Organizations that provide settlement services for immigrants and ongoing support for immigrant communities play a vital role in Canadian society. These organizations provide benefits—including assistance with housing, language training, employment preparation, and social services for new immigrants, as well as ongoing programs designed to support disadvantaged communities and eliminate discrimination—that are now recognized as accruing…
Contents: Volume 23, Issue 4 (2011)
Summary This article summarizes some findings about how civil society in Canada has been involved in working to improve the rights of children within the framework of an international human rights convention. The article demonstrates how the focus on an international framework like the CRC and its implementation can be an instrument for policy progress…
Introduction by Kate Mansell This article has a curious history. Some time back, the board of Leadership Victoria was considering the notion that the organization should be focused not just on helping to prepare the new generation of leaders for our community but also on promoting the idea and necessity of “community leadership” within the…
Advocates and advocacy groups in the nonprofit sector in canada get involved in the public policy process in a number of ways. The Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC)2 funded a four-year research project involving nine groups to address the question of outcomes under the title “How do you know you are making a…
Background In the June edition of The Philanthropist, Elizabeth Mulholland wrote “New Ways to Keep Up Our End of the Policy Conversation” (Mulholland, 2010). Voluntary organizations are the organized expression of our civic desires and one of the main ways that Canadians communicate their values, hopes and ideas to each other and to the world. Policy…
Point: Bob Wyatt As I reflected on the theme of this issue of The Philanthropist – the sector’s involvement in public policy—I tried to think about why we are rarely as successful as we would like to be. After all, groups that aren’t as broadly based, that aren’t as engaged with citizens, and that are…
Jennifer leads the association of food banks in a mid-sized Canadian city. At their regular meetings, the directors report changes in the patterns of people using the food banks—more families with young children, more frequent visits, and higher levels of anxiety. A major employer has recently closed, and there are more people out of work:…
The New Federal Policy Agenda And The Voluntary Sector—on The Cutting Edge Edited by Rachel Laforest. McGill-Queen’s University Press, Montréal, qc & Kingston, on isbn 978-1-55339-132-6 Elizabeth Mulholland The New Federal Policy Agenda and the Voluntary Sector—On the Cutting Edge is a collection of seven academic essays emerging from a 2006 conference organized by the…
The Lessons Learned From The Voluntary Sector Reporting Awards For Excellence In Financial Reporting Transparency Information about the Voluntary Sector Awards Program and entry information can be found at http://business.queensu.ca/centres/CA-QCG/ voluntary_sector_reporting/ index.php . A professor at one of Canada’s leading universities wanted to use a set of financial statements from a not-for-profit organization in class as…
Contributing Citizens: Modern Charitable Fundraising And The Making Of The Welfare State, 1920–66. By Shirley Tillotson. UBC Press, Vancouver, BC isbn 978-0-7748-1473-7 In Contributing Citizens, professor Shirley Tillotson of Dalhousie University provides an insightful look at the rise of the Community Chests. The predecessors of today’s United Way agencies, the Chests were federations of welfare…