December 2005

Five Good Ideas

Winter Lineup Announced
Registration is now open for upcoming Five Good Ideas sessions. Five Good Ideas is a lunch and learn program where experts discuss powerful yet practical ideas on key management issues facing nonprofit organizations. The sessions are most useful for management staff and board members at small and mid-sized agencies.

New sessions include: Five Good Ideas about …

Innovation with Suzanne Gibson
Creating Inclusive Organizations with Kay Blair
Union Relations with Frances Lankin
Public Speaking with Patrick Gossage

Maytree – Wellesley Public Policy Training Institute

Building policy capacity to strengthen democratic society
On November 9th the Maytree – Wellesley Public Policy Training Institute was launched. The event featured Sylvia Maracle of the Ontario Federation of Indian Friendship Centres, who gave the keynote address, Making a Difference in Public Policy. This innovative training program, led by Naomi Alboim, brings together 25 social activists from a wide spectrum of organizations representing the arts, employment, environment, health, housing and homelessness, immigrant settlement, urban planning and youth.

The Institute was established to build the policy capacity of participants and support the development of concrete policy solutions through a unique emphasis on shared learnings and experiences. Following completion of the program, participants will have the knowledge and skills to develop policy solutions to address a pressing issue their community is facing and a plan for how to shift public policy in that direction.

Some of the focus areas that participants will work on include: access to supportive housing for people with mental health issues; ongoing development of the Aboriginal Health and Wellness Strategy; examining barriers to family reunification for Canadian citizens and immigrants; introducing compulsory environmental education to the Ontario curriculum; and, developing income security policies for working-age adults.

The Institute’s program is delivered by leading public policy experts including academics, community activists, government policy developers, political policy staff and communications professionals.

abcGTA

In recent weeks a number of abcGTA candidates have been successfully appointed to the boards and committees of public institutions:

Brian Chu, Toronto Hydro Corporation
Andre Goh, Ontario Advisory Committee on HIV/AIDS
Nalini Mohabir, Ontario College of Nurses
Luna Ramkhalawansingh and Archbishop Deloris Seiveright, Toronto Victims Services Program
Shanthy Weerasekera, Dean’s Advisory Board for the Faculty of Arts and Science, University of Toronto
Felix Mora, Member, Health Professions Appeal and Review Board

Read the full list of appointment

abcGTA, an initiative of the Foundation, was established to address the lack of diversity on agencies, boards and commissions of public institutions in the Greater Toronto Area. Are you interested in becoming a candidate for abcGTA? Apply now!
Application form to become a candidate

Several board and committee vacancy announcements from a range of public and nonprofit organizations are also posted on our website along with resources on governance, boards and diversity.
Vacancy announcements

Resources

Diaspora Dialogues

Diaspora Dialogues has many exciting activities planned for the new year! An expanded version of the mentoring program will encourage emerging voices to share their lived experiences of Toronto through the creation of new fiction, poetry and drama. Watch for an open call for submissions in January 2006. These creations will be shared throughout the GTA through a publishing program, monthly community-based reading and performance events and on the Diaspora Dialogues website. Please join Diaspora Dialogues for the following events:
Fiction by Rabindranath Maharaj and spoken word by Lisa Tai
January 19, 2006, 7:00 p.m.-9:00 p.m.
East Common Room, 7 Hart House Circle, University of Toronto

Wednesday Evenings with Diaspora Dialogues
February 8, 15 and 22 – 7:00 p.m.-9:00 p.m.
Palmerston Public Library, 560 Palmerston Avenue
These evenings are a part of Toronto Public Library’s month-long celebration of books “Keep Toronto Reading”. Readers at these events will include Austin Clarke, Rabindranath Maharaj, Yvette Nolan, Pamela Mordecai, along with other emerging voices from the project.

For updates and information on these events and others, join our email list at info@diasporadialogues.com or visit www.diasporadialogues.com.

New Maytree Grant

A grant of $75,000 has been awarded to World University Service of Canada (WUSC) over two years to develop links with alumni and other stakeholders. This project will enable WUSC to broaden and deepen its outreach to improve donor cultivation and to accelerate private sector fundraising activities.

Toronto Region Immigrant Employment Council (TRIEC)

A New Initiative from TRIEC
TRIEC’s goal is to improve access to employment for immigrants in the Toronto region. One of TRIEC’s latest initiatives is to “bring employers onboard” so that they accelerate the integration of skilled immigrants into the workforce. Innovative online learning tools and practical seminars will build a learning community of employers who share recruiting, hiring and staffing techniques with other small and medium-sized employers and human resource professionals. These best practices are profiled at www.hireimmigrants.ca. In addition, the TRIEC initiative will conduct market research to better understand the needs, challenges and barriers employers face in recruiting skilled immigrants.

As a lead funder, Ontario Minister of Citizenship and Immigration, Mike Colle, spoke at the November 10th launch, emphasizing the province’s commitment to better integration of skilled immigrants. Corporate leaders from RBC Financial Group and the Human Resources Professionals Association of Ontario (HRPAO) also reinforced the value of bringing immigrants into the labour market in a more efficient and effective manner.