The Counselling Foundation of Canada devised a three-part webinar series in collaboration with Enterprising Non-Profits (enp) highlighting social enterprise ventures that promote employment skills. This series served to provide an introduction to social enterprise with a focus on those that promote employment training and employment opportunities, an exploration of three case studies of successful employment training social enterprises from across Canada, and the support that exists for organizations seeking to explore how they could potentially launch a social enterprise, including Innoweave and enp services.

Session #1: Introduction to Social Enterprise featuring Employment Training Program models

Presenter: David Lepage (Team Manager, Enterprising Non-Profits)

Social enterprise is an emerging tool for non-profit and charitable organizations to enhance their service delivery and financial sustainability. They are businesses that blend both successful enterprise endeavours and social outcomes. Focusing on employment-based models this webinar session will be a good introduction to the concept, practice and process for social enterprise.

Webinar Recording | Webinar Slides

Session #2: Exploring different models: Three social enterprises that promote employment skills

Facilitated by David Lepage (Team Manager, Enterprising Non-Profits)

Social enterprises offer a variety of employment models: training, transitional and permanent employment. The models cover a broad range of purpose and targeted populations: people with disabilities, immigrants, youth, people with multiple and complex barriers and others. They use many business models to achieve their goal.

Three Case Studies:

• StreetSuds/BuandeRue, a program of Montreal’s St. James Drop-in Center, provides a laundry service for businesses and community organizations around Montreal. Beyond offering a professional and high-quality laundry service, StreetSuds/BuandeRue operates as a transitional employment program for formerly homeless individuals and individuals at-risk of homelessness who are looking to re-enter the workforce. The program provides job and life skill training opportunities to numerous individuals per year transitioning from a life of welfare dependency and instability to self-sustainability and autonomy.
  Presented by: Alain Spitzer (Executive Director, St. James Drop-in Center) and Alyshia Wagstaff (Program Coordinator, StreetSuds/BuandeRue)
• Furniture Link, a program of Furniture Bank in Toronto, is one of the largest social purpose enterprises in Canada. This program provides job and life skills training and/or employment to at-risk youth, individuals suffering from minor mental disabilities, the learning disabled, people receiving Ontario Disability Support Program benefits and other marginalized people with limited employment opportunities. Furniture Link is a creative initiative that promotes the involvement of participants and has proven to be successful in lifting people out of poverty and into reasonable hope for financial independence.
  Presented by: Suzanna Kislenko (Executive Director, Furniture Bank)
• The Smokehouse Kitchen Project, offered by The Prince George Native Friendship Centre in British Columbia, is a six-month pre-employment/employment training program that offers cook “Level One Curriculum”. This curriculum is designed to set participants up with the relevant prerequisites to “ladder” into an entry-level position in the hospitality industry, pursue further culinary training, or continue on with a more streamlined academic focus (grade twelve/hospitality management). The Smokehouse Kitchen Project includes three distinct but interrelated components; culinary Arts, Baking & Pastry Arts and Theory.

Presented by: Barb Ward-Burkitt (Executive Director, Prince George Native Friendship Centre)

Webinar Recording | Webinar Slides

Session #3: Resources and options to further explore social enterprise development

Developing a social enterprise includes engaging your organization in a process of building organizational readiness, enterprise selection, business planning, launch and operations. Accessing the right tools and resources along the development path is essential. David will review the enp and other related resources you can access along your journey. Aaron will describe how Innoweave helps community organizations develop and launch their social enterprise ideas through workshops and coaching grants.

Enterprising Non-Profits (enp) provides resources, technical assistance, workshops, and grants and is collaborating on creating an enabling environment for social enterprise across Canada. Enp began in Vancouver, British Columbia in 1997 with a pilot project led by Vancity Community Foundation in collaboration with the Vancouver Foundation and the United Way of the Lower Mainland. Over the past few years, additional enp programs have launched or are piloting in Alberta, Toronto, Ottawa and Nova Scotia.

Presented by: David Lepage (Team Manager, Enterprising Non-Profits)

Innoweave is an initiative of The J.W. McConnell Family Foundation, in collaboration with Social Innovation Generation (SiG), thought leaders, academics, and partners from the private, public, and not-for-profit sectors. Innoweave’s objective is to help community sector leaders learn about, assess, and implement with new tools and processes to effect large-scale change. Innoweave currently has seven modules including social enterprise, social finance, cloud computing, developmental evaluation, collective impact and others. During the webinar, we will describe how an Innoweave Social Enterprise workshops can help your team explore and develop its social enterprise idea and how Innoweave can help you connect with a social enterprise coach and access grants for coaching,

Aaron Good (Managing Director, SiG@McConnell)

Webinar Recording | Webinar Slides