Category: Uncategorized

Calgary Centre for Global Community (CCGC) – Tenant Member (April 2018)

Interviewer: Maddison Coulson. CommunityWise – Practicum Student.

Interviewee: Chris Jensen. CCGC – Director, Operations.

 

What is the name of your organization?

Calgary Centre for Global Community (CCGC) – founded 2008.

Humainologie – multimedia production house, established 2015.

Can you summarize what your organization’s main objectives are? What are the mission/vision/value(s) that your organization abides by?

CCGC aspires to build a culture of people who are capable of bringing about extraordinary positive change through informed and sustained civic engagement.

Humainologie’s mission is to promote the recognition of our shared humanity, through raising empathy and awareness around issues of vulnerability, human connection, and breaking down barriers between people.  We are all interconnected, and cooperation is vital to create a future in which we can all thrive.

How has your organization changed over time?

In 2015, we founded Humainologie to be a multimedia production house for CCGC to help increase empathy and understanding, as well as raise more awareness about ourselves and others.

Why did you feel the need to start this organization?

We felt the need to start Humainologie because we identified the ability to expand our influence and our impact, recognizing the need for increased empathy and understanding and raising awareness about ourselves and others. Through connection to ourselves and each other, we are able to accept and appreciate our own and others individual uniqueness, beauty, and imperfections. Through film and other multimedia content we reach a wider audience and have a bigger impact on increasing understanding.

What is it like working at CCGC? What is a typical day?

A typical day looks like connecting with partners in the community to see if and how we can collaborate, managing logistics for different events, and running the office.

What are some challenges working at CCGC?

As an organization, funding is a challenge, and so is raising our own profile. Also, because we’re so small, it gets a little lonely. However, reaching out to the community helps. It can also be challenging trying to break down barriers between other non-profits, but it’s important so we can start building each up.

Are there any new projects you are working on at the moment?

We’re looking at hosting our second annual Empathy Week, a series of programming to increase empathy and understand vulnerability. This will be held from June 1^st– 7^th.

We’re also working on our third annual film festival which will be held May 16^thand May 17^th.

We are also doing a podcast series called “Empathy Walk YYC” in which we will walk through the Beltline looking into historical buildings and the stories associated with those buildings.

There are currently two film series that we’ve done called Under the Umbrella we Met, and we are currently working on another in which we have partnered with Fairytales to address gender identities.

What is Humainologie in terms of CCGC? How are they different? How are they linked?

Humainologie is linked to CCGC in the way that CCGC is the legal entity and Humainologie is the production house. They are separate in that CCGC still has its own projects, such as the Social Transformation Tournament, and Humainologie does the multimedia side, such as films, podcasts and web series.

How has being a member at CommunityWise impacted your organization?

Working within CommunityWise raised our awareness about a lot of other good work happening in the city, and we have been able to make connections that we might not have otherwise made. It allowed us to partner with other members like SEEDS Connections, and Fairytales, as well as some other non-profit organizations.

Is your organization hosting any events coming up soon that folks might be interested in?

Yes, there is going to be the film festival on May 16^thand 17^th,2018, at the Globe Theatre. Empathy week is from June 1^stto 7^th, 2018, with programming to be held in various locations around the city. The third annual Social Transformation Tournament will be held in September 2018.

Where can folks go for more information about your organization?

Website: www.Humainologie.com

Facebook: Humainologie

Website: www.CalgaryCGC.org

Facebook: CalgaryCGC

Calgary’s Women of Colour Collective (WOCC)

By the 1980’s, the women’s movement was a recognized movement working to gain equal rights for women in the workplace and beyond, but something the movement did not address was that the fight for equality was vastly different for women of colour.

When it comes to discrimination, marginalization, and oppression, women of colour face it on more fronts and in a much deeper way than white women. In the women’s movement, the voices of women of colour were being silenced and pushed down because at that time the general feeling was that the mention of colour related discrimination would detract from the overall message of equality for women.

The attitude that women of colour should take a backseat and accept being silenced inside of the women’s movement is why the Women Of Colour Collective (WOCC) was created in 1987. WOCC was born from the Calgary Status of Women Action Committee that was already active in Calgary. The Calgary Status of Women Action Committee worked to raise awareness and educate the public on a wide range of women’s issues. WOCC saw that although the women’s movement set out to address issues of gender equality, the issue of racial equality had to be a part of the movement because while making advancements for white women, there was no change for women of colour. “WOCC members wanted to challenge both hetero-normative assumptions in the women of colour community, as well as white privilege in the local feminist community, which they felt was endemic in Calgary” writes Kevin Allen, research lead of the Calgary Gay History Project[1].

WOCC felt that in order to create change for all women there needed to be a focus on the issues that specifically related to women of colour. They wanted to refocus the issues of racial inequality by bringing their members’ voices of lived experience to the conversation. To achieve this, they supported their members in various ways including holding supportive group meetings, building race-related survival skills, convening community conversations about related topics (including issues brought up through the media like the treatment of Rodney King[2]), providing peer advocacy for navigating through social services, healthcare, and justice systems, and at times even providing funds for members who need assistance with basic needs. WOCC members felt that the only way to hear the voices of women of colour was to remove some of the barriers that women of colour face.

At its inception, WOCC held meetings in members’ homes, but as the membership grew they needed to move into a bigger space. That is when they became members of CommunityWise Resource Centre (formerly called The Old Y Centre for Community Organizations).

CommunityWise did more than just offer WOCC the space they needed to run their organization and hold meetings and support groups. Having a physical location with dedicated phone lines and secure doors gave WOCC a level of security that it unfortunately ended up needing. As the group grew its strength and numbers threats started coming to the group and its leaders.

It would take more than threats to deter WOCC and its members. Amongst its accomplishments, WOCC co-hosted the Herland Film Festival. The Herland Feminist Film Festival started in 1989 when the Status of Women Action Committee joined with the Women of Colour Collective to host a film festival style fundraiser, and it was a very successful venture. Today it is part of the archive at the Glenbow Museum[3].

Many grassroots groups and organizations have built on the work and success of WOCC. One of the most forward thinking things that was spurred on by the voices that WOCC supported was a group devoted to white women exploring their own privilege and how that privilege impacted their belief systems and values.

After ten years of bringing the voices of women of colour to the table, WOCC closed their doors; but the work they started continues. You can see examples of it in many of the organizations present at CommunityWise today, including the work being done by the Anti-Racist Organizational Change (AROC) Working and Advisory Groups.

—

[1] “The Of Colour Collective”, Calgary Gay History Project

[2] Rodney King, Wikipedia

[3] herland feminist film festival fonds, Glenbow Museum

This story was researched and written by Susan Gwynn. We are indebted to Janet Yee, a co-founder of WOCC, for talking the time to speak with us about her time with the collective.

In the fall of 2017, CommunityWise received a Community Initiatives Program (CIP) Canada Alberta 150 grant from the Government of Alberta to: tell stories that celebrate the history of social justice work done by CommunityWise member organizations that were led by and worked in service of racialized and Indigenous communities; and, develop podcast episodes that discuss the challenges and opportunities that ethno-racial diversity presents. This work is part of CommunityWise’s on-going Anti-Racist Organizational Change (AROC) process.

Make Dollars Make Sense 2015:
Funding and Financial Management 101

For further info please go to http://makedollarsmakesense.ca/

A burning question board members of non-profits face is “how will we fund our work?”  Often as an afterthought they ask “how will we manage that funding once we get it?”  

Organizations need income in order to do their work.  But they also need to know how to properly manage this income once they have it, or risk losing it!  This is not just the job of the treasurer or bookkeeper or senior staff.  All Board members (in the case of non-profits) and leaders require a certain level of knowledge and skills in the area of funding and financial management in order to properly carry out their roles and responsibilities, and ensure the success of their organization.

In celebration of National Financial Literacy Month, Board Leadership Calgary presents the second annual Make Dollars Make Sense: Funding and Financial Management 101.  MDMS is a one-day learning event for current or potential Board members and staff of small non-profits, as well as members of community organizations and grassroots groups.  It will address questions related to funding and financial management, and show how important it is to learn about both!

2015 Topics Include:

• Environmental Scan of Funding and Financial Management Trends
• Reading Financial Statements
• Internal Controls
• Role of the Treasurer & the Finance Committee
• Financial Compliance
• Budgeting
• Financial Literacy 101 from a Funder’s Perspective
• How to write great grant proposals
• Fundamentals to Fire Up your Fundraising!
• Telling your story to a potential funder
• Fundraising and the role of the board
• Social What?: Social enterprise, social finance, and social innovation

Board Leadership Calgary is committed to accessibility for persons with special needs. This is a WHEELCHAIR ACCESSIBLE and SCENT-FREE event. Please contact Jennifer.Banks-Doll@gov.ab.ca as soon as possible if you have any other special requirements that we may be able to accommodate in order for you to attend.

Organized by: Community Development Unit of Alberta Culture and Tourism, CommunityWise Resource Centre,  Ethno-Cultural Council of Calgary, Federation of Calgary Communities, and Sport Calgary.

Sponsors: The low ticket price is made possible through the generous support of our sponsors:  Simple Cloud Works, The Calgary Foundation, and The United Way of Calgary and Area.

Charitable Sponsor: Friends of the Federation of Calgary Communities.