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May 25, 2015 (source: www.influentialwomen.ca) Dr. Gayle Broad had spent the bulk of her career as a community development worker when community-based research sparked her interest. An opportunity to conduct research as a direct response to community need, instead of just studying ideas in theory, meant finding tangible answers to pressing issues for communities in the North. “I don’t sit in my ivory tower and decide I want to research this,” she said. “They’re real-life issues that people from the community are bringing to us and saying we need research done.” As research director at the NORDIK Institute in Sault Ste. Marie, which Broad helped establish, she has guided research projects on transportation — she’s been involved in the ongoing struggle to secure a passenger rail line between Sault Ste. Marie and Hearst — improving the downtown core, food security and local agribusiness, community resilience, and place-based tourism. Broad believes some of the institute’s most influential and important work is in the area of the social economy, populated by co-operatives, non-profit organizations, and social enterprises. “People have a perception that it’s these great big projects coming in from somewhere else that generate the most wealth for a region, but in fact it’s the small, locally owned businesses and co-operatively owned businesses,” she said. “That social economy generates the most wealth within a region, and so that’s an area that I find particularly close to my heart.” For Broad, creating resilient, sustainable communities is intrinsically tied to the nurturing and caring role that women have traditionally held in society. And, so, for her, this role is played out through the research she oversees. The First Nations ideology of the seven generations — the idea that current decisions must be considered for their impact on seven generations into the future — influences how Broad views her work. “Women are very connected to the lifecycle and I think, from a First Nations perspective, women have this responsibility for the water,” she said. “For me, that goes beyond the water to the whole concept of we need a clean environment to raise healthy people, and if we can’t provide people with the basic necessities of life, then we can’t sustain ourselves.” She is seeing the impact of NORDIK’s mandate. The institute’s work in the agrifood sector, which includes everything from funding farmers’ tile drainage projects to developing a guide to local producers, has been particularly successful. And that area of study continues to expand: “We’re working with some First Nation communities that are really looking at non-timber forest products, including foods, and naturally growing foods,” Broad said. Eco-tourism is one area in which Broad sees future study and development. From the arts to cultural experiences to wilderness experiences, she believes the North can capitalize on its natural assets. She also sees promise in community forestry and believes the North needs to start lobbying government to consider establishing local harvesting practices, rather than “continuing to allow our forests to be decimated by large multinationals.” “Really, we need to review the economics of resourcebased industries, because most of that money goes out of the region and doesn’t stay here,” she said. “We need to really start looking at ways of keeping that wealth here and sustaining it over the long term.” NORDIK has completed 80 pieces of research since its inception in 2006, but Broad remains humble about her role in it all, crediting the support of her family and her team at NORDIK for making their research current, relevant and significant to the North. “There are just so many people that contribute to making a success of NORDIK’s work, and I just get to put my name on the letterhead.” IW (read more at: http://www.influentialwomen.ca/winners2015/dr-gayle-broad.aspx)
See poster below for more information.
Over the next year, Social Entrepreneurship Evolution (SEE) will be posting a series of profiles highlighting various youth social entrepreneurs (YSEs) in Northern Ontario. We hope that their stories inspire you; whether you’re already making change happen or just looking to take the first step!
If you’re in the business of doing good, share your social enterprise story with us to be featured in our Spotlight Series! Please complete this form and return it by email to Mélanie.
For more information about the SEE collaborative and to stay informed about everything youth social entrepreneurship in Northern Ontario, make sure to sign up for our e-newsletter.
“Waynaboozhoo Nendawaymaginadok. Oozaawa makwa Ndizhinikaaz, mushkoode bishiki Ndoodem. wiisaakoodewini miinwaa Ojibwa anishinabe inini Ndow. Baawaating miinwaa kitigaansiibii Ndonjibaa. Bezhoo midewiwinini Ndow”
Mitch Case is Métis and Ojibwe of the buffalo clan from Goulais River and Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario. He is involved with the Métis Nation of Ontario, does work at Shingwauk Kinomauge Gamik, is a member of the Shingwauk Anishinabe Students Association and works with communities across the province to build community and capacity. Mitch is a changemaker.
So, what motivates Mitch to want to make change?
Check out his story below:
A: I think the biggest inspiration that I have is my community and my family. Looking at the successes that my community has made on their own behalf has inspired me to want to make change. On the flip-side there are also the things we haven’t yet been able to accomplish that inspire me to do something about them.
A: My family and community is what motivated me to get involved, but I think that what motivates me to stay involved is that I see things changing. Sometimes incredibly slowly, sometimes frustratingly slowly, but change is happening and I think that’s what motivates me to stay involved.
A: I want to inspire young people to be involved so they can see the big picture too. They can see that it’s more than just about them, or even just their little community, but how their community fits into the big picture of asserting our rights and moving forward and self-determination and self-government. One of the things I say all the time to young people is that not everybody has to want to be on the board of directors, everybody has a skill that our people need whether that’s in health, education, arts or whatever those different interests are, everyone has something they can bring to the table.
A: The term is new to me, but it is something I resonate with. I have motivation to see change, motivation to see things through to the end. But I don’t think it did when I first heard it – once it was explained then I was like “oh yeah” I guess I am.
A: For me balancing things is the biggest challenge. Being a full-time student and full time volunteer at more than one place has been very challenging. I also think trying to find space to do things has been a challenge. To try and find space within certain organizations to actually be able to affect change – especially in the institution where there’s always this attitude “well we’ve got it, we don’t really need your help.” But it’s like “well you don’t got it and we have people who can help.”
A: For me my community of support depends on the work that I’m doing. Sometimes that community of support is my family, sometimes it’s my Midewin relatives, and sometimes it’s my colleagues within the MNO. You’ll find different types of support in different communities. Sometimes the best support is from people who are not connected at all, people who aren’t as frustrated as you are. For me, some of the most supportive community and people are also kids, and elders. A variety and diversity of ideas and experiences are important for me.
A: There’s always so much work to do, and I think it comes back to determination. You have to be able to find the supports that keep you rallied up. Being able to see some element of success helps – you can draw strength and energy from that and that makes the work easier to continue to do. Maybe not easier to get done, but easier to continue.
A: As President of the Metis Nation of Ontario Youth Council I’m working with young people across the province and our colleagues at the other Metis governments across Canada. We are doing a lot of work to bring young people together, to share ideas, to support each other in the work that needs to be done. We’re able to bring our different experiences together to make an informed opinion about a variety of issues.
I’m about to wrap up my final term involvement with Shingwauk Anishinaabe Students Association advocating for our place within the institution, for our place to look after our students, to look after the things that are important to us with varying degrees of success and varying degrees of resistance from the institution.
Work here at Shingwauk Kinoomaage Gamig has been in building up our community, as well as the capacity of our community. Some of the young guys here in the community are getting comfortable and competent in doing the things that they’re responsible for in our culture, to do that work of looking after the fire. Those are things that to me are some of the most important work being done at Shingwauk.
A: For sure – there are so many young people I’ve had opportunity to work with in different communities across Northern Ontario. There are certainly people in Southern Ontario, but it seems to me there are more avenues for them to be supported by different community initiatives down south. But in some of the communities, in Timmins, and in Wawa, there’s just some incredible work going on by young people and I think if we can find a way to support them it will you know just enhance their ability to make change.
Over the next year, Social Entrepreneurship Evolution (SEE) will be posting a series of profiles highlighting various youth social entrepreneurs (YSEs) in Northern Ontario. We hope that their stories inspire you; whether you’re already making change happen or just looking to take the first step! If you’re in the business of doing good, share your social enterprise story with us to be featured in our Spotlight Series! Please complete this and return it by email to Mélanie. For more information about the SEE collaborative and to stay informed about everything youth social entrepreneurship in Northern Ontario, make sure to sign up for our e-newsletter.
Bushplane Productions is a production team based out of the Canadian Heritage Bushplane Centre (CHBC) in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario. This social enterprise launched by CHBC, a non-profit organization. provides employment opportunities for recent graduates and others facing employment barriers in videography, video editing and graphic design. The goal of these employment opportunities is to provide young people with the necessary employment experience to gain long-term employment in their field of interest. After working with them to create a promotional video for SEE to use for our upcoming website launch (stay tuned!), we asked Todd Fleet, C urator with CBHC and Project/Production Manager with Bushplane Productions, to talk to us about the organization to learn more about the work they are doing. Check out their story below:
A: The motivation behind Bushplane Production’s creation was that we were looking for a way to create dynamic content for the CHBC as a way to increase repeat visitation to the Centre. We found that quality work had to come from further south making the proposition beyond our price range. So after talking with others who were also looking for those services, we ran with the idea of creating the content ourselves. By focusing on partnerships with the Job Creation Partnership program (JCP) and Sault Colleges’ newly created digital videography program, we developed Bushplane Productions. We looked at the project as an opportunity to help not only ourselves, but other non-profit organizations looking for the same thing we were – affordable ways to more effectively communicate mandates and/or messages.
A: Our goal in this process is to generate revenue to assist in the sustainability of the CBHC and offer an opportunity for students and others facing barriers to employment to gain experience, improve their resumes and build networks while creating real world projects relevant to their career interests (capacity building). We helped students from the Sault College program by mentoring the participants and helping them develop networks in the community for future work. Bushplane Productions has also created job training for eight Job Creation Partnership (JCP) participants, and as a result five of those have found employment. We are doing this because it has been our experience that there is very little training opportunity for students in the creative/digital fields in the city but there are many organizations that are looking for those skills and we can help bring them together.
A: I think so as we are not only about making money, we are also trying to create partnerships with other members, organizations, and businesses of the community whether they be students, non-profit , for-profit organizations etc.
A: It does, but I feel that many don’t understand the term, or know what it is. It might have the connotation of more of a feel good term (kind of like tree-huggers, etc.) and some, including many for-profit organizations may not take it seriously or understand it. A word that I might connect with more is collective entrepreneurship, which has the connotation of a group of organizations that are working together to help each other and their community in various capacities – training, employment, revenue generation, etc. Where one company has one service or product they are offering but are missing a piece to really be successful and another company can help fill that void. For example we have the ability to create advertising content that is not generally available and by partnering with marketing agencies the agencies can now sell new product to their customers, benefiting both organizations.
A: The challenges we have encountered is that most for-profit organizations do not get the concept for some reason and have backed out of partnerships when the actual work begins – I suspect that most of the smaller partners are very busy and just do not want to put the effort in. Another challenge has been that for-profit partners or potential partners may take concepts/business plans and develop the same type of business without the community benefits, thus defeating the social benefits and squeezing out the social enterprises. As a Museum and Cultural Centre we feel this is becoming more of what we are for the community – not just an attraction, but a community resource.
A: We confronted the challenges by not giving up and continuing to seek out potential partners and seeking new ways of becoming our own resource and a resource for others. The resources we need are basically to get the word out on what we are doing and why, as we have not at this point done much marketing of what we are doing as Bushplane Productions and as an organization. The resources we need going forward are to continue to try and develop these partnerships and training opportunities within the community and anything that can help us raise that awareness would be of assistance in achieving those goals.
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