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Vital Signs is an annual check-up conducted by community foundations across Canada that measures the vitality of our communities, identifies trends, and shares opportunities for action in areas that are critical to our quality of life.

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Socially responsible investing - big dollars, big change

Will socially responsible investing ever really catch on? I asked that question when I conducted a study for Vancity Credit Union on the future of socially responsible investing (SRI) five years ago.

Today, the answer is “thumbs up.” Pretty well every prediction from that study played out, particularly the mainstreaming of SRI. Check out these numbers:
* $200 trillion – the estimated size of global capital markets
* 800 – the number of asset managers around the world who have signed on to the UN Principles for Responsible Investment, which commits them to take environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors into their investment decisions
* $22 trillion – the assets under their management
* 530 – the number of institutional investors who have signed on to the Carbon Disclosure Project, to increase disclosure on how their investments manage carbon and energy use
* $64 trillion – the assets under their management


From my vantage point, that’s great progress. More than 10 per cent of the global capital market is now aligned with ESG factors. So what can we do to continue to catalyze this progress?


Malcolm Gladwell says, “The theory of the tipping point requires that we reframe how we think about the world.” So we’re on the right track.  A big driver of this capital markets shift is a reframed definition of socially responsible investing.


More than 20 years ago as a Vancity Credit Union board member, I was a founding trustee of Ethical Funds Inc., the first family of socially responsible mutual funds in Canada. Back then, SRI was all about values-based investing: no nuclear, no tobacco, no weapons, etc.


Today, SRI is more broadly defined as the integration of environmental, social and governance factors into investment decisions. It may or may not include sector exclusions on the basis of social or environmental factors. It often includes shareholder engagement where asset managers dialogue with their investee companies to seek improved ESG performance. It can also include targeted investments in community-based initiatives or clean technology.


SRI’s financial performance also gets a “thumbs up.” Investments which take social and environmental factors into account can do as well as, or even outperform, traditional investments. For example:


* The Jantzi Social Index (JSI), which measures a basket of SRI investments, outperformed the S&P/TSX over a decade. Since its inception on Jan. 1, 2000 through Jan. 31, 2010, the JSI achieved an annualized return of 5.01%, while the S&P/TSX Composite and the S&P/TSX 60 had annualized returns of 4.98% and 4.83% respectively.
* A review of 160 socially responsible mutual funds in the US in 2009 found that the majority of the funds (65%) outperformed their benchmarks in 2009, most by significant margins. These SRI funds topped benchmarks across nearly all asset classes, including balanced, large cap, small cap, and global funds, as well as bonds.


With this progress, I wonder what it will take to reach the tipping point.


A good strategy is to introduce SRI principles to new sectors such as foundations; to encourage them to reframe how they think about the power of their investments. Recently I worked with Community Foundations of Canada (CFC) and Philanthropic Foundations Canada, to help inform, train and build the capacity of foundations to consider SRI in their investment policies.


One outcome of this effort is the launch of the first SRI online resource for foundations in Canada, sponsored by CFC. I also put together a how-to tool for asset owners who want to hire an SRI oriented fund manager, Responsible Investment Questions for Fund Managers, also funded by CFC.


Growing foundation interest in Canada has the potential to swing $34 billion to SRI principles. If foundations around the world reframe their investment principles, we might just reach that magical tipping point.


Coro Strandberg, principal of Strandberg Consulting, is an influential sustainability strategist and thought-leader. This commentary first appeared on her own blog. Find out more about Coro and her work at www.corostrandberg.com

RAPP lends meaning to words for newcomers, and their children, in London

The Reading and Parents Program (RAPP) is helping words make sense to newcomers, and their children, in London, Ont.

LUSO Community Services founded RAPP in April 2008 to meet an obvious need. Indeed, 14 per cent of the City of London's population were classified as visible minorities in 2006, with 10 per cent of Thames Valley students identifying their first language as something other than English or French, according to London's Vital Signs.


RAPP is a practical family literacy program that provides parents, caregivers and their children with reading resources to use in their homes. It has received funding from the London Community Foundation, the City of London and Lambeth London Rotary Club.


Each RAPP pack consists of five elements: a quality children’s book, reading and language hints, poems and finger plays, a craft, and age-appropriate activity sheets, all of which reflect the theme of the story book.

Literacy staff meet with parents individually to demonstrate the pack and its use as a tool to encourage emergent literacy in children. Packs can be tailored to individual families to include books for younger and/or older siblings and/or books on topics pertinent and relevant to each family’s unique situation. Participants borrow and exchange the packs bi-weekly. Several of the kits are dual-language books, containing translated materials in a variety of languages, including Spanish, Vietnamese and Arabic.

“We loved the kits – we can find a story in our language (Arabic),” one excited mother told RAPP representatives. “My children loved the book and craft – me, too! I loved it. It helped me learn English.”

The program received a $6,050 Community Fund Grant from London Community Foundation, which is committed to welcoming immigrants and supporting them in the community.

“The Reading and Parent Program encourages literacy skill development through key parent-child interaction and bonding – skills that will be carried throughout childhood, adulthood and life,” says Elisabete Rodrigues, LUSO Community Services Executive Director.

“It’s a benefit to individuals, families, and the community as a whole."

LUSO Community Services is a non-profit, charitable organization dedicated to promoting inclusiveness, well being and the prosperity of the London community. Founded in 1979, it provides a range of programs and services to help newcomers and immigrants of various cultural and ethnic backgrounds, as well as other disadvantaged populations.

National Philanthropy Day pays tribute to great contributors, lasting contributions

By Skana Gee

“Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.”

The quote is from an American – 26th President of the United States, Theodore Roosevelt – but it crosses all borders, real and imagined. And it’s worth consideration today, especially, as we mark National Philanthropy Day.

The idea is that on this day we recognize and pay tribute to the great contributions that philanthropy – and those active in the philanthropic community – have made to our lives, our communities, and our world.

Today is the 25th anniversary of National Philanthropy Day, spearheaded by the Association of Fundraising Professionals. It was officially declared in Canada just last year, by the Minister of Canadian Heritage.

I’ll be using some of my time today to think about the amazing work being done coast to coast my members of Community Foundations of Canada, and its thousands of affiliated programs, initiatives and projects.

While I’m quite new to the community foundation movement, my respect and admiration for all of its players is great – I feel I have been welcomed into a family of dedicated, enthusiastic and, most of all, compassionate Canadians who are “doing what they can, with what they have, where they are.”

That drive will be palpable as we gather May 12-14 in Vancouver for CFC Conference 2011, a much-needed opportunity to reflect, reconnect and recharge with colleagues from around the globe.

We’re eagerly anticipating the featured speaker – another U.S. President. Bill Clinton is sure to inspire with his philanthropic message, as are the other plenary speakers, including Naomi Tutu and Bill White, who leads the renowned Charles Stewart Mott Foundation.

But mainly it’s a chance for all of us to learn how to be better philanthropists, through professional development, networking and Community Learning Forums, which will see conference-goers visiting venues and organizations funded by Vancouver Foundation.

I’ve become acquainted with such grantees across Canada – and the work they do: what they can, with what they have, where they are – via my communications work on Canada’s Vital Signs.

Some of these impressive efforts include hands-on environmental action by Hamilton Community Foundation’s Youth Advisory Council, a quick response by the Foundation of Greater Montreal to help newly arrived Haitian immigrants, and Vancouver Foundation’s role in establishing the new Immigrant Employment Council of British Columbia. Others are also documented in our Vital Signs Impact Stories.

With those in mind, I raise a toast to all of you. Happy National Philanthropy Day!

Skana Gee is Communications Coordinator with Community Foundations of Canada

Death of long-form census robs funders of ability to gauge success of programs, efforts

By Ernie Ginsler

What's all the fuss about cancelling the long-form census?

Just because it is “arguable” that a voluntary questionnaire sent to 30 per cent of the population will still give good results – as the federal government claims – does not mean it is true. (The mandatory long-form census went to 20 per cent of the population).

About 370 professional groups and government bodies agree that all we will get from a larger survey, which will under-represent low-income Canadians, immigrants, and other marginalized groups who tend to not respond to voluntary surveys, is a very expensive, unreliable survey.

So what will we lose if the long-form census is cancelled? Governments in Canada at all levels spend a lot of money – probably in excess of a hundred billion dollars each year – on services to improve the lives of Canadians. They help pay for adult literacy programs, immigrant settlement programs, subsidized child care, affordable housing, skills training, education from kindergarten to post-doctoral studies, health services for Aboriginal communities, and much, much more.


This funding will continue to be provided to some extent, but we will lose a significant amount of our capacity to evaluate whether it is producing positive outcomes. We won't be able to tell whether immigrants are able to use the skills and education they brought to Canada, and we won't know whether their earnings match their education and training. We won't know whether the general population in our community has the education needed for the jobs that are being created. We won't know where to build subsidized child-care centres because we won't know where people with young children and low incomes are settling. We won't know where to set up adult English-as-a-Second-Language programs because as new immigrants settle in new neighbourhoods, we won't know which ones they are moving to.

The loss of the long-form census is of specific interest to community foundations across Canada because of the impact it could have on their annual Vital Signs reports.

I know, because for the past four years I have been the data consultant for Waterloo Region’s Vital Signs. I have also provided consulting to many community-based planning initiatives, including a recently completed 40-year plan to reduce violence in Waterloo Region. I have done research for federal, provincial and municipal levels of government.

All of these plans and reports were heavily dependent on data directly from or dependent on the long-form census. Producing such plans and reports at their current level of comprehensiveness – or anything approximating it – will be utterly impossible.

Governments, community and other foundations, United Ways, and individual donors base their funding on identified needs in their communities. They judge the success of their efforts by measuring positive changes in the lives of those in their communities.

"My gut tells me" or "I think" are not sufficient criteria for making decisions on where to direct money to improve the lives of Canadians. We need solid information and that can only come from having solid, reliable, valid socio-demographic statistics from which to work.

Ernie Ginsler has been actively involved in community-based research and nonprofit governance as a professional and as a university faculty member for almost 40 years. He has taught at York University, the University of Waterloo, and, currently, at Wilfrid Laurier University

Congregation connected to community through Victoria's Vital Signs

By Leah Baade

Reverend Allen Saunders is a get-things-done kind of man. He finds a need and he fills it.  As lead minister at First Metropolitan United Church, he is full of energy for our community – members of the congregation and the city he lives in.

The church houses the Inter-Cultural Association of Greater Victoria (ICA) in the low-income housing complex on the church property. It’s also a stepping-off point for many of the church’s outreach endeavours. From supporting initiatives such as Our Place, Inner-City Dinners and Out of the Rain Shelter for street youth, to recreational outlets for youth in the form of a basketball team, or for drop-in recreation. Still other initiatives focus on the environment and sustainability, health and wellness, music, and youth.

Rev. Saunders leads an active congregation of 627 households at the downtown Victoria church; the 1915 heritage building is a hub of belonging and leadership in our community.

So what’s the connection to the Victoria Foundation? Rev. Saunders regularly bases his Sunday sermons on the findings of Victoria’s Vital Signs.

To coincide with Rights of the Child Day, he highlighted some of Victoria’s challenges and achievements that were identified by our youth respondents. And just last month, his sermon took a serious look at what Victoria graders identified as the top five issues in our community, noting that homelessness, cost of living, addictions, housing and mental illness are all interrelated.

The Vital Signs indicators play a valuable role in how the congregation at First Metropolitan decides where there are challenges that need to be met. They help to prioritize opportunities for outreach. A shortage of funding for the arts in Victoria-area schools means an extra-special opportunity for a music program at the church. Cost-of-living constraints find Rev. Saunders pondering a community kitchen program that would facilitate community building and a sense of accomplishment as participants cook for themselves and each other.

Victoria’s Vital Signs is a key tool for the church in its strategic planning process. While putting together its vision for 2020, First Metropolitan is able to examine future staffing needs and identify the church’s greatest potential for redevelopment.

It’s evident that Rev. Saunders has an inspiring effect on his congregation. Parishioners travel to this church each week from as far away as Sidney and Sooke. First Metropolitan’s message reaches much further than the back pew as he encourages each and every member of the congregation to put their faith into action as soon as they step out the doors.

Leah Baade is Youth in Philanthropy and Social Media Coordinator with Victoria Foundation

Vancouver Foundation hosts Vitality Sessions to engage business, government, nonprofits, and citizens

By Meriko Kubota

Vancouver Foundation released its Vital Signs report for Metro Vancouver on Tuesday, Oct. 5, along with 15 other community foundations across Canada. To find out how Metro Vancouver is doing, come On the Road to Vitality with us by watching this video.

Vancouver Foundation’s Vital Signs for Metro Vancouver helps to inform the Foundation’s decisions with respect to grants, community partnerships, organizational collaborations and other program activities.  It also serves as a key resource of community knowledge to engage donors, funders and partners, as well as community stakeholders.

The Vital Signs report is created by the community for the community. Many volunteers contributed to the selection of relevant and reliable data. Sharing the Vital Signs information and encouraging its use is integral to our vision of healthy, vibrant and livable communities across British Columbia.

With the support of Vancity, Canada’s largest credit union, Vancouver Foundation will be hosting community dialogues, “Vitality Sessions” from November 2010 through March 2011. These Vitality Sessions will be hosted in the six sub-regions of Metro Vancouver:

Our conversations will be co-hosted by community foundations in these sub-regions, engaging business, government, nonprofit, and residents of the regions. The purpose of these Vitality Sessions is to provide a space for conversation and support for positive change in our Metro Vancouver communities.

Please visit our website for more information on Vancouver Foundation’s Vital Signs for Metro Vancouver and updates on our Vitality Sessions: www.vancouverfoundation.ca/vitalsigns

Meriko Kubota is Manager of the Vancouver Foundation’s Vital Signs Team

Doing good for goodness’ sake – building bridges between business, government and philanthropy

By Rahul K. Bhardwaj

How should you give away your money to charity?

Some people who have the wealth and generosity to give back to their community apply their own experience and values to those they want to support and to what form that support should take. This is only natural and can work well for everyone concerned. But, often, it doesn’t work as well as it should.

Let me explain why. Broadly speaking, cities in the developed world are being built on three pillars: the public sector, the private sector, and the philanthropic sector. Historically, each of these has had a very different bottom line. For business, it’s been profits and money. For governments, it’s security and social cohesion. And for non-profits and charities, it’s the quality of life.

But, in the past 20 years, each of these three sectors has begun to merge and align with the others. Governments are much more focused on the bottom line. Many corporations, meanwhile, have a mission to satisfy more than their shareholders and customers; they need to prove they’re good community citizens.

The world of philanthropy has changed, too. It used to only deal with charities and the people and organizations that supported them. Today, however, philanthropy is not only playing a larger role in society, it’s become the meeting place for government and business and donors.

Just ask Bill Gates and Warren Buffett if the worlds of business, government and philanthropy are aligning. They’re not just giving back extraordinary amounts from their own vast fortunes; they’re changing what it means to give. In doing so, they’re reshaping the very definition of philanthropy. For many people of means, living the good life has changed to living a good life and ensuring that others do, as well.

With the Gates-Buffett “billionaire challenge,” the world’s wealthiest people are moving philanthropy directly from the boardroom to the barrios, doing what governments used to do, or never could do, stretching what it means to be a large corporation, a senior executive, a foundation, and a philanthropist.

But this transformation is not just limited to billionaires: we see it in Toronto, for instance, with families who give as little as $25,000 to set up a family foundation within the Toronto Community Foundation. Every member of that family is involved in determining where their philanthropy should go.

That bottom line is morphing and merging, so more non-profits are run more like businesses than ever before.

But they shouldn’t be run as businesses. What’s more, the overlapping shouldn’t be a one-way trip. If you feel charities should run more like businesses, then surely businesses can work better if they’re run in some ways like charities.

To those people who say the business approach is the only way to run government or philanthropy, let me say, no, business can help explain and inform government and the social sector, but not replace them. When business tries to turn society into a business, things get out of whack. Or put more elegantly, these three sectors become misaligned.

We see the cost of this misalignment particularly in the United States, where the political gridlock has an iron grip on any progress the country hopes to make, especially economically. The reason is that the competitive urge – the basis of much of business – can at times completely overwhelm the co-operative impulse. The result is that healthy debate about the future of cities, for example, is replaced by clenched fists instead of outstretched hands.

The situation is not as dire in Canada or Brazil.

Competition – the ability to compete and win – has built much of Toronto and Sao Paulo. But the way forward is not through competition. Or at least not just competition. It’s through collaboration. Lots of people know how to “do competition.” But knowing how to do “co-operation” is much harder because it’s new and we don’t have the tools and skills to do it well. This just means we need to find a way to reward co-operation.

We need to stop thinking of our sectors as walls, but rather as bridges. If we can find ways to align our interests, to start by finding what we share rather than what we don’t, business will prosper all the more, the social sector will better serve more people, and government will improve the lives of its citizens.

When people give money to charity and use the financial bottom line as their sole determinant of who gets that money, that’s doing good for personal sake. Or for corporate sake. Or even for political sake. But it’s not for goodness’ sake.

We can only do that when we join with others in the journey, and only when knowledge is added to philanthropy to improve society.


Rahul K. Bhardwaj is President and CEO of Toronto Community Foundation. He gave this address during the recent Sao Paulo Foundations’ Association 5th annual conference. This commentary also appeared in the Globe and Mail. 

Focusing on what's important, through Vital Signs

By Marina Boulos-Winton

Experiencing my first launch of Greater Montreal's Vital Signs was exhilarating. So many people attended, the presentations made by the panellists were remarkable, and the questions and comments from media representatives and the audience were serious and insightful!

We decided to host our October 5 Vital Signs event at the Auditorium of the Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec, a perfect location.

In keeping with the sheer magnitude of this public library, it serves and is accessed by people from all walks of life, including those who use it for their employment search, those who need to learn English or French, those with young children who need a leisure activity, students of all levels, and those either down on their luck or very fortunate, who simply go to the library to pass the time.

At any rate, libraries are an essential part of having an educated and literate population. Hence it was an ideal place to gather our distinguished panellists (Lise Bertrand, Simon Brault, Aïda Kamar, Sidney Ribaux) and an audience of close to 200, which included funders and the non-profit community, to discuss what’s working, what’s not, and what needs to be fixed.

Greater Montreal’s poverty rate is 18 per cent, versus the national average of 13.5 per cent. The city has the second largest population in Canada, yet it’s ranked 20th for level of income. Francophones in Montreal have some of the lowest high school graduation rates, and we rank 29th out of 31 among major North American cities for people attaining a bachelor degree.

While we still rank high in quality of life, will we become a society where the gap between rich and poor becomes even wider, and where no new wealth is being created? Will we have the resources to innovate, compete and create  pportunities for ourselves, for future generations and for those newly arrived in our city? Will we become mere transients as we seek jobs elsewhere?

For now, Vital Signs gives the Foundation of Greater Montreal, and those who create funds with us – much like mini-foundations within a foundation – the ability to focus on what’s important, and how together we can invest where it will make a difference.

We hope shortly to announce a partnership to alleviate the rate of high school drop-outs, and in the new year, our philanthropic focus for 2011.

Stay tuned between now and our next Vital Signs report in October 2011 …

Marina Boulos-Winton is President & CEO of the Foundation of Greater Montreal

Want to help your community? Abandon your comfort bubble!

By Melissa Ricci

Belonging to the Hamilton Community Foundation’s YAC (Youth Advisory Council) has really given me a unique insight into the meaning of the word “community.”

It’s not a secret that Hamilton has its fair share of problems involving poverty. When I was younger, I would try to avoid going downtown because I thought it was scary – it was not the sheltered suburb I was used to playing dolls in. People used food banks, asked for spare change, and stayed overnight at shelters. I was terrified because it was all unknown to me and I thought I would get hurt.

When I was 15, a teacher invited me to go to the first YAC meeting of the year. I got my mom to drive me down to Jackson Square, in the heart of downtown Hamilton, so I could attend. Representatives explained the grant-making process and gave us a brief outline of what we would be doing over the course of the year. I met some new friends and left. I admit, I was confused as to how meeting in a boardroom would make any difference in the community.

But the longer I stayed with the YAC, the more grant proposals I read, and the more community visits I participated in, the more I learned about Hamilton. It had always been rather unknown to me: I stayed in my happy bubble and ignored everything new. Now I was learning about its thriving arts community, about church groups and youth groups organizaing breakfast programs, street hockey leagues, services for newly immigrated students.

I got involved, I met people, and I saw the true face of the "scary" city I had avoided for so long. I loved every minute of it.

I've lived in Hamilton my entire life. But it wasn't until I started working with the Community Foundation that I really began to call Hamilton my home.

One of the most important things I've learned, and that I believe everyone should learn, is the importance of getting outside your comfort bubble. To truly make an impact on the problems in a community, to truly improve the lives of children, to eradicate poverty, to help others become involved, and to help those who may need it, you need to know your city. You need to get involved. You need to make your city your home and care for it as you would care for your own family.

Getting out of the house and simply learning is the first step to helping. Go!


Melissa Ricci served on the YAC for three years, and as co-chair in 2009-10. She now studies Arts and Science at McMaster University. She likes reading, cake decorating, volunteering, and the Hamilton Community Foundation, and hopes to one day found her own charitable organization

Imagineaction, Vital Signs guide students and teachers to social action

By Mary-Lou Donnelly

The findings in the recently released Canada’s Vital Signs 2010 report are no surprise to teachers who deal daily with the fall-out of many of the issues addressed in the report.

The results show the importance of the partnership between Community Foundations of Canada and the Canadian Teachers’ Federation in our Imagineaction program. Students and teachers will be able to use the data to put in place action plans addressing community needs.

There are many examples in the report where students and teachers may choose to act. In the area of Belonging and Leadership, even as we celebrate gains in terms of peoples’ sense of belonging, there remain one-third of individuals in society who do not have a strong sense of community belonging.  As focal points of community, schools are uniquely placed to begin to address this situation.  Students and teachers may choose this statistic as the impetus for a project related to the “connect” or “engage” Imagineaction themes.

Similarly, in the area of Environment, the fact that greenhouse gas emissions from personal vehicles have risen by one-third is a call to action. Last year, for example, a group of students from École La Morelle in Quebec ran an information program for parents dropping off and picking up their children, aimed at getting them to turn off their vehicles while they waited.

The results showing a widening of the Gap Between Rich and Poor and stating that at least one in 10 Canadians are now considered poor is more than a call to action – it is a national embarrassment.

Each day, teachers are faced with the realities of poverty as students come to class hungry. Teachers and students across the country are already helping to run lunch programs and are assisting to help alleviate the suffering caused by poverty. The Vital Signs results demonstrate once again the importance of renewing our efforts in this area.

Imagineaction calls for teachers to lead their students to social action through critical thinking. Vitals Signs provides a valuable resource for students who are looking for information to assist them in making a decision as to where to act and what to do.

Together they could be the difference that enables action.

Mary-Lou Donnelly is President of the Canadian Teachers' Federation

Community belonging a vital sign

By Karen Takacs

In all the media coverage of the Community Foundations of Canada’s Vital Signs 2010 report, one indicator caught my attention. More Canadians feel a strong sense of community belonging.

While probably the least talked about, for me community belonging is the most telling of all the Vital Signs indicators, revealing our well being as citizens and as a society.

And I think our notion of what constitutes our community is changing, too. Witness the outpouring of support for victims of the Haitian earthquake and Pakistan floods. Canadians see themselves, their families and their neighbours in the faces of people struggling, and they give.

On the face of it, things aren’t looking good at home. Many Canadians, and new immigrants in particular, are struggling to find work. One in 10 Canadians lives in poverty and the gap between rich and poor continues to widen. That is why it is all the more remarkable that the region with the highest unemployment in Canada, Lunenburg County, also reports the second highest sense of community belonging. In spite of the challenges, Canadians continue to reach out to their neighbours, to give time and money.

Increasingly this sense of belonging extends beyond our borders. In many developing countries the situation is dire. The experience of poverty is almost beyond the comprehension of those of us who have never lost a child to starvation; had a wife or daughter brutally raped or beaten without protection or redress under the law; or lost land and livelihood because, as a women, you do not have the right to own property.

Yet each year, thousands of Canadians drop what they are doing to serve overseas in a modest attempt to redress these inequities and work for change. It is the kind of experience that stays with you, that changes you. One 2007 study revealed that former overseas volunteers were one and half times more likely to volunteer in their own communities than the average Canadian. And when they did, they gave more volunteer hours. As most Canadian Crossroads International volunteers will tell you, we are in the community-building business. Across cultural differences, great distances and vast disparity in access to and control of resources, we are working with our neighbours to build one world.

Patsy George, a Crossroads volunteer who came to Canada 50 years ago from India, describes community building this way: Each of us has a duty to care. Not only for ourselves, but for everyone we are in contact with or might hope to be, our environment and the institutions around which we build community. We are inextricably bound up with one another, she says.

At 70 years of age, she told me, she has limited time. After a lifetime of volunteer work that has garnered her the Order of Canada, among other honours, she has to focus her efforts and her focus is building the global community. It is an effort that reaps its own reward.

As the Vital Signs report indicates, community engagement correlates strongly with an individual’s health and mental health even when socioeconomic and other factors are taken into account.  Working together toward a common cause, whether with folks in Lunenburg County, Canada or in Harare, Zimbabwe, enriches the lives of those who choose to work for collective good and all society.  The relationship and skills developed increase our resilience to cope in tough times and fuel the social change vital for all to enjoy a real quality of life.


Karen Takacs is Executive Director with Canadian Crossroads International (CCI), an international development organization that is advancing the rights of women and girls and the right to sustainable livelihoods for all. She is also Chair of the Board of the Canadian Council for International Co-operation (CCIC)

Progressive partnership: Vibrant Communities and Community Foundations

By Paul Born

Vibrant Communities Canada has partnered with organizations across Canada, including many Community Foundations, on a nine-year experiment that demonstrates the positive impacts of an innovative and collaborative approach to fighting poverty that is driving individual benefits, neighbourhood changes and large-scale community poverty reductions.

For nearly a decade now, a wide range of partners, including Community Foundations, have formed leadership tables in more than a dozen communities across Canada, giving new momentum to the work of poverty reduction. More than a hope or a dream, they have made it a living, breathing reality.

Joined by the Vibrant Communities initiative, citizens of all income levels, community workers, business people and representatives from all levels of government are clarifying needs, identifying community assets and developing tangible strategies for tackling poverty.

Our experience is proving an important role for place-based strategies when it comes to reducing poverty. Community collaboration is showing promising and powerful results. Community Foundations have played a critical role in many cities, including Hamilton Community Foundation, which has played a leadership role in convening and leading the award-winning coalition in Hamilton.

The Edmonton Community Foundation sits on the leadership body and contributes broadly to the work in that city. The Kitchener and Waterloo Community Foundation was involved with the leadership roundtable for Opportunities Waterloo Region. The Niagara Community Foundation was also involved with Opportunities Niagara.

Launched in 2002, Vibrant Communities Canada builds on learning generated by Opportunities 2000, a millennium campaign to reduce poverty in Waterloo Region to the lowest in Canada, which earned a place in the United Nations Top 40 Projects Worldwide.

The Vibrant Communities approach emphasizes collaboration and consensus building across sectors; comprehensive thinking and action; building community assets; and a commitment to long-term learning and change. It is a self-fuelling change model where progress creates greater capacity, leading to new programs and more systematic interventions. The end result is improved lives and less people living in poverty.

Together, Vibrant Communities partners have:

· Launched 164 poverty reduction initiatives
· Reduced poverty for more than 170,000 households in Canada
- Raised $19.5 million, most of it in local communities
- Engaged 1,690 organizations as partners, including more than 500 businesses
- Mobilized 1,080 individuals as partners, including 573 people living in poverty
- Driven 35 substantive government policy changes

We invite you to read the report, read the executive summary of the report, visit the VC Evaluation webpage and learn about the Vibrant Communities experience.

Paul Born directs Tamarack – An Institute for Community Engagement, a ten year journey and partnership with Alan Broadbent of the Avana Capital Corporation and Maytree Foundation to advance place based solutions to entrenched problems like poverty

Tough economic times still ahead

By Lynne Slotek

As Canada’s Vital Signs 2010 reported, “the fallout from the global recession is far from over.”

Regrettably, history has taught us that – without extensive government stimulus – it will be many years before Canada returns to unemployment and poverty levels that existed before the recession. After the 1980s recession, for example, it took seven years for Canada’s unemployment rate to return to pre-recession levels, and even then poverty rates kept going up for another three years.

Recessions do not hit all Canadians equally. A report prepared last year for the Canadian Index of Wellbeing (CIW), The Economic Crisis through the Lens of Wellbeing by Jean-François Arsenault and Andrew Sharpe, showed that in each of the previous two recessions, lower and middle income families experienced much larger losses of income than higher income households.

In the 1982-83 recession, the market income of the bottom 20 per cent of households dropped by 38 per cent, while the top 20 per cent of households lost just 3 per cent. In the 1990-93 recession, the bottom 20 per cent lost 74 per cent of income compared to 5.1 per cent for the top 20 per cent.

The situation for the unemployed and Canadians living in poverty has been further complicated by the growing holes in our country’s social safety net. Cuts to EI combined with a weakening of welfare benefits have rendered the climb out of poverty more difficult than in the past.

The climb has been especially steep for historically disadvantaged groups such as recent immigrants, racialized groups, Aboriginal peoples and youth. A second report prepared for the CIW, How are Canadians Really doing? A Closer Look at Select Groups by Caryl Arundel and Associates noted that  racialized groups are three times as likely to be poor than other Canadians.

History can be an important predictor of future patterns. But sometimes we need to remind ourselves that it’s there to teach us, not to bind us. History will only repeat itself if we allow it to. We Canadians are an adaptable people and we have the capacity to explore new solutions.

What does this mean in public policy terms? It means there must be two priorities for government action. First, since recessions and their aftermath primarily hit those who lose their jobs, it is vital that governments support such individuals by designing and implementing income supplement and retraining programs that meet their needs by opening up real access to real jobs.

Secondly, governments must offset as much as possible the shortfall in private-sector spending that prevents our economy from operating at full capacity. This is no time to become complacent and assume that just because GDP may be picking up a little, the market economy will take care of everything. It was that kind of thinking that got us into trouble in the first place.

In short, we still need ongoing government stimulus and support for both Canadians hit hardest by the recession and for the economy if we are to avoid the extended periods of high unemployment and even higher poverty rates that have followed previous recessions.

Lynne Slotek is the National Project Director of the Canadian Index of Wellbeing. CIW Reports on the quality of life of Canadians are available at www.ciw.ca

Housing driving a wedge between rich and poor

By Judith Maxwell

Rising home prices are often treated as a sign of prosperity, but they also drive a wedge between the rich and the poor.

In its Vital Signs 2010 report, Community Foundations of Canada has asked the question: "How much "house" can Canadians afford? Well, it all depends on your income, your down payment and mortgage interest rates, as well as the cost of the house.

And today, the average price for a house is 4.1 times the annual median family income, up from 3.1 times in 1995.

Broad averages like these hide many diverse stories. Some people can afford to spend $1 million on a house, others can't make next month's rent.

Benjamin Tal of CIBC Economics^[i] says that the most vulnerable groups are those who live on less than $50,000 a year. If they own a house, and not many of them do, he estimates that they are paying 51% of their gross income on mortgage payments plus hydro and property taxes. In contrast, people with incomes over $50,000 pay an average of 24% of gross income.

The Community Foundation of Ottawa has demonstrated the wedge between rich and poor in its Vital Signs 2010^[ii] report. Ottawa, like many other cities large and small, has a serious shortage of affordable housing, specifically apartments with rent geared to income.

For a family of four on social assistance (Ontario Works), for example, monthly assistance amounts to $1,844. This is not enough to cover the average monthly rent for a 3 bedroom apartment ($1,257) plus a nutritious food basket ($735). The family therefore has to choose between lower quality housing and being able to cover costs of food, transit and other necessities.

A lot of working Canadians face the same dilemma. Almost half of the people on low income in Ottawa do not receive Ontario Works benefits - they are the working poor. Their wages, even when they work 49 weeks a year, don't cover basic shelter, food and necessities. Many depend on the food bank to get through the month.

These are untenable choices for families. The underlying problem is that Ottawa has a waiting list of 10,000 families looking for affordable housing but has only built an average of 164 new units per year over the past decade.

Real estate developers don't build affordable housing because it is not a profitable business. Governments have reduced their contributions to this kind of housing, and not-for-profits, which are ready and able to build, don't have access to capital.

This puts Canadians to a test. Do we let this gap between rich and poor continue to grow? Or can we get creative? Surely financial innovation plus a social conscience can free up resources to build more stable, decent and affordable housing.

Tom Carter^[iii] Canada Research Chair at the University of Winnipeg, says that good housing plays a stabilizing and facilitating role in the community. It improves:

• Physical and mental health
• Educational attainment
• Family life and social interaction
• Income security
• Labour force attachment
• Integration of immigrants, and
• Community development

Sounds like a good investment to me.

Judith Maxwell is the former Chair of the Economic Council of Canada, and Founding President of Canadian Policy Research Networks

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^[i] Benjamin Tal, Consumer Watch Canada, "Assessing Vulnerabilities in the Canadian Housing Market," CIBC Economics, May 25, 2010.
^[ii] Community Foundation of Ottawa, Ottawa's Vital Signs, 2010.
^[iii] Tom Carter and Chesya Polevychok, Housing is Good Social Policy, Canadian Policy Research Networks, 2004.

CFC survey on local environment an important red flag

By Vicki Burns

Community Foundations of Canada  in conjunction with Environics Research Group have just released the results of a national survey that points out a disturbing disconnect between the way Canadians view their own local environment and the concern they have for global environmental issues. 

Most of those surveyed felt content with their own local environment at the same time as expressing that environmental concerns are the number one problem facing the world.

In some ways, this is understandable since we still tend to think of Canada as a country of wide open unlimited spaces with lots of wilderness and clean water. The reality, however , is that there are very significant issues in Canada that we all can be part of turning around. Some of those issues are:

• Greenhouse gas emissions from personal vehicles, which have risen by almost one-third in Canada since the early 1990s
• The Alberta Tar Sands, called the fastest growing source of global warming pollution in Canada, will affect all Canadians no matter where they live because of its sheer scale.
• Record algae blooms in the Lake Winnipeg watershed – and across North America –  this summer, causing illness in people and pets
• The more than 213 billion litres of water wasted by Canadians every year (roughly equivalent to the City of Toronto’s annual water use) due to low efficiency toilets
• And the most personal example of all: the toxins that can now be found in our bodies, such as bisphenol A, which a recent survey found in 91 per cent of Canadians aged six to 79

Check out the full story on this survey and its implications on the Vital Signs website. I think its an important red flag for those of us working on environmental issues. We need to really be thinking about how to bring that concern for the global environment into everyone’s backyard. 

Each one of us has the potential to contribute to a healthier environment through so many everyday actions. How do we take this message “mainstream?"


Vicki Burns is Coordinator of the Lake Winnipeg Watershed Initiative. Her regular blog posts can be found at http://canadawater.wordpress.com

Canadians' views on local, global environmental issues disconnected, survey shows

(October 18, 2010) - Environmental organizations say a new public opinion survey reveals a troubling disconnect between Canadians' concerns for the global environment and their awareness of local environmental issues.

The Vital Signs National Public Opinion Survey, which was commissioned by Community Foundations of Canada (CFC) and conducted by the Environics Research Group, shows Canadians are generally positive about the quality of the environment in their own community, even though they rate the environment as the top problem facing the world today.ⁱ

"Canadians seem to be viewing environmental problems as issues that occur somewhere else, but not in their own backyard," says Dr. Rick Smith, Executive Director of Environmental Defence.

Canadians give strong ratings (excellent or good) to all areas of the local environment: water quality (80%), air quality (74%), protection of local wildlife and green spaces (68%), waste management (68%), and quality of water in lakes and rivers (56%). In addition, close to half (48%) believe the quality of the local environment is not changing over time, but the remainder - by a two-to-one margin - say it is getting better (34%) rather than worse (16%).

Contrast to global stats
These findings are in stark contrast to a recent Canadian Environmental Barometer survey, where more than seven in ten Canadians said they were definitely, if not extremely, concerned about such issues as air quality, water quality and toxic chemicals in the environment.

"Canadians have voiced these concerns for years, but they tend to be focused at a national or global level," says Keith Neuman, Group Vice President - Public Affairs, Environics Research Group. "When attention is turned to where people live, opinions are decidedly more positive."

"We need to work hard to make sure Canadians know local actions have global impact. And vice versa," says Gerald Butts, President and CEO of World Wildlife Fund - Canada.

Those issues include:

• Greenhouse gas emissions from personal vehicles, which have risen by almost one-third in Canada since the early 1990s.ⁱⁱ
• The Alberta Tar Sands, called the fastest growing source of global warming pollution in Canada, will affect all Canadians no matter where they live because of its sheer scale.ⁱⁱⁱ
• Record algae blooms in the Lake Winnipeg watershed - and across North America - this summer, causing illness in people and pets.^iv
• The more than 213 billion litres of water wasted by Canadians every year (roughly equivalent to the City of Toronto's annual water use) due to low efficiency toilets.^v
• And the most personal example of all: the toxins that can now be found in our bodies, such as bisphenol A, which a recent survey found in 91 per cent of Canadians aged six to 79.^vi

Canadians can make a difference, but are unmotivated to act
When asked who has the most responsibility for the quality of the local environment, Canadians identified various levels of government (66%) but also saw a significant role for citizens (54%). Close to half of Canadians also feel citizens can make a major difference (48%) in improving local environmental quality, with most of the remainder (38%) indicating they can make "some" difference. However, our lack of motivation and/or an unwillingness to change our lifestyle is cited as the biggest obstacle to reducing our environmental impact.

"Community foundations across Canada have seen the impact citizens can have when they join forces around environmental issues," says Monica Patten, President and CEO of Community Foundations of Canada. "These findings will assist and encourage our members to explore even more opportunities to support local environmental action."

About Vital Signs and the 2010 National Public Opinion Survey
Full findings, charts and methodology, are available at www.vitalsignscanada.ca along with examples of how community foundations are tackling environmental issues. Vital Signs is part of a growing, nation-wide initiative by Canadian community foundations to measure quality of life and take action to improve it. Sixteen community foundations released local Vital Signs report cards on October 5, along with a national snapshot published by CFC.

About Community Foundations
Canada's 170 community foundations are local charitable foundations that help Canadians invest in building strong and resilient places to live, work, and play. They are one of the largest supporters of Canadian charities, providing $144 million to local organizations in 2009. Visit www.cfc-fcc.ca.


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Note to Editors: Stories of local environmental action can be found at www.vitalsignscanada.ca.

Contacts

Skana Gee Vital Signs Communications Coordinator 902.466.7191 (w) 902.223.5234 (c) gee.skana@gmail.com	Keith Neuman, Ph.D. Environics Research Group 613-230-5089 keith.neuman@environics.ca
Rick Smith Executive Director Environmental Defence 416.323.9521 ext. 225	Gerald Butts President and CEO World Wildlife Fund - Canada 416.489.8800

ⁱ Environics Research (2008). Canada's World Polls.
ⁱⁱ Statistics Canada (2010). Study: Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Private Vehicles. The Daily, Thursday, May 13, 2010.
ⁱⁱⁱ Environmental Defence (2008). Canada's Toxic Tar Sands.
^iv H20: Ideas and Action for Canada's Water (2010). Toxic Algae Warnings All Over North America.
^v Environmental Defence (2010). Down the Drain: Water Conservation in the Great Lakes Basin.
^vi Statistics Canada (2010). The Canadian Health Measures Survey. The Daily, Monday, August 16, 2010.

Getting more out of your charitable giving

By Marvi Ricker

Charitable giving has always been an important part of social history, and the spirit that inspires it is universal. The benefits of making a charitable donation are countless, from helping those in need to the personal satisfaction we feel when supporting a cause.

Often this benevolence happens on the spur of the moment, in response to an immediate need.  A survey conducted for the BMO Retirement Institute reveals 44 per cent of baby boomers said they donate on impulse, without either a plan or a budget, and only one per cent donate to charity as part of a plan or budget with the help of a financial advisor.

But now boomers, a generation that’s been socially aware and involved, are taking a closer look at their charitable involvement. They’re examining why they give, what they give, to whom they give, when they give and how they give – both through financial donation, and through volunteering.

Like their parents before them, boomers are givers. But because they are better educated and wealthier, they are much more engaged and involved in their giving. That’s why tools like the national Vital Signs program are so critical in today’s philanthropic landscape. Reports about how our communities are faring provide boomers, and other potential donors, with the information they need to make smart and savvy decisions. While their parents simply entrusted charitable organizations with their financial donations, boomers want to be active in the causes they believe in and the philanthropic choices they make.

Although the Retirement Institute survey shows that many boomers are giving on impulse, strategic giving requires as much planning as you would expect to put into saving or investing.

Vital Signs provides a catalyst to get the planning process started by considering some of the issues and opportunities in our communities. Donors also need to conduct a thorough, disciplined and strategic examination of goals, objectives, interests and options. 

A financial advisor can both identify and help clients understand all the options, to assist them in making informed charitable decisions and to ensure that those dreams are realized – during their lifetime and in perpetuity.

Marvi Ricker is Vice-President and Managing Director of Philanthropic Services for BMO Harris Private Banking

Generous mortgage terms, low interest rates spark home-ownership boom

By Jane Londerville

The increase in percentage of home ownership in Canada between 2001 and 2006, as documented in Canada’s Vital Signs 2010, is partly the result of generous mortgage terms and low interest rates.

Home buyers were permitted to borrow as much as 100% of the price of their home at the end of this five-year period; those having difficulty saving for a down payment – but with reasonable income and credit ratings – used this opportunity to get into the real estate market .

Households could also extend the amortization period (total time to pay off the loan) to 40 years during this period – and a significant proportion of first-time buyers did this in order to buy a more expensive house.

In 2008, in light of significant default problems among homeowners in the U.S., the Canadian government legislated a maximum loan-to-value ratio of 95% and a maximum amortization period of 35 years. In 2010, further restrictions on borrowing were put in place. For example, households refinancing their home now cannot borrow more than 90%, forcing at least some saving through mortgage repayment and house appreciation.

The main recent change is the requirement that borrowers have sufficient income to qualify for their loan based on the higher five-year-term interest rate, even if they ultimately choose a shorter term or variable rate mortgage. This adds some comfort that they will be able to hang onto their home if interest rates rise in the future when they have to renew their mortgage loan.

Mortgage interest rates have a large impact on affordability of owned housing for Canadians. This is why the ‘price to income ratio’ is not a very effective method of measuring stress in the market. An expensive house at a low interest rate could be more affordable than a lower priced house at high interest rates.

A borrower with a loan of $200,000 at 5% amortized over 25 years will pay $1,163 per month to carry the loan. If, when the term is up on the mortgage loan in 5 years, rates have risen to 8%, the payment increases to $1,526. This is an extra $4,000+ a year in payments. For those who stretched to the maximum when they bought, who have had a child and are now incurring daycare costs, or who have had to replace a high paying job with one at lower salary during the downturn, this change could mean financial strife.

Jane Londerville is Associate Professor and Interim Chair of the Department of Marketing and Consumer Studies at the University of Guelph. She teaches in Guelph's B. Comm. Real Estate and Housing major and chairs the Wellington Guelph Housing Committee which advocates for affordable housing.

Measuring learning in Canada's many communities

By Dr. Paul Cappon and Erin Mills

Interest in the role of community as a site of learning has increased in recent years as policy makers and learning practitioners seek ways to address the complex social, economic, political and environmental challenges of the new economy.

The term community is often difficult to define and its usage varies widely in public discourse. For some, community refers to a group of people with a common purpose, shared values and interests, such as participation in chat rooms or special online interest groups.

For others, community is organized around a specific geographic area (such as a village, town or urban centre), cultural or demographic identities.

As research has shown, communities harness resources of knowledge, social networks, environmental assets and financial capital that enable local people and organizations to develop skills and knowledge, and strengthen values.

Indeed learning matters to individuals, providing benefits such as better health, more job opportunities and a higher quality of life. Learning matters to communities, where success is directly linked to the skills and engagement of the people who live there. And learning matters to our country’s ability to maintain a high standard of living and to participate fully in the knowledge economy.

However, measuring learning in the community is a complex task.

Measurement is the basis for tracking improvement, yet learning has traditionally been a difficult concept to quantify and report on—especially learning that takes place outside the classroom. The Canadian Council on Learning’s Composite Learning Index (CLI) is the first of its kind in the world. The index is designed to help assess the state of learning in 4,700 cities and communities across Canada, over time and throughout all stages of life.

The CLI has two main objectives: to foster an informed discussion of lifelong learning in Canada; and to identify areas of strength and weakness in learning conditions nationally, and in individual communities, enabling communities to learn from one another.

In May 2010, CCL released its fifth year of CLI results, garnering increased international attention and interest.

CLI scores show modest progress in lifelong learning. Over the past five years, Canada has witnessed no substantial progress in lifelong learning, from a CLI benchmark score of 73 in 2006 to 75 in 2010. In addition, the 2010 CLI score of 75 shows no change since 2009.

While Canada has seen only limited progress on the CLI over the past five years, the story is somewhat different when it comes to specific regions of the country.

For example, the majority (60%) of communities in Atlantic Canada have seen progress over the five-years, compared to only 26% of all communities in Western Canada. Overall, Newfoundland and Labrador, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island are improving at greater rates than other provinces in Canada. The result is a narrowing of the “CLI gap” that has existed with the rest of Canada since the index began in 2006.

By monitoring progress over time; communities can better undertake strategies to maximize their strengths and effectively address their weaknesses.

Dr. Paul Cappon is President and Chief Executive Officer of the Canadian Council on Learning, Ottawa, Ontario.

Erin Mills is a Senior Research Analyst with the Canadian Council on Learning, Ottawa, Ontario.