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CED organizations tell their own stories

From the first day of its establishment, CEDTAP has been leading the Community Economic Development (CED) movement and supporting Canadians with their own initiatives and investment in vitalizing the social economy and strengthening community harmony and cohesion. At the 4th National Conference of CED communities in Sault Ste. Marie, CEDTAP presented 19 community stories written by our CED organizations across Canada. These organizations tell their own stories about success and failure in community building and how CEDTAP support helped to get their projects off and running.

More community stories will be published as they are made available. CEDTAP is committed to sharing these stories so that all communities across Canada can benefit from the experiences of these organizations.

Central Edmonton Community Land Trust
The Centretown Laundry Co-operative
Common Ground Co-operative
EMBERS offers hope to low-income entrepreneurs
Eva's Initiatives: Eva's Phoenix and Phoenix Print Shop
Good Day Workshop Programs Inc.
Malcolm Island Shellfish Co-operative
Mornington Heritage Cheese and Dairy Co-operative
The Ottawa Community Loan Fund
PARO Presents, Women-Centred Social Purpose Enterprise, Northern Style
Pathways Skill Development and Placement Centre
Food for the Soul: Frozen Meal Line Creates Life Line for Homebound Residents of Canada's Poorest Postal Code
Social Purchasing Portal
Ste-Anne-de-Prescott: a little community with a big heart
Un atelier de formation adaptée en Outaouais, un levier de développement économique et communautaire pour la Petite-Nation
La Coopérative de soins de santé Aylmer
Innover pour grandir; L'accès à la propriété par la formule coopérative
École Entreprise Formétal
Carte loisir-vacances du Québec

Central Edmonton Community Land Trust (CECLT, Edmonton, AB)
"...The rent-to-own model can be problematic, especially in higher-costs centres. As CECLT is currently experiencing, households earning incomes below the Statistics Canada Low-Income Cut-offs (LICO) may not be able to contribute enough equity within a five-year period to save up a sufficient down payment. Nor are long-term renters necessarily going to be ready for homeownership within a five-year period..." Full Story

The Centretown Laundry Co-operative (OCLF, Ottawa, ON)
"... How often do you see a homeless man tutoring a child in math; an immigrant, unemployable, offering sewing services; people painting murals on the wall of an establishment to express their pride? More to the point, how often do you see this happening at a Laundromat?..." Full Story

Common Ground Co-operative (Toronto, ON)
"...The 'Lemon and Allspice Cookery' and 'The Coffee Shed' are two businesses supported by the Common Ground co-operative. These two businesses demonstrate that if given the right support, people with intellectual disabilities are able to function in a regular workplace..." Full Story

EMBERS Offers Hope to Low-Income Entrepreneurs (Vancouver, BC)
"...With a grant provided by CEDTAP, EMBERS developed a self-employment training course, 'Build Your Own Business', designed to offer entrepreneurial opportunities to those unable to access traditional self-employment programs. Adult learning styles are adopted with group work, exercises, hand on assistance and one-to-one business coaching..." Full Story

Eva's Initiatives: Eva's Phoenix and Phoenix Print Shop (Toronto, ON)
"...In order to promote these positive outcomes, goals are constantly being set at the Phoenix Print Shop. The enterprise's double bottom line is social and finaincial. First, each year it intends to connect ten homeless and at-risk youth, between the ages of 16 to 29, with a career in the Graphic Communication Industry..." Full Story

Good Day Workshop Programs Inc. (Ottawa, ON)
"...Approximately 30 participants, volunteers and supervisory staff work Monday through Friday to complete projects of furniture repair and refurnishing for our customers. At the present time, we have a customer base of around 1200..." Full Story

Malcolm Island Shellfish Co-operative (Vancouver, BC)
"... At Malcolm Island Shellfish Co-operative, the motto is not only should you give a man a fish, but you should also teach him how to fish... As a result, MISC has been better able to 'teach a man how to fish.'…" Full Story

Mornington Heritage Cheese and Dairy Co-operative (Millbank, ON)
"...Millbank has always been an area largely reliant on the dairy market. When a large multinational corporation (Parmalat) purchased the local dairy processing company and proceeded to shut down the local plant, residents and producers realized they had to do something to save the jobs and livelihood of the community farmers and plant workers..." Full Story

The Ottawa Community Loan Fund (Ottawa, ON)
"...As of February 15, 2005, the OCLF has been responsible for the disbursement of approximately $413, 839 in small business/self-reliance loans to 40 Ottawa area businesses and 29 Foreign-Trained Professionals, such as nurses and teachers seeking accreditation in Ontario. Only 2 loans out of these 69 have had to be written off..." Full Story

PARO Presents, Women-Centred Social Purpose Enterprise, Northern Style (Thunder Bay, ON)
"... PARO Presents, a social purpose enterprise, has many reasons for being. It exists to harness the engine of consumerism for the social good, for sharing, for working together, and for enhancing the spirit of community. PARO has a long history of bringing together women to work with each other and to work with diverse partnerships, funders, and networks. Across the North, PARO has built successful integrated programs, and CEDTAP has been a significant partner in this story…" Full Story

Pathways Skill Development and Placement Centre (London, ON)
"... We would like to introduce you to Stephanie, just one of many participants, who, after years of fruitless job searching, was finally able to find meaningful full-time employment through a new training program offered by Pathways…" Full Story

Food for the Soul: Frozen Meal Line Creates Life Line for Homebound Residents of Canada's Poorest Postal Code (Vancouver, BC)
"...In an era of diminishing funding for nutrition-based program, one innovative project is creating both the infrastructure and funds necessary to deliver meals to low-income, homebound residents living in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside..." Full Story

Social Purchasing Portal (Vancouver, BC)
"...Every business and organization purchases office supplies, catering, printing, and courier services. The Social Purchasing Portal (SPP) helps direct their existing purchasing to suppliers who provide the product and services they need and at the same time create a community economic development value as well, much like the job for Joe Ricci…" Full Story

Ste-Anne-de-Prescott: a little community with a big heart (Ste-Anne-de-Prescott, ON)
"...However, like many other small villages, Ste-Anne-de-Prescott is vulnearble to population decline and the loss of local businesses, in part due to the increasing globalizatio of the economy. In the spring of 2001, the community was threatened with the loss of its credit union, one of the largest local employers. A protest movement called SOS Ste-Anne was quickly established and a bitter struggle took place between the credit uion Board and the community..." Full Story

Un atelier de formation adaptée en Outaouais, un levier de développement économique et communautaire pour la Petite-Nation
"...Dans un contexte où la survie de services destinés à plus de 200 personnes handicapées était menacée, un projet novateur de développement économique communautaire vit le jour et assure le maintien à l’emploi de vingt personnes..." Full Story (French only)

La Coopérative de soins de santé Aylmer
Un succès sans égal et le citoyen au cœur des préoccupations
"...Franc succès, tout à l’honneur des membres qui croient à la CSA. Le Ministère de la santé garde la coopérative à l’œil pour la bonne raison que la CSA est la première coopérative de soins de santé à être créée dans une ville québécoise moyenne de 40,000 h, soit dans le secteur Aylmer de la ville de Gatineau et de 50,000 habitants si on inclut les environs..." Full Story (French only)

Innover pour grandir
L’accès à la propriété par la formule coopérative
"...La Fédération des coopératives d’habitation de l’Outaouais,(FÉCHO) grâce à PATDEC et cinq autres partenaires du milieu, est dorénavant en mesure d’offrir un nouveau produit d’habitation pour la clientèle dont les revenus familiaux annuels se situent entre 35 000$ et 65 000$..." Full Story (French only)

École Entreprise Formétal
"...Tout en recherchant de nouveaux clients commerciaux, École Entreprise Formétal voulait se donner les moyens d’acheter de nouveaux équipements de haute technologie pour offrir une formation de pointe à des jeunes, hommes et femmes, d’un quartier très défavorisé de Montréal, et leur permettre ainsi d’accéder à des emplois mieux rémunérés répondant à leurs aspirations. Formétal leur sert de passerelle vers le marché du travail..." Full Story (French only)

Carte loisir-vacances du Québec
La création d’un Fonds pour les familles à faible revenus
"...Dans le contexte où la consommation semble avoir pris en charge les idéaux de la société du loisir, le projet de la Carte loisir-vacances du Québec prend assise sur l’exercice du droit au loisir en regard de son accessibilité… pour tous..." Full Story (French only)