Honouring Aboriginal Women and Leadership

Honouring Aboriginal Women and Leadership

Next week on Wed. March 30th at the Roundhouse Community Centre in Vancouver, the Women in Leadership Foundation and Scotiabank are honouring some very fine women whose leadership, courage, creativity and intelligence mark them as women to be listened to. Get a ticket because you don't want to miss it! Click here for Tickets. It's even free.

Every year, I attend. As a non-Aboriginal woman, I first went thinking that I didn't belong but I really wanted to honour female leadership and I was thinking that Aboriginal women just don't get their due, so I decided to show up. If you go to something momentous and think that it won't be for you, you'll be mistaken ~ I certainly was. Inspiring women share messages of empowerment and strength and they describe how they overcame tremendous obstacles to be successful in their careers. And they really are - successful, inspiring, amazing. Just look at this year's lineup of speakers.

Pam Baker — Fashion Designer/Entrepreneur
Sandy Scofield — Musician, Composer and Singer
Janet Marie Rogers — Writer and Poet
Dr. Judith Sayers — Adjunct Professor at UVic Law & Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Peter B. Gustavson School of Business

These women are accomplished. They are authentic. They tell true stories that some people might not want to hear but makes them who they are and they know that. They also talk about family. They never forget family and I have learned so much from First Nations women in that regard. I can't thank them enough.

So I will honour the leadership that I see in the Aboriginal Community by showing up. I'm also going to be lucky enough to dedicate Sunday's show on So Fine Canada to the hugely successful world of First Nations social businesses. And in addition to my Forum guests of artists, organizers and entrepreneurs, I'm also having Slam Poet, Zaccheus Jackson who just happens to be pretty great himself. Actually, he's a Champion, so how cool is that ?

Haven't heard him yet?  Never heard the stories of Aboriginal Women Leaders? Don't miss this.

10 am Pacific, 1 pm est on talkradiounlimited.com

Socially Responsible Investment

Socially Responsible Investment: How ya gonna do it?

When Socially Responsible Investment (SRI) started more than 20 years ago, it was a different animal. Anti-this and anti-that, people used what was known as negative filters to keep money away from companies they didn't support. In that way, we felt protected and we showed people what we did support - issues like no-nukes, anti-tobacco, stopping Apartheid. But the corporations were smarter. They bought up companies demonstrating our values and then we were stuck not contributing to anything and losing money. People who didn't have a SRI investment strategy were making a killing in the markets; the rest of us were SOL.

A couple of decades later and all this has gotten more complicated. On top of that, more people want to do it but they can't get access to products or funds that perform like their old stock portfolios AND they can't get investment brokers to buy in and offer up the little that's there. Using the old system of metrics, SRI stocks still look risky and even when they're performing well, they don't measure like the huge funds that can cover over loss and slide things around to make it look like stocks are climbing or are a 'buy', even when they're not. So how do people understand and access SRI in an age of financial market collapse and cover-ups?

This Sunday on So Fine Canada, listen in for interviews with Hugh Wheelan , Managing Editor of Responsible-investor.com talking about how his site is used by Impact Investors (large dollar operators like pension funds and high net worth individuals) and small time folks to get information on issues, new attitudes and world actions. Think China doesn't care about the environment? Time to test your assumption.

Also coming on the show will be Eugene Ellmen of Canada's, Social Investment Organization. They are a trade association for financial professionals who do support SRI and maintain a commitment to environmental, social and governance (esg) principles in their work. These are the people that you want to work with if you are putting your money behind SRI.

If SRI is new to you, then this show will be a good primer and for those of us ol' souls who showed up with the negative filters long ago, we need to move forward. Take an hour to start moving. So Fine Canada Sundays at 10 am Pacific and 1 pm EST.

Social Finance and Poverty Reduction

 Social Finance and Poverty Reduction: Don't just throw money 

As people take stock of the issues of poverty in Canada, in North America and throughout the world, we are at the point of admitting the truth: dollars don't do it. This is counter-intuitive; if people don't have enough money, then just give money, but that is not enough of an answer. After many years of government programs and international aid, poverty reduction has not happened and poverty elimination? Almost not at all.

Reading from the summary of a recent re-think by an American bank calling for community action, the Southern Bancorp situated in Arkansas and the Mississippi Delta, invested millions of dollars to mitigate poverty in these communities, but the effort failed to have a significant impact on reducing poverty. Sad AND true. We don't understand the complexities of this issue well and have spent years reducing it to a single definition.

On Sunday March 13th, So Fine Canada will be speaking with some guests who understand the issue and who can speak to the changes needed and some ways in which we can approach them. John Stapleton of Open Policy Ontario  will be talking about 'Food Deserts' here in Canada. Janice Abbott of Atira Women's Resource Society will be discussing how her organization created social enterprises to assist them in their mission and Josh Rubin and Gabriel D’Amico-Mazza of Build Nutrition are hoping to impact poverty in developing countries through better health.

Order of Canada Ceremonies

Attending the Order of Canada Ceremonies in Vancouver

It's a little bit shocking to attend a ceremony for the highest honour in the country and not see the recipients get them. The reason I didn't see them receive their medals was because they were wrapped up and put in gift bags - huh? As I said, quite a surprise.

Does this say something about Canadians? We know how to party - bunch of yahoos any Saturday night down on Granville and we certainly know how to sing the anthem - ANYBODY miss the Olympics? But do we know how to congratulate ourselves or at least those of us who don't carry a stick (as in hockey)?

Social Finance and Community Housing

Social Finance and Community Housing: What gets in the way?

On Sunday March 6th, So Fine Canada begins its exploration of Community Housing. With the demand so high and the need so great – why isn’t it getting done ? As usual, our solutions will come from our connecting.

Guest Karen Stone, Executive Director of the BC Non-Profit Housing Association has been creating a new partnership with the Columbia Basin Trust to support Basin communities and organizations in taking action on local affordable housing concerns. With a number of issues constraining affordable housing, the new program will link communities and organizations with experienced affordable housing consultants and with other communities or organizations that have relevant experience. The BCNPHA will assist groups and organizations to find housing solutions in response to local needs and this will help people to care, connect, and contribute to their local community’s aim to build affordable housing.

Barbara Bacon, Executive Director of the Housing Foundation of BC will be discussing how this organization has been building, renovating and providing affordable seniors housing in Vancouver for over 50 years. As a foundation with considerable assets, the HFBC owns more than 20 buildings in Vancouver and has been able to consistently action their mission to house people with dignity. While re-purposing the older housing stock, the foundation has been able to secure sites and slowly renovate their buildings reducing displacement of original tenants, while ensuring that affordable suites do come available for seniors.  However the demand out paces the supply and support and service needs now create a complex circumstance in which to create new housing.

Bill Rapanos, Trustee with the Dunbar Housing Trust and retired City of Burnaby Planner will discuss zoning and municipal impact in the building process. As housing advocates seek a return to a National Housing Strategy from the federal government, local citizens are also interested in what can be done at the municipal government level.  If cities have control over housing, why is it so hard to build?

‘What gets in the way?’ is a focus that more and more community housing groups are discussing. Listen in this Sunday March 6th to learn how to build community through our housing and how to connect with others at work in the sector. And as always, there will be a need to discuss how to make the money to keep it all going.