskatoon Poverty Reduction Partnership (SPRP) launched 12 Bold Ideas to Eliminate Poverty in Saskatoon. Applying an equity and human-rights based approach, the strategy presents 12 intersectoral and interconnected ideas that the group believes could have the biggest impact towards eliminating poverty in Saskatoon. It looks to policies and practices that could be adapted, keeping in mind jurisdictions, mandates and funding structures, but also encourages readers to think differently in order to challenge and disrupt systemic barriers.

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Informing the Renewal Process with Lessons from the Past

Getting all parties to commit to a strategy targeted at reducing poverty is a challenging task.  Many poverty reduction strategies are limited to a period of a few years.  So, what happens when that time is up but poverty persists? How can your collaborative use their learnings from the first cycle to better inform the next iteration?

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Conserving our Natural Environments: A Capacity Challenge

From time to time, the Tamarack Institute is contacted to be a key informant in different studies.  Last Fall, the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy and its partners were interested in understanding how capacity building could improve sustainability and outcomes for the California Landscape Stewardship Network. 

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