All across Canada, communities are creating multisectoral
collaborations or networks that are developing long term,
comprehensive approaches to reducing poverty.
The local business community is a natural partner in this
effort:
-
As Community Citizens, businesses
can contribute financial, technical and human resources
to community initiatives (e.g. community volunteers, grants
to poverty reduction projects, joint marketing campaigns).
-
As Employers, businesses can train
and hire unemployed or underemployed workers, pay good
wages, and offer supplementary employment benefits (e.g.
child care, flexible work schedules).
-
As Producers, businesses can strive
to ensure they provide quality services for low-income
communities (e.g. financial services, housing, transportation). In order to tap into the enormous potential of the private
sector to significantly reduce poverty, member communities
in Vibrant Communities strive to develop a better understanding
of how to build the case for business involvement and
the specific strategies and techniques for engaging and
sustaining businesses in poverty reduction work over the
long term.
On this page you'll find:
The “Engaging Business to Reduce Poverty”
Learning Initiative is designed to support local networks
associated with Vibrant Communities learn how they can engage
businesses – from small to large -- to assist a large
number of low income residents in their journey out of poverty.
The specific objectives of the Learning Initiative
are:
- To identify different motivations for businesses becoming
involved in local poverty reduction efforts and the various
options for their involvement (e.g. hiring, wages &
benefits, volunteers, etc.)
- To explore how to engage and sustain business participation
in poverty reduction efforts, including “building
the business case” for their involvement and connecting
with business leaders
- To provide practical resources (e.g., tools, research
paper, learning forums) to assist communities to integrate
high-impact, best practice strategies and initiatives in
their work
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This session introduces a general framework
for understanding why businesses might be involved in local
efforts to reduce poverty and explores a step-by-step framework
to guide local networks in engaging the business community
in their work. Highlights include:
- The drivers for encouraging businesses to get involved
in local efforts to reduce poverty
- The six options for business involvement in reducing poverty
and the business case for each option
- Five steps in the process of engaging and sustaining business
involvement in reducing poverty
- Understanding the variety of different local businesses
(publicly traded versus shared, small to large, etc.) and
how that affects their approach to local efforts to reducing
poverty.
 The
session features a conversation with John Weiser, co-founder
of Brody
• Weiser • Burns, a leading thinker and facilitator
of corporate involvement in expanding opportunities for low
income communities, and the lead author of the Ford Foundation’s
groundbreaking new report, Part
of the Solution: Leveraging Business and Markets for Low-Income
People
Resources from the Seminar:
Related Links & Resources:
- Win-Win
Partners – a website that promotes
strategies for corporations to improve their business
performance and improve the lives of low income groups
and communities.
- Canadian
Business for Social Responsibility –
a website for a non-profit, business-led national organization
of Canadian companies that have made a commitment to operate
in a socially, environmentally and financially responsible
manner.
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 This
session explores how communities, governments and employers
can work together to prepare and link unemployed and underemployed
persons to good paying jobs in areas of local skills shortages.
Highlights include:
- The characteristics of a comprehensive workforce development
system in bridging persons seeking work and areas of skills
shortages
- The role of workforce intermediaries in supporting a comprehensive
workforce development system
- The central place of the business community in workforce
development
The session features an interview with Garry Loewen, one
of Canada’s most experienced Community Economic Development
practitioners, to learn more about ”best practices”
employment development programs from across North America
and the “case” for business involvement in customized
training.
Resources from the Seminar:
Related Links & Resources:
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One day, two committed employees working
for the same company experience a flat tire on their way to
work. The full time, well paid employee, manages the mishap
easily while the financial security and career prospects of
the hourly, lower wage employee are put at risk.
 This
is the story that provides the background to the groundbreaking
research initiative, Increasing the Visibility of the Invisible
Workforce: Model Programs and Policies for Hourly and Lower
Wage Employees. Sponsored by Corporate Voice for Working Families,
and carried out by the Boston College Center for Work &
Family, this report explores in-house programs of 15 companies
from a variety of sectors designed explicitly to improve the
work-life for a critical component of their workforce.
This seminar features an interview with Jennifer
Swanberg, co-author of the report, and explores the highlights
of the study, including:
- A Profile of Hourly & Low Wage Workers
- The Value of Hourly & Low Wage Workers to Companies
- The Issues Faced by Hourly and Low Wage Employees
- The Five Different Models - Dependent Care, Employee Development,
Financial Assistance, Financial Incentives, and Scheduling/Leaves
- and the business case for each of them
- Obstacles to Designing and Implementing Programs
- Lessons Learned & Recommendations for Companies Considering
Such Programs
Resources from the Seminar:
Related Links & Resources:
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In this final session of the Engaging Businesses
series, we return to the question of how to engage and sustain
private sector involvement in community-based efforts to reduce
poverty. The discussion centers on ground-breaking research
by the Ford Foundation.
In particular, the session focuses on two
areas of central concern to Vibrant Communities’ partners:
- Steps and helpful tools in building the case for business
involvement in poverty reduction initiatives
- The capacities that poverty reduction networks and community-based
organizations need to build in order to effectively work
with the private sector on poverty reduction initiatives
To
assist in the discussion, we meet again with John Weiser,
co-founder of Brody
• Weiser • Burns, a leader in the field of
business involvement in community issues, and lead author
of the Ford Foundation’s report, Part
of the Solution: Leveraging Business and Markets for Low-Income
People, and other insightful resources on the topic
of corporate engagement.
Resources from the Seminar:
Related Links & Resources:
- Seeing
is Believing – a British program designed
to engage business leaders in complex community issues
that is being replicated in Canada.
- Workforce
Intermediaries - Powering Regional Economies
in the 21st Century new report – a report that describes
the role and structure of workforce intermediaries
- Engaging Business in Social Change Efforts - A seminar with Garry Loewen and John Weiser – experienced practitioners – and a comprehensive tool [hyperlink to Garry’s tool] focused on engaging businesses in tackling complex social issues. Access the seminar here.
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