CAWST

CAWST, the Centre for Affordable Water and Sanitation Technology, is a nonprofit organisation that provides training and consulting to organizations that work directly with populations in developing countries who lack access to clean water and basic sanitation.

CAWST “walks beside” hundreds of organizations—government agencies, community groups, and local and international NGOs of all sizes—in 69 countries as they develop their capacities to deliver water and sanitation programs locally.

CAWST is a “non-profit engineering consultancy” that provides practitioners with subsidized training services on a sliding scale, and open-content education materials. CAWST aligns all activities toward its ultimate organizational goal: to increase the number of people with access to safe water and sanitation.

To learn more visit:  http://www.cawst.org

Calgary Peace, Development and Social Innovation Series

Wednesday, August 15

Community Dinner: 5:30 – 7:30

Follow the link to purchase tickets for the Community Dinner ($22.19 for Individuals, $53.99 for Families):

http://calgary-peace-development-social-innovation-series.eventbrite.ca/

NOTE: For a free or subsidized ticket to the community dinner please contact tammy@seachangecalgary.ca or 403.831.4503 to make arrangements.

Free Public Forum: 8:00 – 9:30

RSVP here:
http://calgary-peace-development-social-innovation-series.eventbrite.ca/

Calgary Peace, Development, and Social Innovation Series

August 15, 2012 Public Forum Program

Moderators: Logan Anderson, Mary Bakual, Deng Lueth, Mark Bol

8:00 pm (5 minutes total) Welcome – Abraham Ariik Chol (President, Lost Boys and Girls of South Sudan in Calgary Association); Rev. Leslie Walker (Associate Minister, Grace Presbyterian Church)

8:05 – Introduction of Moderators – Principles of Participation (each participant from the floor has one minute at a mike for comments or questions directed only to the three featured speakers. Questions to speakers will not be responded to immediately. Instead, questions will be recorded, prioritized, and responded to via the Web [i.e., a future Facebook page] as soon as possible. Otherwise, this is a democratic, participatory forum where mutual respect and compassion will be the guiding values. For further clarification, please see the handouts regarding the Charter for Compassion.).

8:10 – SPEAKER #1 – Nuri Moreno, Programs Director, Emmanuel Jal’s “We Want Peace”, development, and social innovation initiative.

8:20 – Questions, comments from the floor.

8:30 – Musical interlude #1 – Judy Atkinson, Circles of Rhythm (drumming)

8:40 – SPEAKER #2 – Jay Baydala – UEnd:poverty.

8:50 – Questions, comments from the floor.

9:00 – Musical interlude #2 – Colleen Doey (Singer/Songwriter)

9:10 – SPEAKER #3 – Kelly Dowdell -Calgary Centre for Global Community

9:20 – Questions, comments from the floor.

9:30 – Musical interlude #3 – Nuer Language Academy Children’s Choir.

9:40 – Closing Remarks – Awer Duang Arop (S. Sudanese women’s activist); Rev. Leslie Walker

9:50 – Emmanuel Jal’s “We Want Peace” (music video)

Please share these links with family, friends and colleagues:

http://calgary-peace-development-social-innovation-series.eventbrite.ca/

For Facebook users only:

http://www.facebook.com/events/340163389403959/

Awesome Foundation

If you have an Awesome idea that will make Calgary a better place, click here to apply and pitch for this $1000 no strings attached grant! 

History of Awesome Foundation

As per: http://www.awesomecalgary.org/p/what-is-awesome-foundation.html

Created in the long hot summer days of 2009 in Boston, the Foundation distributes a series of monthly $1,000 grants to projects and their creators. The money is given upfront in cash, check, or gold doubloons by groups of ten or so self-organizing “micro-trustees,” who form autonomous chapters around geographic areas or topics of interest.

The Foundation provides these grants with no strings attached and claims no ownership over the projects it supports. It is, in the words of one of our trustees, a micro-genius grant for flashes of micro-brilliance.

The founder of Awesome Foundation Calgary, Lori Stewart writes:

Awesome Calgary was literally founded on Bow Trail in the midst of West LRT construction on a freakin’ cold last day of January 2011.  I was listening to CBC radio and Matt Galloway was chatting with Matt Thompson about AwesomeTO and I slammed the brakes on (ok, I was actually stopped in traffic so it’s not as dramatic as it sounds), went home and contacted Tim Hwang (@Awesomefound) founder and got things rolling.   What a way to end the January blahs!

~Lori

Slow Money Alberta

As per http://slowmoneyalberta.org/about/

Slow Money Alberta was started in 2011 by Mary Ellen and Andreas Grueneberg and some like-minded community members.  The Grueneberg’s had signed the Slow Money principles in 2009 and were excited to attend a lecture given by Woody Tasch in March of 2011 in Calgary and decided that if Slow Money was going to come to Alberta they had to make it happen.

They worked over the spring and summer of that year to form a group of committed individuals with skills to offer, launched a Facebook group and later a website.  They sought the help of securities and investment experts and finalized an investment vehicle that could deliver investors to qualifying farms.

Investors typically are concerned citizens interested in investing as if food, farms and fertility matter and ARE able to modify their expectations about what “return on investment” will look like.  They are willing to expect a smaller return, typically 2% for cash, or 4 -5% if receiving product as payback or a combination.

Qualifying farms must meet stringent criteria and demonstrate due diligence and transparency in their financial documents and history.  No start-up farms will be considered.

Protospace

As per http://protospace.ca:

Protospace is a hackerspace – sometimes (somewhat incorrectly) called a maker or make space. We’re a Calgary non-profit organization geared towards providing a workspace suitable for research, lecture, computer exploration, physical and virtual prototyping, and development. If you would like to help in the development of this hackerspace, associate your group with the hackerspace, or donate tools, hardware or money please contact us.

In almost every major city you go to, you will find a hackerspace and inviting inventors, geek and artists hard at work making and breaking everything under the sun. We are not evil, we wish to promote creativity and community both here in Calgary and around the globe. Read more about hackerspaces on Wikipedia

An Epic Innovation Hub in Calgary

Launching Soon …

epic^yyc

^{a solution space}

work, meeting and event space for solving our shared challenges

From Metro News: http://metronews.ca/news/calgary/6388/group-hopes-to-connect-for-community-change/

March 23, 2012

Group hopes to connect for community change

By Katie Turner

Metro Calgary

Putting the right people in the right place at the right time has the potential to create social change with economic benefits.

That is the concept behind Social Innovation Calgary’s Community Innovation Hub, which city council recently endowed $75,000 to get the project moving.

One of the co-ordinators of the project, Gena Rotstein, said they are hoping to create a space that would facilitate for-profit and non-profit groups, coming together to share ideas.

“It’s anything that’s going to drive social change in Calgary and have an economic benefit,” she said.

With the seed money from city council, the group is working to build a model and test it to see if a Community Innovation Hub is viable for Calgary.

Ald. Gael MacLeod, who presented the idea to council, said the potential benefits are endless.

“I’m very interested in the whole notion of social enterprise, in the sense that it creates social outcomes; doing well by doing good,” she said.

Innovation Exchange

Innovation Exchange is a monthly meetup of Calgarians interested in contributing to solving social problems.

Founded to help build community around the theme of social innovation and social good, IX facilitates connections and support for people and projects.

Our members include professionals from areas such as:

business, non-profits, community investment, corporate social responsibility, international development, government departments, social enterprise, community economic development, social investment, and more.

Held on the last Wednesday of every month from 5-7, Innovation Exchange will help you connect with people who share your interests and may have skills, connections, new ideas or other resources that can help you pursue an entrepreneurial project, build your career, learn, volunteer, find an investment, or just have good conversation.

We hope you’ll join us in growing Calgary’s community of social innovators!

Learn more at http://www.meetup.com/Innovation-Exchange/

epicyyc: a solution space

Launching Soon …

epicyyc

^{a solution space}

work, meeting and event space for solving our shared challenges

Visit http://epicyyc.ca/ to learn more.

From Metro News: http://metronews.ca/news/calgary/6388/group-hopes-to-connect-for-community-change/

March 23, 2012

Group hopes to connect for community change

By Katie Turner

Metro Calgary

Putting the right people in the right place at the right time has the potential to create social change with economic benefits.

That is the concept behind Social Innovation Calgary’s Community Innovation Hub, which city council recently endowed $75,000 to get the project moving.

One of the co-ordinators of the project, Gena Rotstein, said they are hoping to create a space that would facilitate for-profit and non-profit groups, coming together to share ideas.

“It’s anything that’s going to drive social change in Calgary and have an economic benefit,” she said.

With the seed money from city council, the group is working to build a model and test it to see if a Community Innovation Hub is viable for Calgary.

Ald. Gael MacLeod, who presented the idea to council, said the potential benefits are endless.

“I’m very interested in the whole notion of social enterprise, in the sense that it creates social outcomes; doing well by doing good,” she said.