Collaborating for Success

A Committment to Training and Education for Women (ACTEW, Suite 350), along with the Centre for Social Innovation (Suite 120) and Eco Nomos Consultants hosted an information session for community agencies and social mission projects interested in learning about the Social Enterprise approach to revenue generation. The July 14 workshop called Bootstrapping 101: Intro to Social Enterprise for Community Groups, attracted almost sixty participants who learned about the key concepts involved in developing a social enterprise in the not-for-profit sector. The session also explored what attendees would need to support their further learning. The three partners intend to use the information to develop services to support these needs.

www.actew.org
www.the215.ca

Cormorant Books

A tip of the hat to Cormorant Books (Suite 230) whose book Volkswagen Blues by Jacques Poulin (translated by Sheila Fischman) was selected to be a part of CBC's Canada Reads program for 2005. The book, along with four others, was thrown into the fray as five prominent Canadians debated about the home-grown novel they felt the whole country would enjoy.

Canada Reads and participating publishers, such as Cormorant Books, support literacy by encouraging people to read and developing school reading programs. Copies of the selected books are donated to libraries across the country.

www.cormorantbooks.com

Dora Mavor Moore Awards

On June 27 performers from across the city gathered at The Winter Garden Theatre for the 26 annual Dora Mavor Moore Awards. The sold-out event was produced by our very own Toronto Alliance for the Performing Arts (TAPA, Suite 210) and celebrates excellence in theatre, dance, and opera on Toronto stages. The Doras are named for Dora Mavor Moore, a well-loved teacher and director who helped establish Canadian professional theatre in the 1930s and 40s. Special guest peresenters this year included Mayor David Miller, Brent Carver, and Peggy Baker.

Arts patron Bluma Appel, who gives each Independent Theatre Division winner a special gift of $1000, also received her own Honourary Dora that night in recognition of her philanthropy and committment to the arts.

www.tapa.ca

Faces of the Global Village

As an organization with an interest in raising awareness regarding issues of third world development policies, poverty, and human rights, Oxfam Canada (Suite 200) is hosting an exhibition of one hundred photographs by noted documentary photographer Irving Posluns titled Faces of the Global Village. Capturing human beings with his camera from countries all over the world, Posluns brings the viewer into the landscapes and next to the people who inhabit them. The photographs, which will be on display at BCE Place (181 Bay St.) from August 8 - 28, are a candid representation of the living and working conditions of people all over the world.

www.oxfam.ca

Green Corner: Robertson Roots Go Deep...Or Do They?

There's always something interesting to report when it comes to the living systems at the Robertson Building.
For this edition of the Pipeline, we're going to take you deep into the underworld of root systems on the green roof.  Typically, when a seed germinates, it plunges a strong primary or "tap root" downward into the soil. The
objective of a tap root is to grow deeply into the soil to anchor the new plant and access nutrients and moisture for energy production and photosynthesis. Plants with tap roots are difficult to transplant - think about the last time you tried to urge a dandelion out of the ground! Even if you break the top off, the long taproot stays in the
ground and can re-generate an entire dandelion plant all over again.  

Among the many extensive greenroof plants on the Robertson Building, we have a species known as rudbeckia-
laciniata, or the Green Headed Cone Flower, located in a large patch on the east side of the roof. By mid August we anticipate that they will become a tall, vibrant, yellow stand of plants, just like  they were last season. This spring we noted that the cone flowers were in good health and had wintered well. In fact, the species was becoming invasive. We were amazed to discover how the plants root system had adapted to the shallow planting media. The tap roots were all growing horizontally or parallel to the roof membrane. This observation is encouraging for green roof advocates on many fronts. Firstly, it dispels the rumour that plant roots penetrate roof membranes and cause roofs to leak. Secondly, this form of root adaptation tell us that tap roots can sense resistance and make the micro and macro cellular changes that it takes to survive, while still bracing the plant effectively, despite the shallow environment. Interestingly, these roots were all found pointing in exactly the
same direction, which further stabilizes the plant structurally against the prevailing northwest winds on the
Robertson roof. These amazing adaptive roots show us how much we still have to learn about how greenroofs
contribute to  new and exciting natural environments. 

Stay tuned for more green updates. For more information please call, Beth Anne Currie, 416.595.5900 x21

Green TV

The green roofs at 215 Spadina and 401 Richmond received a lot of attention recently from the documentary gardening series Recreating Eden (Vision TV). The series focuses on special gardens around the world and their impact not only on the people who cultivate these amazing spaces, but also on the communities that spend time in and around them. As a special treat, Deputy Mayor Joe Pantalone joinged the cast on Thursday July 14, to talk about the City of Toronto's support for green initiatives. Pantalone is an advocate of tree planting and projects like the green roof at 215 Spadina. He was happy to show his support by appearing on Recreating Eden with Building Owner Margie Zeidler, who showed him around our rooftop meadow. We would like to thank our staff and tenants who contributed to their time and thoughts to what promises to be a very magical episode of the series. We will let you know when the show will be airing.

www.recreatingeden.com

Profile: Centre for Social Innovation

Behind all great innovations are visionary minds, people who are willing to take risks on experimental ideas that provide none of the comforts of a reliable formula for success. The Centre for Social Innovation (CSI, Suite 120) is one such experiment that in its first year has already become a model of how the co-location and collaboration of fourteen social mission organizations can produce tangible results for social change. Here's the concept: provide the space for small organizations to have a private office space with shared meeting rooms/conference space, kitchen, and common areas. These groups share an Office Manager, Audrey Vince, expensive office equipment like a photocopier, phone system, and fax machine. They also share an Executive Director, Tonya Surman, who not only keeps the Centre running but adds her expertise to programming initiatives geared at creating mutually beneficial collaborations and "incubation;" a chance for small organizations that may have previously been housed in isolated basements or attics to get on their feet and increase their reach by becoming part of a community of social mission groups.

The proof that the co- location is working is when groups like the Stephen Lewis Foundation, who within seven months had outgrown the Centre and moved on to a larger facility, are able to use the unique circumstances of the Centre to expand organizationally and therefore expand their mission and message. The development of CSI was the result of a special collaboration all its own - between Tonya and building owner Margie Zeidler. The journey began with a spontaneous discussion. Tonya, who spent six years at 401 Richmond working at Web Networks (Studio 384) was also a member of the Tri-C committee, along with Margie and several other tenants at 401 Richmond. The committee spent a year talking about the connections amongst community, culture, and commerce and devising some community building initiatives. In 2003 Tonya and  Margie reconnected as a result of the social
innovators forum, hosted by Alan Broadbent and ideas that matter. "We realized there were some
interesting possibilities of bringing the community space that urbanspace is so amazing at creating, together with
ideas around creating intentional communities and collaboration amongst social mission groups. We
knew that if we could combine our forces, that anything would be possible" Mary Rowe of ideas that matter was brought in to refine the concept and the idea for CSI was hatched.  A grant for a feasability study from Canadian Heritage accompanied with guidance from Patrick Tobin Director, Strategic Policy and Communications, Department of Canadian Heritage came at a critical moment, and along with research done by Eric Meerkamper of D-Code  (401 Richmond, Studio 251) the project became a reality.

In February of 2004 CSI held information sessions for forty prospective tenants twenty-five of which applied for space and fourteen were selected for tenancy. The Centre was designed for small organizations of one to four
people, so this was one of the primary criteria for selection. Tonya was also interested in creating a mix of for-profit
and non-profit, stable and emerging, and a diversity of sectors so the tenants represent the multi-cultural, international development, and environmental areas, as well as a variety of social service agencies and professional
associations. By June the tenants were moving in to the newly renovated space on the ground floor of 215 Spadina Ave.

Now that the dust has settled, CSI can begin working on programming. As Tonya explains "we are now at the point where we've tested the co-location, its working like a charm and we can start developing the programming vision to support and answer the question: 'how do you incubate and catalyze social innovation?'" One of the ways that the
Centre is attempting this is to focus on two strategic areas of social innovation: building effective collaboration and the incubation of social enterprise. "This is about building a culture of collaboration amongst non-profit and social mission groups and revenue generation, in order to build more autonomy for organizations that are trying to do social purpose work, for non-profit and social mission organizations. As a separate initiative, the programming committee, under tremendous tenant leadership from Warren Garret of Community Culture Impresarios (Suite 125), John Degan of the Periodical Writers Association of Canada (Suite 123), Paul Bubelis of the Sustainability Network (Suite 128), and Michael Kerr of The National Anti-Racism Council of Canada (Suite 122) are exploring the development of programming that breaks down the silos between sectors.

As Tonya continues, "another way that we're planning on doing this is with 'virtual tenancy.' This will be a way
that we can affiliate with new up and coming projects and initiatives, provide them with services, and be able to
highlight the work that they're doing within the centre without actually having to give up a suite. So they'd still
be home-based but they'd be affiliated. The Centre is also experimenting with something we're calling a 'clinic
model.' Often when people come together at events and workshops they get all this synergy and all these great
ideas and then nothing happens. But, because we're a placed-based initiative we're looking at hosting follow-up clinics to these events that will explore how you create an environment that enables collaboration to happen without forcing it." These clinics would also afford the opportunity for peers to come together with consultants and
experts to problem solve and evolve their thinking in certain areas of interest.

The Centre is also working with the Ashoka Foundation and Peter Drucker Foundation to launch a Social
Innovation Awards program to recognize social innovation organizations. "And that should round the Centre's overall objective, which is to catalyze, inform, and support social innovation in Canada" - round it out indeed! 

www.the215.ca