It’s March, but if you live in Saskatoon you wouldn’t know it from the weather. With temperatures hovering around the -50 Celsius mark with the windchill this past weekend, winter clearly shows no interest in vacating the premises anytime soon. That being said, with the new month and the longer days there’s definitely a shift in the air, anticipating that spring is just around the corner. Fittingly, there seems to be a lot of neat local events in the works: shake off the winter doldrums and check out what’s happening!
From Last Week
I was originally planning to post the followup to Who’s Not Here this past week, but a random brainwave related to an Internet meme sent me in a slightly different direction – watch for this unplanned-but-insightful part 1.5 to hit the blog this week!
Around Town
- As advertised last week, the Social Innovation YXE March Meetup will be taking place tomorrow (March 5) at Station 20 West. There are still spots available, so if you’re interested register now!
- CHEP Good Food Inc is hosting a screening of urban agriculture film Growing Cities this Thursday, March 6, at 7pm at the Broadway Theatre. (Hat tip to EcoFriendly Sask, a great source for local environmental news!)
- This coming Saturday, March 8, is International Women’s Day, and the Saskatoon community is marking the occasion with several events around the city (via The StarPhoenix).
- Saskatchewan is one of two provinces in Canada that lacks a comprehensive poverty reduction plan: Poverty Costs aims to change that and build awareness of the impact that poverty has on everyone. Their campaign launches next Monday, March 10 at 1pm at Station 20 West.
- Next week is also Brain Awareness week, culminating with a Brain Blast educational event on Sunday March 16 between 12-3 at City Hospital. I’m thinking there should also be a Brian Spelling Awareness week: you wouldn’t believe how many people have flipped the “i” and “a” in my name. Including myself, naturally.
Around the Web
- A friend of mine, Jonathan Rivard at Cango Consulting in Kitchener-Waterloo, makes the case for data sharing in the non-profit sector
- Hat tip to local facilitator and activist Tracey Mitchell for sharing this insightful reflection on self-care, written by environmental activist Tooker Gomberg who tragically took his own life ten years ago today. If you’re working in the for-good/for-impact sector, you really should read this.
- Evaluator Karen Anderson provides some great advice on how to promote evaluation and start demystifying the process when working with community organizations: first and foremost, drop the jargon!
- Crowdfunding has been used for a wide range of projects – why not community development? This approach may be all the more relevant here in Saskatoon in light of the provincial government’s Equity Crowdfunding initiative.
- Innoweave is hosting a free online workshop on Social Enterprise on March 20, from 1-2pm EDT. The speaker, David LePage of Social Enterprise Canada, held an awesome workshop here in Saskatoon last fall, so if you’re interested in the topic don’t miss this webinar!
Have some constructive feedback on this format? Got content for future posts? Let me know!