WEBINAR | Building Stronger Local Economies that Benefit People and Place

September 29 & November 18, 2026, January 27, March 5, May 5 and July 28, 2027. 

1:00 - 2:00 Pm ET

Communities across Canada are looking for new ways to build resilient local economies, reduce poverty, and strengthen community wellbeing to create more equitable futures. Community Wealth Building offers a practical, place-based approach to achieving these goals.

Community Wealth Building (CWB) explores how communities can retain, recirculate, and generate wealth. CWB helps communities strengthen local ownership, steward community assets, and ensure that local people have a greater stake in the wealth created where they live. By shifting from extractive economic models toward more inclusive and democratic approaches, communities can build local resilience, increase social inclusion, and create lasting community benefit.

This six-part webinar series explores the principles and practice of Community Wealth Building through its five interconnected pillars while highlighting practical examples from communities across Canada and internationally. Participants will learn from practitioners, researchers, and community leaders who are applying these approaches in diverse local contexts and discover how Community Wealth Building can support broader place-based efforts, including poverty reduction, community wellbeing, climate resilience, and local economic development.

Through this series, participants will:

• Build a foundational understanding of creating resilient, inclusive local economies. 

• Explore each of the five pillars of Community Wealth Building and how they work together to retain, recirculate, and generate local wealth. 

• Learn from Canadian and international case studies demonstrating practical application. 

• Discover practical tools, approaches, and emerging models that can be adapted to different community contexts. 

• Explore how Community Wealth Building complements existing work in poverty reduction, community wellbeing, climate action, and place-based collaboration. 

• Connect with a growing network of practitioners working to build stronger local economies across Canada. 

Each 60-minute webinar combines expert perspectives, practical case studies, and opportunities for discussion and reflection. Participants will leave each session with new ideas, resources, and examples they can adapt in their own communities.

Participants are also encouraged to continue their learning through Tamarack's monthly Community Wealth Building Community of Practice and the companion interactive workshop, Unlocking Community Wealth: Identifying Assets for Local Impact.

Webinars in the series

Who should attend?

This series is designed for anyone interested in creating stronger, more equitable local economies, including:

• Municipal and local government staff

• Community organizations and collaboratives

• Community foundations and other funders

• Economic development practitioners

• Social enterprise leaders

• Indigenous organizations and community leaders

• Anchor institutions

• Place-based practitioners working in poverty reduction, housing, climate resilience, food systems, community wellbeing, or local economic development

Whether you're new to Community Wealth Building or already advancing related initiatives, you'll gain practical knowledge, inspiring examples, and valuable connections to support your work.

Speakers

Jen Casorso. Managing Director, EndPovertyEdmonton

Jen Casorso is a social systems strategist, facilitator, and weaver at the intersection of poverty reduction, regenerative economies, and community-led change. As Managing Director of EndPovertyEdmonton, she is stewarding the organization's re-emergence as a movement-rooted ecosystem focused on making poverty impossible in a generation.

With two decades of experience across municipal government, community organizations, and consulting, Jen has worked alongside communities in Western Canada facilitating collaboration and solutions to today’s complex social issues. Her work is grounded in the belief that social change comes from healthier relationships, shared meaning-making, and governance reflecting how living systems function. She leads with curiosity, humility, and care.

At EndPovertyEdmonton, Jen is helping reimagine how a city organizes around affordability and poverty reduction — shifting from siloed interventions to networked stewardship, from scarcity narratives to shared futures, and from transactional partnerships to trust-based collaboration.

Danya Pastuszek. President & CEO, Tamarack Institute

Danya is a mother, daughter, wife, sister, neighbour, community-builder, and runner—identities that have shaped her passion for belonging and financial inclusion in community. Her career has also included refugee resettlement and criminal justice reform.

She spent a decade with the Promise Partnership of Salt Lake, co-designing school, neighbourhood, city, and regional partnerships advancing work on financial inclusion. From 2022 to 2024, she served as Co-CEO of the Tamarack Institute, an inaugural Schwab Foundation Collective Social Innovation Awardee, before being appointed President & CEO in December 2024.

Robin Wisener. Director, Community Wealth Building, Tamarack Institute

Robin leads the emergent Community Wealth Building network at Tamarack Institute, helping communities advance place-based, community-led capital and strengthen equitable access to financial resources. Her work connects communities, capital assets, social finance, and collaborative infrastructure so local economies benefit the people who build them.

A seasoned Canadian public servant with experience across the private, public, and not-for-profit sectors, Robin has made significant contributions to Canada's social innovation and social finance landscape. She specializes in leveraging social enterprise models, multi-sector partnerships, and emerging technologies to shape innovative policy for community impact. She holds a degree in Economics and a Master's in Public Policy.

Laura Schnurr. Director, Strategic Partnerships and Revenue Innovation. Tamarack Institute

Laura Schnurr is Director of Strategic Partnerships and Revenue Innovation at Tamarack Institute, where she develops cross-sector partnerships and collaborative initiatives, and supports the Community Wealth Building network. From 2021-25, Laura led Tamarack's Community Climate Transitions network. She also teaches the course Building Community Resilience in the Climate Emergency through SFU. 

Previously, Laura supported social innovation and social finance field building in roles with the McConnell Foundation and Employment and Social Development Canada. She co-authored a book on United Nations reform and co-founded a social enterprise supporting women's economic empowerment in Uganda. She holds a Bachelor of Commerce and a master's in Global Studies. Laura and her family split their time between England, Montreal and rural Quebec. 

Register Here