About Us
Funding Partners
Mission
Why Now?
Advisory Panel
About Our Staff

The Community Economic Development Technical Assistance Program (CEDTAP) is Canada’s largest non-profit (non-governmental) granting agency in the field of Community Economic Development (CED). National in scope, this bilingual program serves all provinces and territories in Canada. CEDTAP provides grants to Community-based Organizations (CBOs) and also promotes activities that strengthen the CED sector as a whole. To date (September 2006), CEDTAP has assisted over 400 CED agencies in support of leading-edge, community development initiatives to create new, sustainable economic development solutions in disadvantaged communities throughout Canada.

CEDTAP was founded in 1997 by The J.W. McConnell Family Foundation and Carleton University in response to the obvious economic and social challenges facing many Canadians. It became, and remains, the largest source of grants for community economic development projects in Canada and a focal point for expert groups engaged in CED.

More than $3 million was invested to help support close to 100 CED projects across Canada in Phase I (1997-2000) of the CEDTAP program.

CEDTAP launched Phase II of the program in 2001 in response to the increased demand for CED project funding in communities throughout Canada. The initial funder for this phase is The J.W. McConnell Family Foundation, whose $5 million investment forms the basis for a true public/private partnership opportunity for foundations, corporations and governments alike.

On May 20, 2004, Bell Canada announced a philanthropic gift of $1 million to Carleton University to enable CEDTAP to undertake the management of the Bell Community Economic Development Fund. This represents a leading-edge partnership whereby both organizations are committing $1 million each for a total of $2 million over the period 2004-2007 to support up to 100 Community Economic Development (CED) initiatives nation-wide.

CEDTAP is pursuing further investments from both the private and the public sector in order to continue supporting Community Economic Development initiatives nationwide. Please contact the CEDTAP National Secretariat to learn more about how to become a CEDTAP Partner.

CEDTAP's mission is to enhance the legitimacy and effectiveness of community-based organizations engaged in community economic development by supporting activities that will

• strengthen their capacities and
• increase the visibility, knowledge, coherence and resources of the CED sector as a whole in cooperation with other organizations with similar interests.

While government fiscal and monetary policies have been successful in stimulating economic growth and cutting deficits, many communities across Canada have been experiencing unacceptably high levels of unemployment, poverty and social disintegration.

A variety of local authorities, community-based networks and not-for-profit organizations have been attempting to address the lack of adequate employment opportunities and the need for greater social cohesion through job-creation and enterprise development at the community level. These initiatives may range from small neighbourhood projects to large-scale integrated economic development strategies.

In addition to a widespread lack of financial resources, many of these groups and activities suffer from isolation, a lack of awareness of success stories, and limited access to professional and technical advice in CED. CEDTAP was designed to address the urgent need for capacity development within the sector, by supporting technical assistance, training, documentation of experience and replication of successful approaches.

CEDTAP's advisory panel meets twice a year to provide strategic and policy recommendations to the program. The current members are as follows:

Lisa Banks is Senior Director Community Affairs, at Bell Canada. Lisa is responsible for the Corporate Community Investment portfolio. Under the 'Connected to Communities' banner, Bell's Community Investment program will support community-based charitable programs that focus on children and youth and community economic development. Lisa joined Bell Canada in 1985, and has had a successful career with increasing responsibilities in various departments, including Business Sales, Professional Development, Marketing Communications and the Y2K PMO. Lisa joined the Corporate Communications and Brand team in January 2000 and was promoted to Director Communications in 2001 and Senior Director Community Affairs in March 2002. Lisa is a graduate of McMaster University and is a Board Member of the Not-For-Profit youth career education organization, Youth In Motion, a member of the Community Economic Development Technical Assistance Program (CEDTAP) Management Committee and the Bell University Labs Selection Committee.

Paul Born has partnered with The Maytree Foundation to establish an Institute for community building and leadership development in Canada, called the Tamarack Institute for Community Engagement. Paul was the Executive Director of the Community Opportunities Development Association (CODA) for 12 years until it merged with Lutherwood to form Lutherwood CODA in 1998. With Lutherwood CODA he founded and was the Consulting Director of Opportunities 2000, a region-wide initiative (83 partners) to reduce poverty in Waterloo Region, Ontario, to the lowest level in Canada, from 1997-2001. In addition Paul was the Consulting Director of the Foundation for Rural Living and the founding Chair of the Canadian Community Economic Development Network (CCEDNET). He was the founding chair of the curriculum committee at Leadership Waterloo and holds a Masters in Leadership from Royal Roads University. Paul is an accomplished speaker providing entertaining and inspirational talks and seminars to many groups in Canada.

David Driscoll serves as Chair of the Advisory Panel. A consultant and non-profit board director he is the former Executive Director of the VanCity Community Foundation. The Foundation is mandated to work with disinvested communities using CED methods to achieve affordable housing, jobs and non-profit enterprises, and has worked with many communities to build their capacity, asset base and independence. Mr. Driscoll has a long and distinguished career in public service, having served as Mayor of the City of Port Moody, Deputy Chair of the Greater Vancouver Regional District, and Trustee of the Municipal Finance Authority, to mention only a few of his numerous public positions. In his home community as well as provincially, he has been instrumental in extending and reinforcing citizen participation and advisory structures, as well as in addressing environmental issues. Mr. Driscoll has been a long-time activist in the housing, environmental and education fields.

Katherine A. H. Graham, Dean of the Faculty of Public Affairs, is a nationally recognized expert in local government and decentralization, urban development, and Aboriginal development and governance in the Canadian north. At Carleton University, Professor Graham has led the development of new professional-education programs for Aboriginal administrators and has served as editor of the annual survey How Ottawa Spends. She has also acted as an advisor to the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples, the Government of Canada and the Government of Ontario. Professor Graham serves as Co-Director of the Joint Carleton University-University of Ottawa Centre for Voluntary Sector Research and Development, and co-directs that Centre’s national project on voluntary-sector outcome evaluation. Professor Graham operates a family farm near Gananoque, Ontario.

Ted Jackson is Chair of the Carleton Centre for Community Innovation, and Associate Professor of PublicAdministration and International Affairs, at Carleton University in Ottawa. He is also President of E. T. Jackson & Associates Ltd., an international consulting firm. Co-founder of the Community Economic Development Technical Asisstance Program, Ted Jackson is one of Canada's leading authorities on local and regional development, advising foundations, governments, development agencies, non-profits, labour and business. His research interests include local governance and poverty reduction, knowledge management, financing civil society, and citizen-directed evaluation.

Barbara Levine
Barbara Levine is currently Manager, International Program for Development Evaluation Training (IPDET), She was until recently, Director, Social Development Division at WUSC, an international development NGO based in Ottawa. Ms. Levine has spent over twenty years working in the field of community and international development, including 15 years with the Canadian International Development Agency. Among other posts, she served as Director, Strategic Planning in CIDA's Policy Branch. She has worked in Central America and the Caribbean, Southern Africa and Southeast Asia, on issues ranging from social policy, human rights and peace-building to environment and human resources development. Ms. Levine served as CEDTAP's first Coordinator from 1997 to 1999, and was Director of the Multiculturalism Program at Canadian Heritage from 1999-2001.

Margie Mendell
Professor Marguerite Mendell is Vice Principal and Associate Professor, School of Community and Public Affairs, Concordia University and Director, Karl Polanyi Institute of Political Economy, Concordia University. A graduate of McGill University (1983 Ph.D. Economics), Professor Mendell's research and teaching is on the social economy, alternative investment strategies, comparative community economic development, comparative public policy, history of economic thought, and economic democracy, among others. Her current research concentrates on the areas of community economic development, alternative investment strategies, financial institutions in Quebec, the social economy in Québec, economic democracy and governance from theoretical and comparative perspectives, social indicators, and the Life and work of Karl Polanyi.

Genevieve Harrison is the Administrator in the Carleton Centre for Community Innovation. Prior to joining CCCI, she held senior financial and administration positions at private, public and not-for-profit organisations, including E.T. Jackson & Associates Ltd., the Sierra Club of Canada, the Chamber of Maritime Commerce and the Department of National Defence, as well as on Parliament Hill. Genevieve has recently returned from a year in the Turks and Caicos Islands where she researched and wrote her first as yet untitled novel.

Ted Jackson is Chair of the Carleton Centre for Community Innovation, and Associate Professor of Public Policy & Administration at Carleton University in Ottawa. He is also President of E.T. Jackson & Associates Ltd., an international consulting firm. Co-founder of the Community Economic Development Technical Asisstance Program, Ted Jackson is one of Canada's leading authorities on local and regional development, advising foundations, governments, development agencies, non-profits, labour and business. His research interests include local governance and poverty reduction, knowledge management, financing civil society, and citizen-directed evaluation.

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