COMMUNITY SOCIAL PLANNING COUNCIL
OF
MONTHLY NEWSLETTER
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Issue # 40, July
2006
INTRODUCTION
Welcome to the fortieth edition of the electronic newsletter from the Community Social Planning Council of Toronto. At the beginning of each month, this e-bulletin provides news on the activities of the CSPC-T and our partners, as well as access to new research and policy products and networks, in print and web-based forms. We hope it is useful. We value and welcome your feedback at the email address below.
To subscribe to this bulletin, send an email with your name, organization, address, and telephone number to cspc@cspc.toronto.on.ca with the message
SUBSCRIBE MONTHLY NEWSLETTER
If you wish to stop receiving the bulletin, send the message UNSUBSCRIBE MONTHLY NEWSLETTER
If you do not have regular access to email and you wish to receive this bulletin, please contact Margaret Hau at (416) 351-0095 x 211, and she will arrange to send it to you by fax. If you want a printable version of this newsletter, please go to:
http://www.socialplanningtoronto.org/CSPC-T%20Newsletters/Newsletter%202006.htm
Please note
the deadline to submit information for the next e-Newsletter is July 24, 2006.
CONTENTS
1. News from the Council
2. Upcoming Events
3. News from our Partners
4. Conferences and Calls for Papers
5. Information Resources
5.1 New Reports and Publications
5.2 Websites of Interest
6. Contact Us
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1. NEWS FROM
THE COUNCIL
The Family Service Association of
You Are Invited to the Community Release
of “On the Front Lines of Toronto’s Community Service Sector: Improving Working
Conditions and Ensuring Quality Services,” including data from a survey of the
Immigrant and Refugee-Serving Sector.
Panel Presentation, Lunch Provided
Monday, July 17th, 2006, 11:00 AM to 2:00 PM
CERIS,
(
The On the Front Lines project is a joint research
initiative of Family Service Association of Toronto and the Community Social
Planning Council of Toronto, supported by the Social Research Grants of the
Please
RSVP by Wednesday, July 12th, 2006 to Liyu Guo at liyugu@fsatoronto.com
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2. UPCOMING
EVENTS
CERIS
SEMINAR
Integrative Antiracism: South Asians in Canadian Academe
Speaker: Dr. Edith Samuel, Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology at Atlantic Baptist University, Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada. Dr. Samuel's research interests are in the area of cross-cultural psychology, immigration and settlement, and race, class and gender
Date & Time: Wednesday, July 12, 12:00-2:00pm
Location: Room 548,
Please RSVP: ceris.reception@utoronto.ca or call (416) 946-3110
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Planet in Focus
Planet in Focus International Environmental
Film and Video Festival announces its 6th annual two-week hands-on
video production Youth Summer Workshop.
This is for youth between the ages of 14 and 18 who are in interested in
film and video and are passionate about the environment.
Date & Time: August 14-25, Monday –
Friday, 9:00 am – 5:00 pm
Location: Week 1
Fee: $100 for the two weeks (payable on the
first day of camp). Scholarships are
available (please indicate requests on your application).
Application deadline is July 14th,
2006.
To apply or for further information visit: www.planetinfocus.org, email: myan@planetinfocus.org, telephone Myan
at: 416-531-1769
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JVS
Annual General Meeting (AGM)
JVS Toronto cordially invites you to their JVS 59th AGM and 60th Anniversary kick-off!
Date: Wednesday, September 20
Location: Sala Caboto,
For further details visit: http://www.jvstoronto.org/index.php?page=148
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Campaign For Public
Education (CPE)
CPE
The 3rd Annual CPE (Pre-election) summit – Advancing Quality Public Education will feature:
Date & Time:
Sunday, September 24, 10:00 am – 2:00 pm
Location:
For further
information visit the CPE’s website at: http://www.campaignforpubliceducation.ca/
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3. NEWS FROM
OUR PARTNERS
Access to the Early Childhood Education Field in
New Program to Assist Internationally
Trained Early Childhood Educators
Do you know Internationally Trained Early Childhood Educators seeking credential recognition to be employed in their field? We can assist.
The Access to the Early Childhood Education Field in Ontario bridging project will address the barriers faced by Internationally Trained Early Childhood Educators and support them on their path to credential recognition and employment.
For more information visit: www.aeceo.ca or
contact Laura Sheehan at: 416-487-3157
ext. 26 or by email: lsheehan@bellnet.ca
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4. CONFERENCES AND CALLS FOR PAPERS
The Centre for the Study of Education and Work,
OISE/UT and The
Conference: Skills,
Jobs and Immigrants: What’s Working, Who’s Working?
This conference will:
· Provide a rare opportunity for participants from
different sectors to meet and discuss common concerns;
· Facilitate the development of more coordinated approaches between employers, labour unions, academics and community workers;
· Offer participants a chance to learn about
innovative projects that are working to move foreign trained professionals into
the trades, professions and occupations; create connections between unions,
immigrants/newcomers, youth, and community organizations; effectively integrate
people into the labour force; and influence policy and programme development;
· Promote the adoption and/or adaptation of successful and innovative approaches to the integration of newcomers into the Canadian labour force, focusing on how learning can facilitate more equitable access to jobs.
Date: October 12-13, 2006
Location: Hart House,
For further information contact Rhonda Sussman at: 416-923-6641 x. 2392
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Art for Real Change Festival (ARCfest) 2006
5 Day Festival
ARCfest is a Social Justice Arts Festival that will
be held from October 23rd-29th in multiple venues in the Queen West Art and
Design District and Parkdale neighbouroods in
We are looking for provocative, radical,
inspiring, empowering, innovative and/or enlightening works from across the
artistic media (i.e., film, poetry, performing arts, music, visual arts and
anything else you consider art). Proposals must address local social justice/
activist/human rights issues.
We encourage projects that are co-created or
co-produced by an artist together with an organization involved in social
justice pursuits (though this is not a requirement)
ARCfest is committed to supporting equity and
embraces submissions from diverse communities.
For more
information: email info@arcfest.org
or visit our website www.arcfest.org
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Building Bridges - A Labour Studies Conference,
This conference seeks to bring together academics, movement leaders and activists and artists to analyse the sources of division within and between labour and social movements, and to foster strategies for building more effective forms of solidarity. This conference will also be taking place at the same time at the 9th Annual Windsor Labour Arts Festival.
Date: February 2-3, 2007
Location:
Call for Participants
If you are interested in being a participant either as a Panellist or Discussant or for additional information about the conference, kindly contact Dr. Alan Hall at: hall4@uwindsor.ca, or Dr. Stephanie Ross at: stephr@uwindsor.ca, by August 15, 2006.
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5. INFORMATION
RESOURCES
5.1
New Reports and
Publications
Canadian Policy Research Networks (CPRN)
Too
Many Left Behind:
This new study from CPRN documents the availability of formal adult learning opportunities in
The full report is available at: http://www.cprn.org/en/doc.cfm?doc=1479
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Street Health
Failing the Homeless Report on Barriers to ODSP Access
Street Health recently released a report on
barriers to accessing the Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP) for
homeless people with disabilities.
The report shows how
Among the many important project findings and outcomes, these are some of the
most staggering:
The report also identifies key barriers and
delays in the ODSP system for homeless people. It makes clear and feasible
recommendations for how to improve access to ODSP benefits for homeless people
with disabilities.
The full and summary reports of the Failing the Homeless are now available on
the Street Health website at: www.streethealth.ca.
For more information or to request a paper copy of the report, contact Erika
Khandor at: erika@streethealth.ca or by telephone:
416-921-8668 ext. 237
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Progress
Report on Childcare in
This report reviews the
While Best Start is broader than early learning
and child care and includes other measures to support children’s healthy
development, this report focuses on how well the plan positions the province to
create a universal, high quality system of services for children and their
parents, especially in light of the new federal government’s approach to child
care.
For the full report: http://www.childcareontario.org/index.html or you can download the pdf version from:
http://www.childcareontario.org/library/briefs/OCBCC_BestStartProgressReporl.pdf (PDF file - 51K, 10 pages)
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Caledon
Institute of Social Policy
Towards a New Architecture for
Since its creation in 1992, the Caledon Institute of Social Policy has worked
to modernize
To read the complete report visit: http://www.caledoninst.org/ (PDF file -
143K, 37 pages)
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Policy
Roundtable Mobilizing Professions and Trades (POROMPT)
A Review of Bridge Training
Programs for Immigrants with Professional Backgrounds in
Since 2003, the Government of Ontario has spent
in excess of $43 million on funding bridge training programs for skilled
immigrants in order to help them get into jobs commensurate with their skills.
Initial findings suggest that they are having very limited success,
particularly with regards to “bridge to work” programs.
This study, the first of its kind, reviewed a
wide range of bridging programs in different professions including engineering,
social work, nursing and teaching through qualitative and quantitative methods,
against the parameters of equity. The initial findings show that “bridge to work”
programs seem to have failed because employers were supposed to be engaged in
providing work experience to participants, but this did not always happen.
The
full report can be downloaded from: www.promptinfo.ca.
For
further information on the report of about PROMPT, kindly contact Nikhat Rasheed
at: 416-979-8611 x 4310 or Email: nikhat@cassa.on.ca
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Canadian Council on Social Development (CCSD)
The Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector in
This research report is based on the National Survey of Nonprofit
and Voluntary Organizations, which was conducted by a consortium of
organizations in partnership with Statistics Canada.
Organizations within the nonprofit and
voluntary sector provide a wide range of essential services and programs that
touch virtually all aspects of society – social justice, sport, environment,
health, faith, arts and culture. Over 45,000 organizations were in operation in
2003, 369 organizations per 100,000 population.
The two largest areas of activity are Religion
(23% of organizations) and Sports and Recreation (16% of organizations).
As is true for the rest of
The full report can be downloaded
from: http://www.ccsd.ca/home.htm
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The Daily,
Statistics
June 1, 2006
Study: Canada's Labour
Market at a Glance, 2005
Employment in
For the complete report visit: http://www.statcan.ca/english/freepub/71-222-XIE/71-222-XIE2006001.pdf (PDF file - 868K, 126 pages)
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June 2, 2006
Residential Care
Facilities, 2002/2003 and 2003/2004
Women
outnumbered men by a ratio of more than two to one in
Data for all provinces and
territories, except
Some 5.8% of women
aged 65 or older lived in such facilities in 2003/2004, double
the proportion of 2.8% among their male counterparts. These results follow
the trend of previous years.
For the complete report visit: http://www.statcan.ca/english/freepub/83-237-XIE/83-237-XIE2006001.pdf (PDF file - 726K, 124 pages)
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June 5, 2006
Canada Survey of
Giving, Volunteering and Participating, 2004
Canadians are extremely generous with the money and time they give to
charitable and other nonprofit organizations. But it is a relatively small
proportion of the population that provides the bulk of the help, according to
the latest survey on giving and volunteering.
The complete report Caring Canadians, Involved Canadians:
Highlights from the
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June 7, 2006
Study:
Relationship Between Reading literacy and Education Outcomes, 2004
Young Canadians who have high levels of proficiency in reading are more likely
to graduate from high school, and to pursue postsecondary education, according
to a new study.
The study
found that proficiency in reading literacy plays a role in both high school
graduation and postsecondary participation. It examined the reading skills of a
group of young people at the age of 15, and their educational status four
years later when they were 19, linking information from two surveys.
The complete report Educational Outcomes at Age 19 Associated with Reading Ability at Age 15 is available at:
http://www.statcan.ca/english/research/81-595-MIE/81-595-MIE2006043.pdf (PDF file - 419K, 33 pages)
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June 7, 2006
Study: Employment
and Earnings Among Lone Mothers, 1980 to 2000
Two major demographic developments have been
behind big gains in employment and earnings during the past two decades among
lone mothers aged 40 and over, according to a new study.
The study
found that rising earnings among these individuals since 1980 were
the result of aging among the baby boom generation and the postwar revolution
in the educational attainment of women.
Among
younger lone mothers, economic outcomes have been relatively stagnant.
Using
census data, this study is the first to explore why employment and earnings
have improved recently among lone mothers.
The complete report Why Did Employment and Earnings Rise Among Lone Mothers During the 1980s and 1990s is available at: http://www.statcan.ca/english/research/11F0019MIE/11F0019MIE2006282.pdf (PDF file - 863K, 29 pages)
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June 9
Labour Force
Survey, May 2006
Employment increased
by an estimated 97,000 in May, matching the high reached in
January 2002. This increase drove the unemployment rate
down 0.3 percentage points to 6.1%, the lowest since
December 1974.
The
sizeable gain in employment pushed the employment rate to an all-time high
of 63.2%. Over the first five months of the year, employment has increased
by 1.4% (+220,000).
All of
May's employment increase was in full time, up 151,000, the largest
increase on record. This jump was due to new entrants to the labour market
obtaining full-time
employment and coincides with fewer people working part time.
A more detailed summary, Labour Force Information is vailable at: http://www.statcan.ca/english/freepub/71-001-XIE/71-001-XIE2006005.pdf (PDF file - 369K, 58 pages)
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June
27
Employment
Insurance, April 2006
The estimated number of Canadians receiving regular Employment Insurance
benefits in April fell 1.6% from March to 493,250 (seasonally adjusted), the
third consecutive decline and the seventh in the last eight months.
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June 29
Canada's
population, first quarter 2006
Net
international migration continued to be the main engine of growth. Population
exchanges between
For more details read
the Publication Quarterly
Demographic Estimates at: http://www.statcan.ca/english/freepub/91-002-XIE/91-002-XIE2006001.pdf
(PDF file - 407K, 104 pages)
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June 30
Study: Fertility
Among Visible Minority Women, 1996 to 2001
Fertility during the late 1990s was higher for visible minority women in
The report
showed that the fertility of all Canadian women declined
from 1996 to 2001, yet it dropped faster for visible minority
women.
It found
that in 1996, the total fertility rate among visible minority groups
was 1.94 children per woman; by 2001, it had decreased
to 1.70 per woman. Among Aboriginal women, the fertility rate edge
down from 2.86 to 2.60 children per women, while in the
rest of the population, it slipped from 1.63 to 1.51.
The study
also found significant differences in fertility between specific visible
minority groups. Korean, Chinese and Japanese women had lower total fertility
rates than other visible minority groups. The fertility rates were also lower
than for women in the rest of the population for both periods.
Conversely,
Arabs/West Asians and South Asians averaged two or more children per woman in
both 1996 and 2001, while Latin American, Black, Filipino and
Southeast Asian women had a fertility rate closer to the average for all
visible minority women.
For more
details read The Report on the Demographic
Situation in Canada 2003 and 2004 at:
http://www.statcan.ca/english/freepub/91-209-XIE/91-209-XIE2003000.pdf (PDF file - 988K, 128 pages)
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Juristat, Canadian Centre for
Justice Statistics, Statistics
Aboriginal People
as Victims and Offenders, 2004
Using data from victimization, police and corrections surveys, a new report
provides a statistical portrait of the extent and nature of victimization and
offending among Aboriginal people in
The complete report Victimization and Offending Among the Aboriginal Population in Canada is available at:
http://www.statcan.ca/english/freepub/85-002-XIE/85-002-XIE2006003.pdf (PDF file - 321K, 31 pages)
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Perspectives
on Labour and Income, Statistics
June 23, 2006
Study: Education
and earnings, 1980 to 2005
Average real earnings since 2000 have increased at a faster pace
for young, less-educated male workers than for any other group, including university
graduates, according to a new study.Wages for this group (young men aged 25 to
34 with a high school education) have rebounded during the past five years as a
result of an influx of these individuals into lower-skilled jobs in industries
exp eriencing strong growth. The study, published in the June online version of
Perspectives on Labour and Income, found that this movement in wages narrowed
the gap in earnings between less-educated and university-educated men. However,
the gap is still wide.
HTML version
http://www.statcan.ca/english/freepub/75-001-XIE/10606/art-1.htm
PDF version
http://www.statcan.ca/english/freepub/75-001-XIE/75-001-XIE2006106.pdf
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5.2 WEBSITES OF INTEREST
John Howard Society of
The John Howard Society of
For more information, visit: www.johnhowardtor.on.ca
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CivicAccess: Citizens for Open Access to Civic
Information and Data
Citizens for Open Access to Civic Information
and Data (aka: CivicAccess.ca) is a new online space for Canadian civic
engagement. CivicAccess is being founded by librarians, civil servants,
academics, lawyers, free and open-source advocates, geomatics professionals and
community planners from across
The goals of this website are:
- to encourage all levels of governments to make civic data and information available to citizens without restrictions, at no cost, and in useable open formats.
- to encourage the development of citizen projects using civic data and information
For more information, visit: http://civicaccess.ca/
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Black Woman and Child Magazine
Black Woman and Child is a new magazine dedicated to serving the interests of Black women who are or have been pregnant, plan to become pregnant and/or have a child or children aged seven years and under.
For more information, visit: www.blackwomenandchild.com or http://nubeing.com/bwac/index.htm
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Centre for Equality Rights in Accommodation (CERA)
CERA is a non-profit human rights organization that promotes human rights in housing. The Centre works to remove barriers that keep disadvantaged individuals and families from accessing and retaining the housing they need.
For more information, visit: http://www.equalityrights.org/cera/
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Advocacy
Centre for Tenants
The Advocacy Centre for Tenants Ontario (ACTO) works to better the housing
situation of
For more information, visit: http://www.acto.ca/english/home.php
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Labour
Education Centre (LEC)
The mission of LEC is to build the capacity of unions to plan, develop and deliver training, adjustment, and labour education programs that transform the lives of individual members and build the strength, solidarity and equity of their unions.
For more information visit their website at: www.laboureducation.org
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The Canadian
Research Institute on the Advancement of women (CRIAW)
CRIAW is a research institute which provides tools to facilitate organizations taking action to advance social justice and equality for all women. CRIAW recognizes women’s diverse experiences and perspectives; creates spaces for developing women’s knowledge; bridges regional isolation; and provides communication links between/among researchers and organizations actively working to promote social justice and equality for all women.
For more information visit their website at: http://www.criaw-icref.ca
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Spacing
Spacing was launched in December
2003. It is a magazine about
For more
information, visit: http://spacing.ca/about.htm
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Hotel
Workers Rising
The UNITE HERE Hotel Workers
Rising campaign represents an effort to empower thousands of hotel workers in
hundreds of properties in cities across
For more information, visit: http://www.hotelworkersrising.org/aboutcampaign.asp
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CLEONet
CLEONet is an online clearinghouse
for community legal education in
For more information, visit: http://www.cleonet.ca/about
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