Greetings, colleagues!

We would like to take the opportunity of the summer months to provide you with a brief update on CEDTAP's progress. Some highlights:

Milestones 300 and 400
As of June 2005, CEDTAP had supported some 300 community initiatives across the country since 2001. When you add the nearly 100 local projects funded between 1998 and 2000, our long-term project portfolio is rapidly approaching the 400-project milestone -- by far the largest contribution of any non-governmental grant-maker in the social economy sector in Canada.

20 Clusters
We continue to track 20 "knowledge clusters" in our portfolio, which offer rich lessons on methods and results addressing the needs of specific groups and issues, from food processing to homelessness to broad-based economic renewal. Since 2001, for example, we have supported nearly two-dozen local initiatives promoting women's economic empowerment and entrepreneurship, and a similar number of local projects organized by a wide range of disability groups.

Community Stories
We recently posted on our website 19 new stories of CEDTAP-funded community projects from across the country. These are stories with a difference-they are told by the sponsoring organizations themselves. From a land trust in Edmonton, to an Ottawa laundry co-op, to a high-tech training program for at-risk youth in Montreal, these stories tell of the ideas, energy, ambition and dreams of an impressive group of local heroes--Canadians who are making their neighbourhoods and towns better, stronger and more sustainable. We intend to publish more online community stories in the future.

The Bell Partnership
Our partnership with Bell Canada is proceeding smoothly and productively. To date, CEDTAP has approved 62 projects that have been co-funded with Bell. Bell's leadership commitment to CED was profiled at the National CED and Social Economy conference in Sault St. Marie in May. And our partnership with the company has been profiled in Globe and Mail supplements on corporate social responsibility as well as in Bell's annual CSR report. We benefit greatly in this relationship from the energy and ideas of our prime Bell partner, Lisa Banks, Senior Director, Community Affairs.

The Federal Social Economy Initiative
Both Ted Jackson and Jacques Carrière have been active participants on the federal National Roundtable on the Social Economy, chaired by the Honourable Eleni Bakopanos. Several key advisors to CEDTAP also sit on the Roundtable, including Lisa Banks, David Driscoll, Katharine Pearson and Sherri Torjman. At the regional level, CEDTAP has been working closely with regional development agencies in Quebec, Ontario, the west and the Atlantic region to advise on the design of federal programs for capacity building and financing in the social economy.

National Conference
CEDTAP was an active co-sponsor, with CCEDNET, Algoma University, the Government of Canada and other actors, of the May 2005 National CED and the Social Economy conference in Sault St. Marie, which was attended by almost 500 delegates. CEDTAP's annual forum, held as part of the conference, drew some 100 participants, who heard leading practitioners talk about the results of initiatives as diverse as a converted mine in BC to a multi-site social purchasing portal. Among the speakers were Mel Wooley, David LePage, Ambrose Raftis, Lucie Chagnon and Allan Day.

New Funding Sources
With the support of Carleton University's Development Office, CEDTAP also continues to work hard to raise funds for community grant-making, from both public and private sources. Among our recent donors are Canada Economic Development in Quebec, Western Diversification, the Royal Bank and, most recently, the Trillium Foundation in Ontario. In addition to cooperating with partner organizations in implementing the federal social economy programs, we will be focusing more of our fundraising efforts in the year ahead on engaging a larger number of Canadian corporations in community economic development as a corporate responsibility strategy.

CEDTAP Advisors
CEDTAP's advisors continue to make significant contributions to the broader development field. McConnell Foundation President Tim Brodhead recently received his second honorary degree, this time from Dalhousie University. His Foundation colleague, Katharine Pearson, is now heading up a new national project on Sustaining Social Innovation. Carleton Dean Katherine Graham heads up several urban-policy research projects in Canada as well as consulting on local government in Ghana. CEDTAP's Advisory Panel Chair, David Driscoll, recently coordinated a delegation of municipal policy-makers and researchers from Shanghai to study the non-profit and charitable sector in Canada.

Paul Born, founder of the Tamarack Institute, leads a dynamic, 15-city Vibrant Communities Project. Barbara Levine has been a driving force in a unique joint venture, called Uniterra, between WUSC and CECI, to send Canadian volunteers to the developing world. Concordia University's Margie Mendell played a key role in shaping SSHRC's new suite of programs on the social economy. The Caledon Institute's Sherri Torjman continues to co-chair a Prime Ministerial task force on disability policy.

Project Selection Committee
Over the past few years, our volunteer Project Selection Committee has worked especially hard. The volume of applications rose markedly, and Committee members devoted much time and thoughtful analysis in making their selections. We therefore wish to recognize, and express our deep appreciation for, the work on the Committee of Patrick Ballay, Cheryl Burwash, Olivia Enns, Sonja Jowett, Lynne Markell, Jean-Guy Lacoursière, François Lamontagne, Brenda Richardson and David Welch. Thank you!

Regional Coordinators
Funding constraints caused us, in 2004, to reduce our compliment of Regional Coordinators, and we regretted this. However, through the hard work of Jacques Carrière and others, and the support of CED-Quebec and Western Diversification, we have been able to re-deploy Regional Coordinators in Quebec, the Prairies and, very soon, British Columbia. In Quebec, we continue to work closely with our partner, RISQ, and in BC we are beginning a new collaboration with Van City Community Foundation. We also aim to re-establish regional coordination capacity in Ontario and the Atlantic Region.

Secretariat Personnel
By now you may know that CEDTAP's Director over the past six years, Jacques Carrière, will be taking a one-year leave of absence from the program to work for CUSO based in San Jose, Costa Rica. We salute and celebrate Jacques' remarkable leadership of the program, especially his almost inexhaustible ability to facilitate cooperation across organizations in the sector--in both official languages. We will miss him!

Over the next year, co-founder Ted Jackson will assume the duties of Director as of August 2005, with National Coordinator Gail Zboch taking on more responsibilities as well, supported by Information Specialist Sergio Cacciotti and Administrator Norean Shepherd. In another personnel change, Researcher and Carleton graduate student Millie Zheng will be leaving CEDTAP to spend a term of studies in the United Kingdom, and we wish her every success.

The Year Ahead
We look forward to the year ahead, as CEDTAP completes its eighth year of operation and will, in 2006, begin its ninth!

Our priorities for the coming year are:

• continued high-quality grant-making and grant management;


• knowledge production and dissemination--and evaluation--of the methods, lessons and results of our community projects;


• active support to federal policy implementation across Canada; and


• fundraising, especially from private sources.

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