investing in empowerment november 2011 Catalysts for...

HELPING TO MAKE LIVES BETTER, TOGETHERFor Winners and HomeSense strengthening our community is a commitment we all embrace.

Thanks to our customers and store employees we’re proud to have contributed $10 million over the past 6 years to local charities in our communities across Canada.

HomeSense/Winners Community Banner ad 10.375” x 3”

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investing in empowermentWomen in philanthropy and corporate partnerships

toronto’s vital signslocal community insight from the tcf

Bridging the gap between the corporate and community realms for a more connected Canada at home and abroad

Canadian Founders oF a better world

Catalysts for Change

aBout Canada and

its Community seCtor

Catalysts for

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Challenges

“When lia grimanis found herself in a homeless shelter,she promised herself that she would return to tell the women that homelessnessneed not define their entirelives; and that she would livean outrageous life.”

WE rECommENd

pAge 6

Corporate social respon-sibility and the benefits of volunteerism p. 6insight from canadian business for social responsibility.

Partnership showcase p. 7corporate-community collaboration—partners for a better world.

Proudly partnered with:

mUst rEad

impact investing

Q&A with Terry Cooke, President and CEO of Hamilton Community Foundation.

What is impact investing?It’s a strategy where investors place capital in businesses that generate financial return and so-cial/ environmental benefits.

How long has the HCf been involved in this?We’re new to this. We made our first bridge loan of $300,000 to Hamil-ton Artists Inc. three months ago, which has been repaid.

What are your focus areas?We have a broad mandate, but we concentrate on alleviating inner-city poverty and promot-ing neighbourhood building. We are also seeing applications from charities that are considering buying their own premises.

What has been your biggest challenge?A loan is different from a grant. We are learning to assess risk, and an application’s financial viability. We are partnering with Commun-ity Forward Fund to tap their fi-nancial know-how.

IndranI nadarajah

[email protected]

from homeless to high placesone woman’s jour-ney to the top.

From corporate social responsibility to philanthropy, Canadians are making social and environmental strides while maintaining strong business sense. How are they doing it and what can we learn from them?

Community partnerships for a better Canadain recognition of national Philanthropy day, imagine Canada is pleased to be part of this mediaplanet publi-cation about the charitable and nonprofit sector. Can-ada’s charities and nonprof-its make enormous contri-butions in helping commun-ities here and throughout the world deal with intractable economic, social, cultural and environmental challen-ges, and provide us with op-portunities that enhance our quality of life.

a strong community sector The sector is a major force in the econ-omy—it creates jobs for more than two million people, engages 12 million vol-unteers, and accounts for more than 7 percent of GDP. As an economic force, it is larger than, and just as complex as, the automobile industry, tourism, for-estry, retail, or mining, oil and gas.

But sheer size is not our only asset—Canadian charities and nonprofits are on the leading edge of accountability and transparency. We are currently in the pilot stage of a new Standards Initiative – as far as we know the first of its kind at a national level. The pro-gram involves a rigorous peer review process and is designed to help all or-

ganizations build excellence in board governance, financial accountability, fundraising, staff management, and volunteer involvement.

Challenges aheadAs a sector, we are also continuously looking for ways to be more effective and have the resources we need to do our work. More than a year ago Im-agine Canada, working with nation-al, provincial and regional partners, went across the country meeting with more than a thousand charit-able and nonprofit organizations of all sizes. Collectively we identified and prioritised the challenges facing the sector. Four key areas emerged:

■■ Attracting and retaining skilled staff. We need to get onto the radar of young graduates, so they see ca-reer opportunities within the sector, and find ways to attract skilled indi-viduals from both government and business to come work with us.

■■ Looking at new and creative ways of financing our work. This is where much work needs to happen to help us strengthen philanthropy and government support while ex-ploring new ways of raising revenue, and new forms of collaboration.

■■ Capitalizing on new forms of volunteerism. Volunteers are a huge asset that we have as a sector. We need to ensure that we are able to

engage and meet the needs of volun-teers as diverse as the communities we serve.

■■ Communicating better with Canadians to share the impact of our work. This is not about rais-ing awareness about the nice things charities and nonprofits do. It’s about the realities we face in do-ing our work, the complexity of the issues we deal with on behalf of Can-adians and the cost of ‘doing good’.

new approaches; new partnerships In a few weeks some 500 Charity lead-ers, with many more connected on-line, will gather in Ottawa for a Na-tional Summit. Over two years in the making, this event is not a conference in the traditional sense of the word. It is a working session seeking real progress on these four priorities.

Charities and nonprofits have al-ways been there for Canadians, and touch our lives in myriad ways. We are integral to the fabric of life in Can-ada – and although we are as old as the country itself, we welcome new ideas, new approaches and new partner-ships as we strive to better serve com-munities here and abroad.

Marcel lauzIère

[email protected]

Marcel lauzièrepresident & ceo, imagine canada

stretch tax credit for charitable givingThe Stretch Tax Credit is about challenging all Canadians to give and to give more. Simply put, it would increase the feder-al tax credit on giving that ex-ceeds a donor’s previous high-est giving level. This would en-courage donations from those who may not have given in the past, as well as those who al-ready give and would like to give more.

Visit our web site to learn more about the Stretch Tax Credit: Imaginecanada.ca/stretch-taxcredit.com

CharItablE gIvINg

With over $255 million in assets, the toronto Community foundation connects philanthropy with community needs and opportunities. it uses its annual Vital signs report to direct strategic investing.

What toronto needsThe accolades are impressive—the Economist says we are the fourth most liveable city in the world—a top five city on the planet! We of-fer a quality of life where residents live, breathe, work and prosper in harmony!

PricewaterhouseCoopers ranks To-ronto second among 26 globally com-petitive cities that were surveyed in intellectual capital and innovation, and health, safety and security.

Canada is ranked third among 31 countries for its exemplary newcom-er integration policies. Toronto’s im-migration levels grew by 11.5 percent in 2010 after three years of declining numbers.

However, Rahul Bhardwaj, President and CEO of the TCF, is very aware of the difficult issues affecting this city.

There are actually three Toron-tos, if the figures from the latest Toronto Vital Signs report, are any-thing to go by.

divided we fallIn a city of 2.7 million people, there are three clear divisions, and more than 1 million live in low and very low income neighbourhoods.

In one year alone, poverty in the Toronto Region (population 5.7 mil-lion) rose 22 percent . The rate of child poverty increased by more than 43 percent. For those strug-gling, Toronto offers one of the most severely unaffordable housing mar-kets in the world. “The average cost of housing is five times median in-come,” explains Bhardwaj.

“If these trends continue as pre-dicted, by 2025 low and very low in-come neighbourhoods will grow to cover 60 percent of our city,” he says.

While cities around the world are grappling with aging popula-tions, Toronto’s aged are presenting unique challenges, mainly fuelled by their low English literacy rates. From 2001 to 2031, people aged 85 and over will increase by 85 percent.

The number of people without the requisite English literacy rates will increase by 64 percent over the next 20 years.

The “hourglass” economy is shrinking the availability of middle positions, with workers living pay-cheque to paycheque in low-wage, dead-end jobs.

Why we love torontoBhardwaj has big dreams for To-ronto—that we become a smart-er, brighter, safer, healthier and cleaner city.

The foundation’s giving and re-search is guided by the Vital Signs report, which aims to inspire civic engagement, and to guide donors and stakeholders to the areas of greatest need. “We don’t want to create simplis-tic ‘solutions’. Collective leader-ship that emphasizes collaboration, compassion, and compromise is re-quired,” he emphasizes.

Challenges and opportunities for a more prosperous toronto

raHul BHardWajPresident and Ceo of the toronto Community foundation.Photo: Bryan McBurney

IndranI nadarajah

[email protected]

cAtAlysts for chAnge1st edition, noveMber 2011

responsible for this issue:Publisher: tyra [email protected]: ariela [email protected] director: gustav [email protected] Coordinator: Jemima [email protected] developer: Chris [email protected]

Contributors: allison sandmeyer-graves, marcel lauzière, derek Evans, alexandra lopoukhine, Indrani Nadarajah, bonnie shepherd

distributed within:toronto star, November 2011this section was created by mediaplanet and did not involve the toronto star or its Editorial departments.

Mediaplanet’s business is to create new customers for our advertisers by providing readers with high quality contentthat motivates them to act.

FolloW Us oN FaCEbooK aNd tWIttEr!www.facebook.com/mediaplanetCawww.twitter.com/mediaplanetCa

tHe eConomist

ranks toronto in tHe toP fiVe

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engaging CommunitiesCanadian catalysts for change continue to defy the odds in remaining on the leading edge of creating a better world.Photo: istockPhoto.coM

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Question: How can we improve global childhood nutrition? answer: By providing micronutrients such as Zinc that have the ability to save childrens lives.

Zinc saves kidsFive-year-old Betsy lives in a small rural village in southern Peru, a country with a devastat-ing child malnutrition rate. Her parents live a simple life as farm-ers and work hard to support their family. When Betsy was three, her parents learned she was underweight and malnour-ished. The local health clinic told Betsy’s mother about the bene-fits of a micronutrient pow-der. After just a few months of sprinkling the powder into her daughter ’s food she saw re-markable changes.

“She is now curious and alert,” says Betsy’s mother Vincenta Francisco. “She goes to the com-munity preschool and is just like the other five-year-olds, playful and happy.”

Micronutrients are vitamins and minerals people require in trace amounts, but are critical for good health. Zinc, in particular, is essential for brain development, healthy growth and ensuring a strong immune system among

young children. Zinc is also high-ly effective in treating acute diar-rhea. Unfortunately, approxi-mately a third of the world’s population does not get enough zinc through their diets and zinc deficiency leads to 450,000 child deaths worldwide each year.

In 2008, a panel of eight lead-ing economists, including five Nobel Laureates, released the Copenhagen Consensus. The consensus recommended the single most cost-effective way of reducing global malnutri-tion and saving children’s lives is adding micronutrient supple-ments such as zinc and vitamin A to children’s diets.

The zinc industry responded. In January 2010, the International Zinc Association (IZA) launched the Zinc Saves Kids campaign to improve the survival, growth and development of undernourished children by funding UNICEF zinc supplementation programs.

Peru and Nepal are two coun-tries with high zinc deficiency rates where the Zinc Saves Kids program is being delivered.

In Peru, Zinc Saves Kids reach-es 100,000 children under the age of three. By 2014, it will expand to 13 regions, benefitting nearly half a million children like Betsy. Program officials also work close-ly with the local government to strengthen Peru’s policies on preventing and controlling micronutrient deficiencies.

The initiative has been equal-ly successful in Nepal where UNICEF-trained health care workers in six of the country’s regions deliver micronutrient supplements to over 100,000 children between six months and two-years-old. Within the next two years the program will be implemented throughout the country.

“We are very pleased with the re-sults of this program and the sig-nificant improvement it is having on the health of children,” says UNICEF Canada’s President and CEO David Morley. “Our partner-ship with the IZA demonstrates the incredible impact strategic corporate social responsibility investments can have.”

vItal PartNErshIPs

inspiration

enriCHing family HealtH a mother in Peru sprin-kles micronutrient pow-der which includes zinc in her daughter’s meal. the joint uniCef and inter-national Zinc association Zinc saves kids program supplies micronutrients to families in Peru and nepal. Zinc is essential for brain development, healthy growth and ensuring a strong immune system among young children.Photo: uniceF/shehzad noorani

Canada’s Community

seCtor Creates joBs

for more tHan tWo million PeoPle

ture by MediApl

Canada’s Community

2faCt

About 150 million children under five, one in four are malnourished worldwide. Active in over 190 countries and with unparalleled reach, UNICEF is the world’s leading hu-

manitarian organization for children, and plays a leadership role fighting malnutrition through the distribution of lifesaving supplies such as high protein biscuits and micronutri-ent supplements. Last year, UNICEF distributed more than $100 million worth of nutrition supplies to the world’s most vulnerable children —including micronutrients, oral rehydra-tion salts, zinc tablets, and therapeutic food.

humanitarian organizations pave the way for global health initiatives

thE gIFt oF lIFE


2

Vancouver-based diversified mining company Teck is one of the largest zinc producers in the world, with zinc operations in Canada, Peru and the United States. The company’s President and CEO, Don Lindsay, was the Chairman of the International Zinc Association at the time of the Copenhagen Consensus and was involved in the development of Zinc Saves Kids.

“When we learned about the devastating impact of zinc de-ficiency on children around the world, we knew we had to help,” says Lindsay. “As one of the world’s largest producers of zinc, we recognize we have the abil-ity to make a difference.” Earli-er this year, Teck and the Micro-nutrient Initiative, with the support of the Canadian Inter-national Development Agency, launched the Zinc Alliance for Child Health, a unique public-private-civil society alliance that aims to develop and sustain zinc treatment programs to help save children’s lives. The first project under the Zinc Alliance for Child

Health will support the Ministry of Health in Senegal to dramatic-ally scale up the use of zinc sup-plements, along with oral rehy-dration salts for the treatment of diarrhea.

Teck has also launched a web-site (zincsaveslives.com) that features an online store where all proceeds from the sale of Zinc and Health branded items go to supporting zinc supplemen-tation programs such as Zinc Saves Kids.

inspiration

Why collaborate?

Why is teck involved in Zinc saves kids?The challenge the world faces is not producing more zinc, but getting zinc into the diets of people suffering from zinc de-ficiency. In fact, the amount of zinc required annually to treat all cases of zinc deficiency is less than 2 percent of Teck’s production and less than 0.1 percent of global zinc produc-tion. Addressing zinc deficien-cy requires education, bet-ter distribution networks and greater awareness of the dan-gers of zinc deficiency. Teck employees and our partners are working hard to increase awareness and help solve this global health issue.

don lIndsay, PresIdent and ceo teck resources

Why are corporate part-nerships important to uniCef?At UNICEF we believe part-nerships and collaborative re-lationships are critical to en-suring children enjoy good health, education and protec-tion. Corporate support can play an important role in this. UNICEF enters into partner-ships to create awareness, mo-bilize support and raise funds for our programs helping chil-dren. Our partnership with the International Zinc Association is doing this and making a dif-ference for children in Nepal and Peru.

davId Morley, PresIdent and ceo unIceF canada

[email protected]

qUEstIoN aNd aNsWEr

imProVing liVes tHrougH nutrition five-year-old Betsy from southern Peru benefit-ted from the joint uniCef and international Zinc as-sociation Zinc saves kids micronutrient program.Photo: uniceF/nePal

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Everyone needs zinc to survive. the healthy daily dose for men is 15mg, women 12mg, chil-dren 10mg and infants 5mg. Pregnant women and lactating mothers require even more zinc to ensure the healthy develop-ment of their growing babies. Zinc-rich foods include nuts, beans, eggs, spinach and choc-olate.

daIly dosE oF ZINC

BonnIe shePherd

[email protected]

?


The great strides made by the women’s movement in the past may be contributing to a different sort of struggle now.

Women fighting for women The Canadian Women’s Foun-dation (CWF) has its job cut out for it—an aspect of which is edu-cating women and businesses that women’s issues still exist in Canada.

The common belief is that women are legally protected against discrimination and there are shelters for domestic abuse victims, but inequality still exists and women’s lives are at risk. Every six days a woman in Canada is murdered by her male partner, says CEO, Beverly Wybrow.

Wybrow has led the CWF for 20 years, since its inception in 1991.

strength in numbers“People want simple answers to long-term complex problems,” explains Wybrow, but this isn’t always feasible. Complex prob-lems demand patience and a ton of money. Fortunately, though, “at the moment, there is a very strong, emotional feeling on the part of companies that serve women, about helping women. They believe in the ripple effect.”

For example, a CWF partner-ship with Winners Home Sense has helped establish the more than 450 women’s shelters, in their “Shelter from the Storm” initiative. “Winners has raised more than $7 million over the past six years, through customer and corporate contribution. They are fabulous partners,” she says.

Another partner, Rogers, donates media time and space to publi-cize the Foundation’s efforts.

ripple effectWhen American feminist Gloria Steinem headlined the Canadian Women’s Foundation breakfast in September, she spoke admir-ingly of the exponential growth that CWF has experienced in 20 years—it went from giving $40,000 a year in grants to more than $4 million last year.

Indeed, the single biggest posi-tive change over the past 20 years has been the growing awareness of the power of women’s philan-thropy, and the awareness by in-dividual women that they can play a more prominent role in uphold-ing women’s rights, Wybrow says.

This year, the CWF received a stunning $14 million bequest from the estate of music compos-er Ann Southam—the largest sin-gle donation to a women’s organ-ization in Canadian history. This

donation has been channelled in-to the Ann Southam Endowment Fund, and ensures that the CWF has a permanent future.

focusing on young girlsSoutham was attracted to the CWF tagline “investing in the power of women and the dreams of girls” says Wybrow. The CWF has also used part of her bequest to double the Girls’ Fund, which Southam helped found in 2006.

The foundation has researched this area extensively, and the pic-ture is grim—while girls have more career choices and more op-portunities today, their pressures have increased.

A disturbing trend is the hyper-sexualization of pre-teens, and “girls as young as nine to 11 years are dealing with self-esteem issues”. There are other serious issues like eating disorders and unplanned pregnancies.

Learning to decode advertis-ing and media images is also an important survival skill if girls are to grow up unscathed. “Tech-nology is changing our land-scape, and the pressures young girls face. This is why we need to stress media literacy,” Wybrow says.

“While girls have more career choices and more opportunitiestoday, their pressures have increased.”

Beverly Wybrowceo, canadian Women’s foundations

IndranI nadarajah

[email protected]

CWF FaCts■■ CWf is Canada’s only na-

tional foundation that helps women and girls. It is one of the top 10 women’s foundations in the world.

■■ it believes in working to change the systems that have contributed to, or created the problems in the first place.

■■ more than 30,000 women and girls benefit from CWF pro-grams annually.

■■ their approach—give women and girls a “hand-up” not a “hand-out”.

■■ CWf doesn’t depend on government funding. almost all their support comes from people and businesses.

! read more on the web:

www.canadianwomen.org

volunteerism: bridging the corporate community gap

■■ Question: Why is employee volunteering important?

■■ answer: it creates networking and skills development oppor-tunities for employees.

When volunteering makes business senseCorporate Canada is recognizing that there are tangible business benefits to improving corporate social responsibility (CSR) per-formance, says Canadian Busi-ness for Social Responsibility ad-viser Blake Connoy.

Additionally, companies view CSR as a way to boost em-ployee morale and benefit their community partners. Volun-teerism provides unique net-working and skills develop-ment opportunities to employ-ees; while community partners benefit through improving the quality of a social/environ-mental situation; and increas-ing their knowledge and cap-acity, Connoy explains.

In short, a win-win-win situ-ation (businesses-employees-community partners).

A company can help their community partners through philanthropy, product dona-tions, donations of service and time to help coordinate an event or initiative for a non-profit partner. Employee vol-unteerism happens when an organization invests to in-crease volunteering among staff. Organizations can sup-port volunteerism through paid-time-off, or offer some type of resource or support to a particular activity, he adds.

admirable initiativesWhile most employee volun-teerism is manual, like picking up trash in a park or painting, there has been a trend towards engaging employees in know-ledge- or skill-based volunteer-ing opportunities, Connoy notes.

For the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, RONA offered a 30-week carpentry skills and work experience program for people who have had difficulty entering the workforce. All materials and tools were pro-vided by RONA, and trainees were recruited from Aborigin-al peoples, inner-city residents, youth and women at risk, and new immigrants.

Further afield, Scotiabank Cayman’s Bright Future Pro-gram is one example of focused financial support and efforts in the community to help the island’s youth, education and health services.

Some smaller companies are also creating innovative ways to give back to the community, Connoy points out.

TurnAround Couriers, which was established in 2002, re-cruits only at-risk youth for all its bicycle courier positions and back office staff. After al-most 10 years in business, it has helped about 100 youth, but founder Richard Derham has acknowledged in interviews it has been a difficult road.

IndranI nadarajah

[email protected]

news

from homeless to high places: one woman’s outrageous journey to the top

■■ Question: Why is dreaming important, even when you’ve been laid low?

■■ answer: dreams direct us to a better life.

the importance of dreaming bigWhen Lia Grimanis found herself in a homeless shelter, she promised herself that she would return to tell the women that homelessness need not define their entire lives; and that she would live an outrageous life. “It had to be big to inspire the women,” she says.

We all need stories to inspire us and help us achieve our dreams, particu-larly when life is bleak, says Grimanis, who turns 40 on December 1.

Grimanis is pretty inspiring. A high school drop-out, she is now the regional head, financial services for Nimbus, a Tibco company. When not at work, she has wing-walked, swum

with sharks, piloted a helicopter, and cooked in Gordon Ramsey’s kitchen. A passionate harpist, she also owns three harps.

a tough beginningAt 16, Grimanis fled a violent house-hold, and “couch surfed” for 18 months before she ran out of friends, then ac-quaintances. She began relying on strangers. “Invisible homelessness is very dangerous, because there is no protection,” she comments.

Thankfully, after making a ran-dom phone call to the Woman Abuse Hotline, she was directed to a YMCA shelter. Within a few weeks, she was placed in accommodation and life

started to turn around.“It’s about having the right informa-tion and trained professionals to help you,” she says.

loving her neighbourWith that in mind, Grimanis formed her own foundation, Up With Women. It works to raise awareness about homelessness, particularly its impact on women and children.

Up With Women also pairs re-cently homeless women with a certified executive career or life coach. The coach provides her time free of charge for a year to help the women rebuild their lives and transition into the ca-reer or business of their choice.

Equally exciting, Up With Women runs a children’s leader-ship mentoring program where formerly homeless children take their experience of homelessness

and turn it into a “Community Action Project”.

How she did itAnybody can do what she has done, Grimanis says. She offers the following tips.

■■ Dream big. ■■ Forgive those who have hurt you

and give back. “For the financially challenged, there are other ways of giving. Be creative!”

■■ Question assumptions, especially the negative ones, and be defiant.

■■ Feel the fear and do it anyway. “It’s the only way to grow. And scare yourself often!”

■■ Have faith that things will work out for good. They usually do.

lia grimanisfounder of up with Women & vp regional head fi-nancial services at nimbus partners.

IndranI nadarajah

[email protected]

women in philanthropy and corporate partnerships

1

ConneCting Communities 1. aboriginal women partici-pating in a program funded by the Canadian Women’s foundation.2. Participants in a CWf girls’ fund program learn-ing to love the outdoors.3. Participants from a trade program funded by the CWf to help move low-income women out of poverty.Photo: courtesy oF canadian

woMen’s Foundation

Blake Connoycanadian business for social responsibility Adviser

2

3


HELPING TO MAKE

LIVES BETTER,TOGETHERWinners and HomeSense want to thank you

for helping to make a difference to the lives of women

and girls who live in violent and poverty-stricken

situations within our communities.

Our support of the Canadian Women’s Foundation

has helped 450 shelters and

reached more than 30,000 women

and girls nationwide.

partnership showCase

the ‘business’ of volunteeringfor a non-profit organ-ization that sends vol-unteers abroad, re-cruiting the staff of for-profit corporations may not seem to be busi-ness as usual. But after 50 years of internation-al volunteering, Cuso continues to explore new forms of volun-teerism to help reduce global poverty.

We work collaboratively with overseas partner organiza-tions and many are telling us they need people with busi-ness skills.

One of our corporate vol-unteers, Coreena Rorke, a commercial banking man-ager with Scotiabank from Victoria, B.C., spent six months in Kingston, Ja-maica to develop a stra-

tegic business plan for a centre that works with dis-advantaged teens.

Our corporate partners are carefully chosen – busi-ness practices must meet Cuso’s guiding principles: respect for human rights, accountability and fair-ness. In return, business-es get employees with en-hanced business and inter-cultural skills and a deeper awareness of world issues.

North American com-panies working in the de-veloping world have an im-pact on the lives of many. Together we can help over-come poverty.

To learn more about Cuso International visit: cusointernational.org.

derek evans executIve dIrector, cuso InternatIonal

[email protected]

a Care-ing approach to corporate social responsibility

Care is the foremost international humani-tarian organization in Canada committed to defending dignity and fighting poverty by em-powering women and girls around the world. Corporate relationships are excellent opportun-ities to engage enthusi-astic Care supporters in unique ways.

Earlier this year, employees from CI Investments partici-pated in CARE Canada’s na-tional campaign Walk In Her Shoes. They organized a team walk and raised money to sup-port CARE’s mission and plan to participate again in 2012.

“Campaigns like Walk In Her Shoes allow employees to do something as a team outside of their day-to-day

work,” says Heather Bar-nabe, from CARE’s events team. “Companies that en-courage this type of en-gagement through a cor-porate matching program for example, see increased staff morale and retention. Ultimately, corporate so-cial responsibility is good for business.”

To learn more about Walk In Her Shoes and CARE Canada, visit: care.ca.

alexandra loPoukhIne,care canada dIrector

oF coMMunIcatIonsand MarketInG

[email protected]

investing in young leaders

free the Children is an international char-ity and educational partner. domestic-ally, we work with more than 3,500 schools and youth groups across north america, em-powering youth to take action and get in-volved. internationally, we have built more than 650 schools and school rooms, enabling more than 55,000 youth to go to school each day.

Something extraordinary happens when business-es invest in young leaders. Many organizations, large and small, partner with Free The Children to pro-vide leadership programs for young people. The re-sult has meant boundless

opportunities and a way to create impact – both local-ly and globally.

Free The Children offers a wide variety of oppor-tunities for businesses to make a significant impact for young people as well as for its employees. Wheth-er it is investing in youth leaders at home through events such as We Day, or supporting Free The Chil-dren development projects overseas through fund-raising and volunteering, the rewards for a work-place and its employees are endless. For addition-al information visit: freethechildren.com

allIson sandMeyer-Graves dIrector oF develoPMent,

Free the chIldren

[email protected]

engaging teensCoreena rorke, commer-cial banking manager, scotiabank, on student field trip to fort Charles.Photo: coreena rorke

ConneCting WitH WomenCi investments 2011 Walk in Her shoes team.Photo: ci investMents

taking aCtionthis year, more than 62,000 youth will be in attendance at free the Children We day events taking place across Canada. We day is the largest event of its kind, bringing together young people leading local and global change.Photo: courtesy oF Free the children

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