Learning from a different world view: Indigenous Canada course
When COVID-19 hit, my world slowed down a bit and I needed something to keep moving forward. I had a university course bookmarked for a while, then Dan Levy challenged me to be his classmate, so… I signed up! What is Indigenous Canada? Indigenous Canada is a 12-lesson Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) taught from the University of Alberta’s Faculty of Native Studies. Each module covers Indigenous histories and contemporary issues in Canada. Taught from an Indigenous perspective, this course “explores key issues facing Indigenous peoples today from a historical and critical perspective highlighting national and local Indigenous-settler relations”. I decided to register through the Whistler Library since it offered a facilitated review and weekly dialogue about course materials. My cohorts included: a retired police officer and teacher, a nurse, environmental practitioner, and a few foreigners based in Whistler on a work visa. Our facilitator, who has hosted the coursethrough the library several times,
Riding it out… decend into 2021 with a renewed purpose
Whew! Who’s jumping into 2021 and trying to start fresh? Before you leap into anything, go back to your WHY; your organization’s purpose. Through 2020, every organization had to dramatically shift how they communicate and stay engaged with customers, stakeholders and employees. No matter the size of the company, every leader had to juggle changes in operations and customer service, health and safety protocols, and internal communications. As a communications and marketing professional, I’ve come across many cringe-worthy examples of what not to do, but I’ve also been encouraged by authentic, heart-felt messages about how companies are rebuilding and reinventing. How to Pivot with purpose PURPOSE: the difference you’re trying to make in the world. Conscious Capitalism I recently listened to Mitch Joel’s interview with Simon Sinek and was reminded of an essential lesson about purpose. Last year’s chaos changed everything we thought we knew about our organizations. Businesses everywhere were forced to pivot. Did
Branding and Writing Guide: your foundation for crisis communications
When I started a new contract earlier this year, little did we know how much this work would support my client through the COVID-19 crisis. We knew we had some gaps to fill in terms of how the organization communicated its brand story and how this would show up across our community. Now that we’ve had a day to catch our breath after the last few weeks, I wanted to share some key insights and lessons learned. My client is a 30-year old social enterprise that is busy doing meaningful work that supports the social wellness of community members from before they are born to their golden years. It offers a range of programs and services that deal with issues that include food insecurity, social isolation, emotional health, housing, and advocacy. The Whistler Community Services Society (WCSS) runs two busy thrift stores in town and offers over 20 social programs and services. It
Are you working to reduce your business’s ecological footprint?
In a recent release of Vital Podcast 2019, Whistler-based waste management specialist Sue Maxwell shares that Canada, as ranked on the world stage, is considered a wasteful society. Studies show that if everyone in the world lived like the average Canadian, we would need 4 – 5 Earths worth of land and its resources. Take a test to find out how many Earths we would need if everyone lived just like you. This shocking stat doesn’t even consider business operations and how they contribute to overuse and waste of natural resources. Business owners can learn a lot from grassroots initiatives that aim to reduce our personal footprint and tread a little lighter on the ground. Working with community groups, industry stakeholders and experts in different sectors, businesses can have a big impact to reduce emissions and adapt to climate change. More often than not, there are substantial savings on a
Entrepreneurs: how to know your startup will be founded on purpose
I’ve had the pleasure of working with a range of new entrepreneurs over the course of the last five years, and each year it gets more and more exciting. What is becoming clear for me is that the conversation around starting a business inspired by a higher purpose is no longer a foreign concept. If anything, the ideas we discuss and the lessons we teach get the entrepreneurs fired up and even more determined to get their business ideas launched. When Seeds Consulting was conceived over a decade ago, there wasn’t a lot of talk about conscious or purpose-driven business. Social ventures were perceived as only businesses in far-away places around the world dealing with third world problems. Replacing a typical profit-driven business model with one that put purpose before profits was a tough business case to sell around the board table. Now, there’s ample evidence that shows that “doing well by doing good” makes
Indigenous Tourism Start up Program Launches in Whistler
SEA TO SKY PARTNERS CULTIVATE INDIGENOUS TOURISM IDEAS Coming summer 2019, the Indigenous Tourism Start up Program (ITSP) is managed through the Squamish Lil’wat Cultural Centre (SLCC) in partnership with the Whistler Centre for Sustainability (WCS). The ITSP builds off of the Squamish Lil’wat St’at’imc Business Start-up Program (2018) and the Social Venture Challenge that the Centre created in 2015 and ran for three years. These initiatives successfully helped kick start new social enterprises in the region, with forty-one enterprises having completed the programs to date. This year the program will support new business start-ups for members from Indigenous communities in the Fraser Valley to Lillooet region, including, but not limited to: Squamish, Lil̓wat, Lower St’at’imc (N’Quatqua, Samahquam, Skatin, Xa’xtsa), Upper St’at’imc (T’it’q’et, Ts’kw’aylaxw, Xaxli’p, Tsal’alh. Se’k’welwas and Xwisten), Musqueam, Tsleil –Waututh, Sto:Lo, Tswawwassen, Kwantlen, Katzie, Kwikweltlm, and Shishalh Nations. BUSINESS START UP COURSE AND PITCH EVENT This program will focus