Nonprofit Center Operator
A few session suggestions for Nonprofit Center Operators:
The Toyota Production System: Improving Shared Space Maintenance
October 25th, 1:45-3:15
Speakers: Pat Smith, Toshiyuki Kitamura
In brief, our workshop addresses shared spaces’ challenges in maintaining properties by showing how the Toyota Production System (TPS) can manage property maintenance in any context. We’ll demonstrate the three levels of property maintenance created by Serve Denton and implemented in various locations nationwide. Pat Smith, the CEO of Serve Denton, will talk about their experience as customers working with TSSC. Toshi Kitamura from TSSC will talk about how they operate and the services they provide for free to any nonprofit. Attendees will leave with a clear understanding of the Serve Denton Business System and how they can easily apply it to their shared space and beyond.
Our Journey towards Reconciliation: Meaningful Practices and Policies
October 25th, 1:45-3:15
Speakers: Diana Steele, Tim Fox
The Kahanoff Centre for Charitable Activities is a unique building that offers affordable office and meeting space to charitable and non-profit organizations located in Mohkinstsis, Calgary, Alberta, Canada. In 2018, we indentified a systemic barrier that exsisted within the Kahanoff Centre as an institution. We began working with an advisory group made up of Pikanii Elders, Reg and Rose Crowshoe, Indigenous and non-indigenous tenants and stakeholders to impact change. In June 2022, after 4 years of collabortation, the Kahanoff Centre allowed Indigenous Oral Practices and Ceremony to occur within the building. Tim Fox and Diana Steele will share why this effort is imporant and how others can be part of the journey.
Community Space Impact: Telling the story of shared spaces with data
October 25th, 3:30-5:00
Speakers: Wendy Ogren, Kristen Gramling
Data is a valuable tool, but you must be able to tell its story meaningfully to depict the impact accurately. This workshop will provide insight into best practices in developing a robust performance management system, analyzing the data, and the stories you can formulate from the findings. Presenters will discuss the Theory of Change, which produced the Logic Model and Key Performance Indicators, resulting in the data management plan. Representatives from Serve Denton and CNM will share their experiences and expertise in partnering together to develop Serve Denton’s existing system and the ongoing collaborative efforts in managing performance and continuous improvements to the center and their partner agencies.
Managing a Public/Private SPRE Partnership
October 25th, 10:30-12:00
Speaker: Sean Condon
Canadian cities and community partners are increasingly looking at social purpose real estate as a solution to the increasing affordability challenges non-profit organizations face and the social, environmental, an cultural issues impacting their communities. However, entering into an agreement with a local government to lease or manage a shared space non-profit centre can have its pitfalls. Often each partner comes with different visions on how to implement impact, different regulatory demands, and processes for how to manage the space. Ensuring that both parties understand what they’re trying to achieve and that that the contracts, leases, and/or agreements support that vision can help avoid tensions and frustrations that can cause a non-profit centre to struggle – both financially and operationally.
Making a Hybrid Home: Adapting to a virtual world while centering space, place and community
October 26th, 10:45-12:15
Speakers: Kyla Carlsen, Allandra Bulger
Join Co.act Detroit’s leadership for a two-part session exploring how place-based organizations can adapt to a more virtual world while maintaining local relevance. In part one, we’ll share our experience on how we’ve pivoted over the years from a physical hub to a virtual resource for Southeast Michigan nonprofits and expanded our thought leadership beyond Michigan with a podcast, research partnerships, and facilitation of unique collaboration initiatives. We’ll also touch on our recent ventures to reactivate our community hub with hybrid services that respond to the needs of nonprofits, with a continued focus on challenging the status quo and balancing best and next practices. In part two, we’ll facilitate a workshop on transitioning to a hybrid model that’s responsive to the needs of those you serve. We’ll discuss strategies for addressing the digital divide in low-income communities, connecting across language and other demographic barriers, and centering the experiences of those most impacted in design and implementation of place-based grant programs. We will include specific examples from our programs and services to share practical, working knowledge with workshop participants.
See the full session schedule here.
Nonprofit Center Developer
A few session suggestions for Nonprofit Center Developers:
Setting the Stage for Strong Partnerships
October 25th, 1:45-3:15
Speakers: Anna Growcott, Wendy Holmes
This is a workshop that offers Artspace’s method for entering into partnerships, which frontloads the process with honest reflection, transparent conversations, and even constructive tension with the potential partner. This method prompts each party to perform its own self-assessment, followed by a guided conversation with the potential partners. This eyes-wide-open approach sets the stage for trusting and equitable partnerships because expectations are clear and imbalances are addressed. Workshop participants will be invited to role-play in small groups to practice the method and gain confidence in asking and answering big questions in a hypothetical situation. We will also facilitate group conversations to build a community understanding of the highs and lows of partnership experiences. Throughout the session, we will consider how each partner can contribute to and benefit from bringing together values, processes, and resources.
Regenerating Faith Buildings For the Common Good
October 26th, 10:45-12:15
Speaker: Kendra Fry
We are in a time of 500 year transformational change. The challenges of housing, food security, income inequality, loneliness and isolation will not be solved by simple answers. We are called on to reimagine entire systems to meet the challenges of our times. Churches have been at the centre of communities in Canada and the United States for a hundred years or more. In Canada, churches are the second largest owner of not for profit real estate after the government of Canada. 27,000 faith buildings are currently in various states of risk. But this risk also represents an opportunity. How can we help our churches to be in dialogue with the community at large and embrace the kind of socialist, rebellious actions that were at their core in the beginning. Can faith buildings help us to create the change that we need through careful, strategic deployment of assets over whole communities? In this workshop, Kendra Fry will bring case stories from around the world to explore these ideas of necessary transformational change. We will explore placemaking, governance, physical space, historical designation, financing, development and the challenges of our current times through individual stories of hope and inspiration.
Amplifying Impact – Integrating Nonprofit Shared Space and Services through Fiscal Sponsorship
October 25th, 1:45-3:15
Speakers: Thaddeus Squire, Carman Gaines, Brandon Quintanilla
The integration of shared services and space, while in practice, does not yet seem widespread in the social purpose real estate ecosystem. We hope to encourage more of these models by shining some light on best practices in how to integrate these two essential areas of nonprofit infrastructure. Our focus will be on Comprehensive Fiscal Sponsorship as an approach to commonized nonprofit backbone services, in close integration or partnership with shared space. Our framework will be commoning and other Solidarity Economy values and design principles. Participants will leave our session with some design tools concerning governance, pricing, and delivery of integrated shared services and space.
Exploring Collaboration at the Water Cooler at Pegasus Park
October 26th, 10:45-12:15
Speakers: Harrison Tassopoulos, Steve Kinder
This workshop will present a case study in executing a partnership between a nonprofit center and an academic institution, highlight the benefits of using a Human-Centered Design methodology to creatively solve problems, and share examples of ideas to advance collaboration through the lens of services, spaces, and programs. Structurally, we envision this might include some combination of report out what happened over the course of the 16-week design project while also designing a workshop to help attendees think about how they might take some of these learnings back to their own communities.
See the full session schedule here.
Finance Professional
A few session suggestions for Finance Professionals:
Financing Land Trusts with Community Investment
October 25th, 10:30-12:00
Speaker: Ryan Collins-Swartz
will introduce the concept of community financing for community-driven affordable housing preservation and development. Tapestry Community capital will provide an overview of the social finance landscape in Canada and introduce the innovative financing mechanism that is rapidly gaining recognition across the country – the Community Bond. Two Canadian CLTs, the Kensington Market Community Land Trust and the Ottawa Community Land Trust, will share how they are engaging their supporters as investors to acquire new properties and grow the stock of affordable housing in their respective region. They will share how community bonds are changing their financing picture and allowing them to achieve greater scale. We also hope to engage Cutting Edge Capital, a leader in supporting non-profits to raise impact investment in the United States, to provide context on the current legislation surrounding social purpose capital raises. We will also seek to involve a Detroit based land trust, such as the Dream Community Land Trust, to begin to explore how this model could be applied in a local context.
Promoting Racial Equity in Black Communities through Technical Assistance and Lending: A Case Study on Community-Led Real Estate Development
October 26th, 10:45-12:15
Speakers: Monjia Belizaire, Saul Ettlin, Lycrecia Parks, Michael A.J. Darby, Chavelle Sangokoya
This session will examine how lenders can advance racial, economic, and social equity, capital readiness, and community-owned assets in Black communities through technical assistance and lending services. The lack of access to resources, capital, and support has created a disinvestment climate in Black communities, perpetuating a cycle of poverty and underdevelopment. We recognize the importance of establishing a relationship of trust and integrity with Black-led organizations to address the challenges they face. Technical assistance and inclusive lending services are essential components of promoting racial equity. This session will present a case study on the progress made by three Black-led community developers that participated in an initiative providing consulting, real estate advisory services, financial management, and capital readiness, among other services. The focus will be on their journey towards real estate readiness, leveraging existing resources, building capacity, leadership, financial management, and promoting place-making to advance their community-based and led real estate projects.
Child Care Real Estate for Social Good
October 26th, 10:45-12:15
Speakers: Laura Kohn, Ashanti Bryant, Denise Smith, Rick Raleigh
The panelists represent four interlinked strategies for supporting child care real estate for social benefit. The panel will introduce and foster exploration of three topics: novel financing strategies for child care facilities development, socially just landlording, and the importance of creating a pathway to asset ownership for small and medium business tenants in social real estate. A mixture of audience engagement strategies will integrate audience voice and perspective into the conversation and keep participants engaged.
See the full session schedule here.
Community Development Professional
A few session suggestions for Community Development Professionals:
Building Community Resilience: Serve Lewisville, A Case Study
October 25th, 10:30-12:00
Speaker: Ashleigh Feryan
Our workshop will be focused on how Serve Lewisville has used design thinking to tackle the wicked problem of community resilience. We will then explain the specific process used to develop the space and what outcomes have been learned as part of that process. That will show how other organizations can create a more resilient shared space and contribute to the community’s resilience. We hope Serve Lewisville will serve as a template for other communities.
Removing Barriers to Equitable Real Estate Development in Detroit
October 25th, 3:30-5:00
Speakers: Graig Donnelly, Bucky Willis, India Solomon
The purpose of our work is to identify barriers to equitable real estate development in Detroit, and to promote actionable responses that re-frame the barriers as opportunities. The outcome is envisioned to be a guide for how to invest directly in the solutions being led by Community Developers. Significant research and effort toward broad problems and solutions in Community Development have occurred, but we hear from many Community Developers that they need a lot more attention on and resources made available to actual real estate development projects and activities. We will present our research findings about equitable real estate development in Detroit, and use the session as an opportunity to engage a national audience in feedback about those findings. It will be framed to have as much interactive discussion as possible.
Creating Pathways: A Toolkit for Community Control of Neighborhood Assets
October 26th, 10:45-12:15
Speaker: Devan Cronshaw
It is with growing urgency that we must address the displacement pressures neighborhoods face, collectively mitigating them through policy initiatives, advocacy, and capital development projects that foster self-determination in neighborhoods. Making the Case for Community Control of Neighborhood Assets elevates the contribution of Community Based Organizations (CBOs) and Community Land Trusts (CLTs) to the culture of neighborhoods and will uncover a “Community Control Toolkit” to support community control of neighborhood assets. At the heart of these strategies, we advocate for community control to help stabilize neighborhoods and the organizations that serve them. Community control of neighborhood assets, by residents and CBOs, is a durable strategy to retain and grow community wealth, increase resilience, preserve community space, and culture, and build local power. This Toolkit, coupled with education and advocacy, will help residents and CBOs respond to ongoing and intensifying crises in their neighborhood. By asserting the need for a powerful, nimble, and well-resourced network of assets, institutions and supporting systems, it will serve to combat multilayered devastation and displacement.
See the full session schedule here.
Mixed Use Development Professional
A few session suggestions for Mixed Use Development Professionals:
Promoting creative-mixed use through network and capacity building
October 25th, 10:30-12:00
Speakers: Helen Ketema, Alix Aylen, Yinnon Geva, Matti Siemiatycki
As cities across Canada envision ways to restore upended communities in post-pandemic recovery, creative mixed-use buildings have become one exceptional method to deliver significant affordable housing, public space, and key social services. In Toronto, they have brought together public, private, and non-profit uses in creative ways, often locating unexpected partners in the same building, and achieving an outcome better than what one partner could have achieved alone. Our session intends to create opportunities for discussion and knowledge transfer between regional SPRE advocates. It will focus on the collaborative advantages and challenges of these partnerships in addition to future outlooks on how cities can better use these strategies towards building the social fabric of our communities.
Charting New Territory: The Transformative Journeys of the Delmar DivINe and Together Center. Exploring the Use of Social Purpose Real Estate as a Solution to Different Geographic Challenges in Redmond, WA and St. Louis, MO
October 25th, 3:30-5:00
Speakers: Kim Sarnecki, Maxine Clark, Stephen Westbrooks
Through captivating storytelling and insightful analysis, we will uncover the strategies employed by the Together Center and the Delmar DivINe to create vibrant, inclusive spaces that address the needs of their communities. By exploring these journeys, we will uncover valuable lessons and best practices for community development initiatives. Whether you are an urban planner, nonprofit leader, or social entrepreneur, this session will inspire you to chart your own course towards community transformation. Join us as we navigate the unexplored territories of community revitalization and uncover the power of multi-use social purpose real estate in shaping a better future for all.
Empowering Indigenous Led Mixed-Use Development, A Case Study
October 25th, 3:30-5:00
Speaker: Simon Davie
Due to lack of resources and historical practices, control of development and ownership of culturally appropriate spaces and Indigenous expression is uncommon. Lu’ma Development Management (LDM) will present a case study to showcase a unique Indigenous-led and owned mixed-use development project under construction in the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver, BC, Canada. By showcasing this case study, LDM hopes to empower the creation and celebration of more culturally diverse and appropriate projects, support the growth of non-profit developers, and encourage securement of long-term assets for groups that have historically been excluded or unable to do so.
See the full session schedule here.
Social Justice Leader
A few session suggestions for Social Justice Leaders:
Challenging Land Ownership through Power Building and Place Making: Broadway Parque and Milky Way Garden Stories
October 25th, 10:30-12:00
Speakers: Victor Willis, Alex Desiga, Kiel Lopez-Schmidt, Miru Yogarajah
Join us to hear how two communities successfully organized to rethink land ownership and use. These two real world examples will provide inspiration for successful community organizing campaigns. Both are rooted in a public green space in the community that was the focus of organizing as well as a place for the community to come together to build shared power.
Reckoning, Remembering and Reimagining Within the Built Environment
October 25th, 10:30-12:00
Speakers: Yodit Mesfin Johnson, Kathy Laird, James Singleton
As inequities in communities persist, our sector requires new and thoughtful ways to connect place with our organizational strategies, leadership models, operational frameworks and deeper collaboration in order to achieve community transformation. Our vision for the session is to cultivate deeper dialogue around the necessity of cross-sector collaboration in the context of social purpose spaces, and place. We want to interrogate and understand the ways we can build bridges between our haunting pasts and the radically new futures we long for. Using the NEW Center Transformation, and NEW’s mission of a just and thriving society, as case study participants will learn how a building transformation occuring in a historically Black neighborhood that’s been gentrified, aims to build power with current/former Black residents to combat stigma, consider this in the context of environmental calamity and land acknowledement (that isn’t performative) beyond our the walls of our organization. We know that no community-derived solutions or plans can move into action without community power. It takes political, economic, and cultural power to assert community priorities and ensure they are resourced and implemented. Many of the same power-building strategies and tactics that are used to stop harmful practices can be drawn on to advance transformative solutions.
Liberated Land Trust: Building and Securing Black Cultural and Commercial Corridors
October 25th 3:30-5:00
Speakers: Carolyn Johnson (CJ), Selena Wilson
We seek to disrupt the pattern of gentrification which threatens the legacy of Black/African American communities in neighborhoods like East Oakland. You will learn about our Liberated Land Trust Model, Black Cultural and Commercial Corridors, and Black Cultural Zone Hub initiatives and their design to retain, restore, return, and resource Black/African American residents, artists, makers, creatives, teachers, and others who contribute to the fabric of a vibrant and cultural community. With the opportunity for shared ownership of community and residential assets, we seek to anchor place-keeping in a land and building trust. This model helps to anchor legacy and current residents and build the vibrant economy that, coupled with ownership, offers a pathway to the power needed to hold place. Attendees will leave with a roadmap for forming and maintaining a community collaborative that collectively designs a plan for cultural peacekeeping. We will share how we formed and now operate our collaborative; how the collaborative formed the community development corporation; how the CDC engages the community while obtaining site control of real estate; and how we collaborate on the design of cultural corridors anchored by Black cultural hubs. We will also share details on our first commercial hub and/or mixed-use hub — with detailed information on the opportunity, threats, and how we stay focused on our goal of a thriving Black community in East Oakland. We will equip you with a roadmap for organizing or enhancing similar efforts in your community to disrupt the gentrification of Black communities.
Fostering Thriving Local Economies: Commercial Real Estate, Inclusive Economic Development and Community Building
October 26th, 10:45-12:15
Speaker: Steven Johnston
In a city like Vancouver, real estate is inevitably at the centre of any discussion regarding the liveability of the City. The residential affordability crisis rightly takes centre stage in conversations around the future viability of neighbourhoods and their potential to provide a home to all residents. However, there is a parallel crisis in commercial real estate affordability that is often overlooked. Rising lease rates make it incredibly difficult for non-profits, social enterprises and, small businesses to remain in community close to the constituents they serve. In neighbourhoods like the Downtown Eastside that means residents are losing access to affordable goods and services and growing increasingly disconnected form the place they call home. Community Impact Real Estate was created to think differently about commercial real estate, disrupt the traditional leasing model and, work towards fostering inclusive local economies that provide opportunities for all residents to thrive and prosper. This session will examine the CIRES model and unpack the way commercial real estate can be leveraged to create cohesive, whole communities. In this workshop attendees will learn more about the CIRES model and explore how they can replicate this approach in their own communities.
See the full session schedule here.