Calgary City Council Standing Policy Committee on Community and Protective Services Discuss New Strategies for Mental Health, Gender Equity, and Multilingual Communications
On June 12, the Calgary City Council SPC on Community and Protective Services met to discuss funding and support for a Mental Health and Addiction Strategic Framework, approval of a Gender Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Strategy, and review of the Multilingual Communications and Engagement Policy Report. This blog post discusses the outcomes of these discussions and what Calgarians can expect moving forward.
Breaking Down Bill 2: What It Means for Your Nonprofit
Bill 2: An Act to Make Alberta Open for Business is set to implement critical and strategic changes affecting the Alberta labour force. The bill covers a range of subsections including the Alberta Employment Standards Code, the Labour Relations Code and changes in the minimum wage. This blog post will break down Bill 2 and help you understand how your nonprofit will be affected by the new legislation, if it is passed in its current form.
The Speech From the Throne Highlights
Last Wednesday, the Lieutenant Governor of Alberta, Lois Mitchell, delivered the speech from the throne, marking the start of a new legislative session in Alberta and an outline of the government’s priority areas. This blog highlights key pieces of legislation and areas where Government has committed to act during this spring session, and beyond.
Calling all Alberta Nonprofits: Help tell the nonprofit sector’s story in 2019
The annual Alberta Nonprofit Survey opens on May 28. This survey is an opportunity to share your views and to help tell the story of the Alberta nonprofit sector. That story only gets told with your participation and submissions to the survey are instrumental in advocating for the sector. This year, the survey will once again be supplemented with data and personal perspectives gathered from focus groups and interviews, which will be conducted with nonprofit leaders across Alberta who complete the survey.
The Official Opposition in Alberta
Members of the Opposition are MLAs who are not part of the governing party. The role of the opposition is to hold the government accountable, criticize government activity, propose amendments to policies, and present themselves to the public as an alternative to the party in office. Leader of the Opposition Rachel Notley and her party’s MLAs were recently sworn in and she has announced her party’s critic roles, as noted in this post.
Alberta Premier Jason Kenney and Cabinet Sworn In
A new cabinet was appointed yesterday as Jason Kenney was sworn in as Alberta’s 18th Premier. Please join CCVO in offering congratulations to the new Ministers, and in continuing the nonprofit sector’s commitment to working with the Government of Alberta in fulfilling the sector's vital role as major contributors to the economic, social, and cultural fabric of the province.
Make it a Voting Party with #nonprofitsvote Week!
We are very fortunate to live in a place where voting is a right and a privilege that we can enjoy freely. Every chance we get to vote, is a chance to celebrate democracy, and our freedom to mark a ballot. Advance polls are a great opportunity to gather a group of voters; take friends, colleagues, and family members and head to the ballot box.
#nonprofitsvote: Tips for Voter Engagement
With just two weeks to election day, nonprofits have an important role to play in voter engagement. As trusted sources of information, nonprofits hold unique positions in communities, and can help inform and empower the people that they serve to exercise their right to vote. Here are some tips to get you started.
Join the #nonprofitsvote Campaign! Nonprofit Vote Kit Now Available
CCVO has launched #nonprofitsvote, an exciting campaign, to encourage nonprofit staff, board members, volunteers, and people who access the services of nonprofits to engage in the upcoming provincial election. The campaign is a nonpartisan effort to ‘get out the vote’ by increasing nonprofit voter participation in the Alberta 2019 provincial election.
The Alberta Nonprofit Election Toolkit Has Launched!
We’re excited to announce the release of the complete Nonprofit Election Toolkit - a practical guide for nonprofits to engage in advocacy during the 2019 Alberta election. We created this Toolkit to support nonprofits in engaging more deeply in public policy advocacy and to inspire conversations about the crucial role that Alberta nonprofits play in our communities.
'Decent Work for Women' in the Nonprofit Sector
In celebration of International Women’s Day, let’s take a moment to acknowledge the women who work tirelessly in the nonprofit sector – and also honour them by committing ourselves to reaching parity. We'd like to draw your attention to the exceptional work of the Ontario Nonprofit Network (ONN) in a recent report: Decent Work for Women. This report is focused on the experiences of women working in the nonprofit sector in Ontario. In this post, we discuss its findings – and how we can take these findings into consideration in Alberta.
Get Out the Vote and Join #nonprofitsvote
With more than 26,000 nonprofits in Alberta, it’s not a stretch to say that nonprofits touch the lives of every single Albertan, whether it be as staff, volunteers, board members, or clients. Nonprofits have a responsibility to speak up about the issues that matter to us and drive us to make positive contributions to our communities. In the final post of our election toolkit, learn how we can use our collective voice to encourage #nonprofitsvote and make a difference.
My Reflections on CCVO’s Policy Lunch and Learn: Nonprofit Advocacy 101
We kickstarted our first lunch and learn with a short presentation, making the case on why advocacy work is critical to our success as a sector. The strength and impact of the nonprofit sector peaked a lot of interest, as several attendees were spotted taking photos of the presentation and jotting down notes around the impressive stats on the sector. I appreciated the overall positive tone of the conversation among participants and during the session, and later reflected on how advocacy can often be a long and difficult journey with road blocks along the way.
After the Election, the Real Work Begins
It’s important for nonprofits to recognize that advocacy efforts need to start well before the advent of an election campaign – and continue afterwards as well. After all, policy advocacy is a journey, not a destination. If a specific policy proposal finds its way into a political party’s election platform, it’s often the result of a lot of hard work in the months, and even years, prior to an election. Here are five critically important ways for nonprofits to follow up after the election.
Top Ten Nonprofit Policy Stories of 2018
Happy New Year! With 2019 upon us, we are happy to share CCVO’s top ten list of policy stories for the nonprofit sector. 2018 was a year that saw many policy developments at the federal level with wide-ranging implications for the nonprofit sector. This list, in no particular order, briefly highlights those developments as well as stories from the provincial and municipal levels.