Angela Long is a freelance journalist and multi-genre writer. Her work has appeared in numerous publications, including The Globe and Mail, Utne Reader, and Poetry Ireland Review. She has travelled widely – collecting stories, working, and volunteering – from the Indian Himalayas to the rainforests of Central America, to the farmers’ fields of Basque Country. In 2018, she drove across Canada visiting rural media outlets for an upcoming book about the power of local news. She has written about living off-grid (after her own three-year experience on Haida Gwaii), Indigenous water issues, and astrophysics. She has profiled famous artists, volunteer doctors, and war correspondents. Her work has been anthologized, and she’s the author of two books, Observations from Off the Grid (2010) and Every Day We Disappear (2018). While she calls Toronto home, she lives part-time in Galicia, Spain, where she cares for a growing number of abandoned cats.
Heading into what promises to be a complex year, we asked contributor Angela Long, who is also a poet, to write a poem to share with our readers as a way of putting a bow on our 2024 publishing. We love how she worked in voices from the interviews she’s done for us over the last few years.
In today’s “survival-of-the-nimblest” journalism industry, an October summit organized by media advocacy group Press Forward aims to get people excited about journalism and the future of community-centred media in Canada.
The revival of Canada’s local news and information landscape requires an ecosystem approach, and philanthropy can play a critical role through strategic funding.
Suncor Energy Foundation, which celebrated 25 years in 2023 – the hottest year on record – doesn’t shy away from difficult conversations about where its money comes from.
A group of foundation leaders is making the case that healthy news ecosystems are critical to the well-being of our communities, planet, democracy – and funders’ missions.
With the largest intergenerational wealth transfer ever underway, philanthropy would be wise to take heed. A recent study by the Women’s Philanthropy Institute offers a snapshot of wealthy young donors, from motivations to challenges to giving behaviours. “We’re at the tipping point,” says one sector leader, of where to go next in engaging young donors to “become partners in systems change” and the “shifting of money and power.”
Children’s mental health services have long been described as the “orphan of the orphan” of Canada’s healthcare system. But an integrated system of wellness hubs – a youth-driven “revolution in creating easy access” – is aiming to change that. One funder says it’s a “once in a lifetime” opportunity to make a real difference in people’s lives.
The Haliburton County Youth Wellness Hub was one of six pilot-project youth hubs in Ontario, a funding partnership between Youth Wellness Hubs Ontario, the provincial government, and the Graham Boeckh Foundation that’s grown into a 30-hub network. The hubs are part of an integrated youth services movement that is spreading across Canada with ‘catalytic leadership from philanthropy.’
