Upcoming Events

OCVO presents: Making the Most of Municipal Elections

For community groups and associations, municipal elections provide a unique opportunity to raise awareness of your organization and cause, to meet and develop relationships with local politicians and to put your issue on the municipal political agenda. Community groups wanting to take advantage of this opportunity need to start planning now for Ottawa’s next municipal election in November, 2010, just under a year away.

Join us for the next OCVO workshop where political experts and practitioners explore the opportunities that are available during municipal elections for community organizations and what you can do to make the most of municipal elections to forward and achieve your mandate and goals.

Date: Monday, December 7, 2009
Time: 1:30 p.m. – 4:30 p.m.
Location: The Chapel, Room 112, Tabaret Hall, 550 Cumberland Street, map
Cost: $30 (OCVO members) $50 (non-members)*

To register complete the attached registration form and email it to: info@ocvo-cobo.ca

Program:

• How to get the attention of local politicians
  Bob Chiarelli, former mayor, City of Ottawa
• Opportunities available to community groups during municipal elections
  Caroline Andrew, School of Political Studies, University of Ottawa
• Increasing the prominence of your issue during municipal elections
  Linda O’Neil, The Alliance to End Homelessness:
• Keeping your issue on the municipal agenda after the election
  Jenny Gullen, People for a Better Ottawa
• Building relationships and working with municipal politicians
  Dick Stewart, Former General Manager, People Services, City of Ottawa

Moderator: Katherine Graham, School of Public Policy, Carleton University

Past Events

Community Conversation: How will the voluntary sector respond to the world-wide economic storm?

On November 12th, 2008 the Ottawa Chamber of Voluntary Organizations hosted over 40 representatives of the voluntary sector for an afternoon of discussion focusing on the impact of the economic situation on the voluntary sector and on the community as a whole. The participants provided some excellent insight into the current condition and provided numerous examples of what organizations in Ottawa are facing now and what they could be facing in the future.

To read the summary of the discussions click here.

Who’s in Charge? Boards and EDs in the Voluntary Sector

An Ottawa Chamber of Voluntary Organizations (OCVO) event
In cooperation with the Centre for Voluntary Sector Research and Development and Volunteer Ottawa

This panel discussion will address the following issues:

• The leadership gap in the voluntary sector.
• The outcome of the national board governance survey.
• The results of a recent study conducted by Volunteer Ottawa and CVSRD on the relationship between boards of directors and executive directors.
• How governance models are applied in the voluntary sector.

WHEN: February 13th, 2007, 4:00 p.m.–5:30 p.m. (Registration begins at 3:45 p.m.)

WHERE: Ottawa Public Library , Auditorium, Level B1 , 120 Metcalfe Street (OC Transpo - Travel Guide)

COST: $ 5.00…OCVO Member, $ 25.00…Non-member

SPEAKERS :

Dr. Keith Seel, Director, Institute for NonProfit Studies, Mount Royal College, http://www.mtroyal.ca/nonprofit/ 
Paula Speevak Sladowski , Managing Director, Centre for Voluntary Sector Research and Development, Carleton University, http://www.cvsrd.org/
Larissa Silver , Executive Director Volunteer Ottawa, http://www.volunteerottawa.ca
Kathryn Hill , Executive Director, HelathPartners/Partenairesanté, http://www.healthpartners.ca/en_home.asp

Please note: Although the presentation will be delivered in English, bilingual moderators will be available to address questions in both official languages.

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IMPACS Communications Training Workshops

IMPACS: The Institute for Media, Policy and Civil Society offers online workshops that are skill-packed, interactive and designed to help you rev up your organization's communications.

Their READY, SET, GO training series is exactly what you and your organization need to kick start your organization's communications efforts.

If you have access to a phone and a broadband connection to the Internet, you can participate in these exciting workshops. You will learn from and interact with a facilitator and other participants via teleconference, while the workshop presentation appears automatically on your computer. You don't need any special software! It's easy and convenient, no matter where you are.

These two-hour workshops are affordably priced at $55 each. Take three or more and receive a special 10 percent discount on each session.

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Media Matters: Getting your Message Out

On November 28, 2006, OCVO provided representatives of Ottawa’s voluntary sector with the opportunity to learn more about the relationship between their sector and the media. Media Matters: Getting Your Message Out presented an excellent combination of information. Joshua Greenberg of Carleton University provided participants with the results of some of his research on the relationship between the media and the voluntary sector in Canada and identified challenges facing non profit organizations in comparison with the US and the UK.

Marion Wright, steering committee member of the Alliance to End Homelessness and executive director of the Canadian Mental Health Association's Ottawa Branch offered the group a case study on how developing sound media and communications strategies can make an impact on the advocacy effectiveness of organizations. Examples of the work of the Canadian Mental Health Association and of the recent efforts of the Alliance to End Homelessness’s Mayoral Debate illustrated how the media can be used to change attitudes and bring a greater focus to a particular issue.

Lionel Lumb, veteran journalist, and Francine Filion, Director of Communications for the Canadian Teachers’ Federation shared tips for non profit sector workers on how to raise their profile in the media and how to develop a good working relationship with journalists.

A number of resources distributed or referred to during the presentations can be found at: http://www.cvsrd.org/eng/ocvo/resources/media_resources.htm.

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Are You Covered? Risk Management and Insurance in the Voluntary Sector

On September 14, 2006, OCVO offered representatives of Ottawa’s voluntary sector another learning event: Are You Covered? Risk Management and Insurance in the Voluntary Sector. The presenter, Val Mayes, Executive Director of the Edmonton Chamber of Voluntary Organizations and Co-chair of the Alberta Voluntary Sector Insurance Council provided participants with some excellent background information on risk management. Participants were also introduced to a number of issues that voluntary sector organizations face when it comes to insurance. To view the PowerPoint presentation from the event please click here. For additional information and resources related to Risk Management and Insurance please click here (ppt. presentation).

OCVO — Untying the Strings: Controlling the Financial Future of your Organization

On March 2, 2006 the OCVO hosted Untying the Strings: Controlling the Financial Future of Your Organization at Ben Franklin Place. Ottawa welcomed Charles King, President/CEO of Housing Works, the largest community-based AIDS services organization in the United States as the keynote speaker for this exploration of social entrepreneurship. Over 130 representatives of Ottawa’s voluntary sector gathered for a morning of exciting stories and ideas on how to take charge of the future of your organization by engaging in social entrepreneurship.

Local representatives of social enterprises made up the panel that responded to the keynote speaker. Rosemary Laurin, representing Family Services à la famille Ottawa, brought her perspective to the event as a board member of an organization that has started to incorporate social enterprise into its financial plan. Rob Tripp shared the incredible story of the Roasted Cherry Coffee House, a model social enterprise and George Brown of the Ottawa Community Loan Fund added the perspective of Community Economic Development to the discussions.This event was a resounding success despite an extended power outage at the venue. Participants were so engrossed in what the speakers had to say that they continued to listen and ask questions in partial darkness.

The OCVO responded to the interest expressed by participants by offering learning circles hosted by the local panelists in April and May.

Catering at the event was provided by two local social enterprises, Krackers Katering and The Roasted Cherry Coffee House.

To read The Ottawa Citizen article on Untying the Strings click here (pdf).

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OCVO — Roundtables in Your Community

As one of its initiatives, OCVO had a series of roundtables across Ottawa to gauge community vitality and encourage community participation in defining an appropriate role for OCVO in the context of strengthening relationships between voluntary sector organizations.

In spring of 2003 four areas of the city were identified as hosts of the roundtables based on the Chamber’s desire to have accurate representation geographically, linguistically and socio-economically:

• Westboro

• Orleans

• Rural Ottawa

• Ottawa South

The first roundtable was held in Westboro at the Dovercourt Recreation Center. Community leaders were invited to an evening of brainstorming and collaboration. The evening opened with recognition of the community’s strengths and gifts. The list was lengthy and it was clear to the Chamber that here was a community who valued and acknowledged the many strengths of their community. Challenges were less easily identified, with participants often returning to list a gift after having pointed out a challenge. The evening wrapped up with participants’ identification of several important areas for the Chamber to move forward in the coming year. A sampling of these include:

• Connecting/Engaging with communities, between communities and among voluntary organizations
  
• Linking Assets to Needs (eg. Surplus Equipment)
  
• Creating a Central Information Point with information on funding opportunities, organizational development tools/resources and service coordination.

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OCVO — Brown Bag Seminars in the City

OCVO in conjunction with the Centre for Voluntary Sector Research and Development (CVSRD); the Community Based Research Network of Ottawa (CBRNO); the Non-Profit Voluntary Sector Network – Community of Inquiry (NVSN); and the Social Planning Council (SPC) hosted a series of dynamic brown bag seminars on the topic of Canada’s nonprofit sector.

CVSRD, CBRNO, NVSN and SPC are all highly involved in the execution of quality research on issues such as governance, policy, management and other emerging issues in the sector. The Brown Bag Seminars were a tool they used to disseminate this research to community practitioners.

The monthly talks were conducted by a mixture of academics and practitioners from Ottawa’s voluntary sector and covered the following topics:

• Storytelling for Nonprofits
  
• Community – University Partnerships
  
• Asset Based Community Development
  
• Capacity Building/National Learning Initiative

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OCVO — Open Space Forum: Sustainability of the Voluntary Sector

The Open Space Forum was hosted by OCVO. Participants contributed towards forming the agenda for the evening and then proceeded to explore the topics in small break-out groups. The fluidity and flexibility of this process allowed participants to explore the many angles of Sustainability of the Voluntary Sector and provided OCVO with a deeper understanding of the perspectives and concerns of the Voluntary Sector in Ottawa. The results of the Open Space Forum are very important as they helped to shape the future initiatives of OCVO.

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