Belonging is the antidote to the growing polarization that is settling across communities in Canada.  To fully contribute, community members need to feel represented by our governments and decision-makers; people need to see themselves in those leaders, know that their voice matters, and that they have the agency to effect change.  Building a sense of belonging is what drives social change––such as poverty reduction, climate action, and youth engagement. Through storytelling and group conversations, this workshop will explore the promise of belonging to build a more equitable future, and the ways that communities are contributing toward building a pan-Canadian movement for belonging that is rooted in places.

This workshop will focus on how equitable approaches and meaningful community engagement can drive more effective climate adaptation and resilience. With speakers from Reep Green Solutions and Partners for Action, the discussion will explore strategies for ensuring that climate solutions prioritize the needs of equity-deserving communities while fostering collaboration across diverse groups. 

This session will support participants to understand how evaluation can be used for purposes beyond accountability. Drawing on ideas and examples, it will propose ways that we can use numbers and narratives to shift power to equity-denied communities, ensure that our decisions are informed by evidence and experience, and better tell our stories of change.

Imagine That! Building Creative Capacity is an interactive and playful workshop designed to engage the creative potential within each participant. Through a series of dynamic exercises, this session will help you build the skills of imagination and creativity, empowering you to think beyond the ordinary and explore new ways to solve problems, innovate, and inspire change. 

Participants will engage in collaborative activities that encourage divergent thinking, narrative creation, and scenario planning, all centered on the theme of people-powered creativity. Whether you are looking to enhance personal growth, drive innovation in your organization, or simply reconnect with your innate imaginative capacity, this workshop will provide practical tools and techniques to tap into your creativity and bring your visions to life. 

Join us for an inspiring and energizing experience that will leave you with new insights and creative strategies, ready to apply in your work, community, and personal endeavors. Let’s celebrate the power of people and imagination.  

This workshop is designed for leaders of multi-sector collaboratives, backbone staff of collective impact efforts, funders, and other leaders who are working together to pursue shared goals. The session will provide you with essential mindsets, skillsets, and resources to apply what you are learning to advance your day-to-day work.

Join this workshop to hear inspiring stories of youth power transformation through empowering engagement. Hear from Manvi Bhalla with Shake Up The Establishment, and representatives from Communities Building Youth Futures (CBYF). Together, we will take stock of the trends we’re seeing in youth engagement and discuss what steps do we need to take to radically centre and cultivate youth leadership.

The Critical Shifts Tool is invaluable in developing a common agenda to guide the work of collaborative partners. Using this tool facilitates a process for identifying, and reaching consensus, around the specific problem or priority spaces that a collaborative effort intends to focus their solutions.

The Capire Engagement Triangle is a spatial tool which identifies desired outcomes of engagement based on the overarching objectives of informing decisions, building capacity and strengthening relationships. It should be used early to plan engagement outcomes.

Communications is an important condition of collaboration. Keeping everyone on the same page is difficult when there are multiple parts in flux. A Plan-on-a-Page can address these challenges by summarizing the key design elements of the collaboration effort.

This tool outlines a useful process for assessing and prioritizing the many possible ideas and/or solutions that a group has generated. Those ideas that have the potential for high impact AND are identified as feasible should be the ones to prototype first.

When collaboration partners have co-created a compelling purpose, getting to impact is more achievable. This interactive six-step process builds connections across members, focuses efforts and supports the design of a compelling and shared purpose for the collaboration.

People bring wisdom, experiences, and other assets into conversations. This tool provides focus to group discussions and helps groups create shared meaning. It includes ideas on how to set context, a framework for how to design open-ended questions, and ideas on how to hear all of what's said AND draw out what's most essential in the moment.

Complex issues often involve entangled challenges that are not intuitively obvious. When we frame these possibilities as “either-or” choices, we unintentionally contribute to their intractability. The “Horns of the Dilemma” tool helps to reframe – and recognize – the competing dimensions of a complex issue so we can work to reconcile them.

A consensus-based process to bring diverse perspectives together to work through an issue to solutions. Understand four key phases of co-design: Start by sharing perspectives, forming a common vision, building new ideas, and deciding on your path forward.

This tool is designed to guide individuals and groups through the complex process of navigating conflicts, with a focus on moving beyond resolution towards transformative outcomes. It offers a comprehensive framework that supports learners with understanding practical strategies, reflective exercises, and communication techniques to address underlying issues, foster understanding, and promote relational compassion. The tool emphasizes the importance of empathy, active listening, and collaborative problem-solving. It encourages participants to explore the root causes of conflict, understand different perspectives, and co-create solutions that honour the needs and values of all parties involved. By integrating elements of restorative justice, mediation, and conflict transformation theories, this tool aims to create a safe and supportive environment for meaningful dialogue and sustainable change

Appreciative interviews energize groups to share their success stories instead of the usual depressing talk about problems. Stories from the field offer proof of local solutions, promising prototypes, and spread innovations while providing data for recognizing success patterns.

The Volunteer Recruitment Planning Canvas is an exciting way to develop a volunteer recruitment strategy for a community collaborative, promoting a sense of community and shared purpose. This tool will help streamline your volunteer recruitment approach, ensuring consistency and clarity in volunteer recruitment efforts. The Canvas facilitates collaboration across various sectors, including those with Lived Experience, to create a more inclusive volunteer network. The tool advances equity and inclusion by addressing the impacts on equity-deserving populations and making volunteer efforts more equitable and inclusive. 

Using pizza as a metaphor for policy change and influence, this interactive session will engage participants in considering the equity and inclusion dimensions of policy strategies. Participants will walk away with insights into policy goals, development and policy outcomes. They will also consider who has influence and who is often left outside of the conversation.

Use the Gradients of Agreement to make group decision making easier. This tool invites group members to express their level of support for an idea, identify areas that require more discussion, reduce circular discussions, and ultimately help a group to reach consensus. Gradients of Agreement provides the data and process for people to confidently move from idea to action. 

The Healing-centered ecosystem is a guide, not a prescription. The concept is intended as an organizing framework and value base to support changemakers, leaders, founders, professionals, individuals, teams, or communities in noticing, recognizing, and re-evaluating the ecosystems that they are part of and how they can put healing at the center of their interactions, policies, planning, and actions. Healing-centered ecosystems are places of refuge, restoration, and regeneration and are guided by 4 Commitments and 8 Expressions:

Commitment to Care is expressed through:

• Awareness
• Advocacy

Commitment to Connection is expressed through:

• Regulation
• Restoration

Commitment to Contribution is expressed through:

• Strengths
• Service

Commitment to Community is expressed through:

• Culture
• Collaboration