Action through Connection
Women in Employment and Entrepreneurship
Friday, October 27, 2023
On October 27, 2023, the Boyle Street Plaza was buzzing with energy and purpose as community leaders and change-makers gathered for Action through Connection: Women in Employment and Entrepreneurship. PolicyWise for Children & Families welcomed participants to an interactive day dedicated to workshopping grassroots-informed program and policy solutions. It was a unique opportunity for individuals from diverse sectors to connect and collaborate in supporting women’s employment and entrepreneurship.
At the heart of this event was recognizing the pivotal role of community non-profits. These organizations created social profit by providing crucial supports so women can participate in the workforce by building connections and weaving communities together. With their on-the-ground knowledge, community social profit organizations developed nimble and innovative solutions so women and families can thrive.
This transformative event, led by PolicyWise for Children & Families, celebrated the impactful work carried out by community social profit organizations while acknowledging the diverse energy women bring to Alberta’s economy. It also aimed to bring people from different sectors together, fostering connections and collaborations so they can transform the landscape of policies and programs to ensure equitable opportunities for women.
Resources
Over the coming months, the project team will be completing several policy briefs, tools, and other resources based on outcomes and feedback from the event’s workshops.
Closing the gender gap in Alberta’s workforce is critical to filling our province’s nearly 87,000 job vacancies.
Through our research and cross-sectoral community engagement about supporting women’s workforce participation, we developed five policy priorities to close the gender gap in Alberta.
Find a summary of these five policy priorities in our Policy Primer.
For more details about each policy priority, read our full Policy Brief.
Webinar: Introducing a new guide for requesting workplace accommodations
Does your nonprofit team want to learn how to help your clients requesting workplace accommodations?
PolicyWise for Children & Families invites nonprofits to learn about a new guide to help with their clients requesting workplace accommodations. With the Alberta Human Rights Commission, we will be hosting two webinars that will introduce your team to:
- A guide for your team to support clients needing and requesting workplace accommodations and
- A form to help document conversations between employers and employees.
Register for one of two one-hour workplace duty to accommodate webinars.
- Monday, March 25, 2024 – 12:00 to 1:00 p.m. MST
- Tuesday, March 26, 2024 – 12:00 to 1:00 p.m. MST
If there is demand, future webinars may be scheduled.
Below are links to “A Guide for Supporting Clients: Requesting Accommodations in the Workplace” in six langauges:
Impact Brief: Women Building Futures Programs
PolicyWise for Children & Families analyzed and reviewed Women Building Futures’ programs from 2017 to 2022.
Explore this Impact Brief and discover how these programs’ wrap-around supports affect Alberta women’s lives and help close the employment gender gap.
Event Summary: Workshopping Policy and Programs to Support Women Entrepreneurs
Take a look at the event summary of the policy and program supports we workshopped with the Women Entrepreneurship Knowledge Hub during our Action through Connection event.
Discover some of the research, recommendations, and outcomes from this event. Let’s keep the momentum going and close the employment gender gap in Alberta.
Event Program: Action through Connection
On October 27, 2023, PolicyWise for Children & Families invited community leaders and change-makers to gather for Action through Connection: Women in Employment and Entrepreneurship to workshop grassroots-informed programs and policy solutions.
Take a look at the event’s program and learn about the keynote addresses, workshops, and panels participants encontered during this interactive day.
All our resources will also be posted to our Resources for Practice website.
Videos
Videos of the welcoming address, the keynote address, a workshop on the Duty to Accommodate, and the closing panel are below.
You can also find these videos on our YouTube channel here.
Welcoming Remarks by Michelle Okere
The Welcoming Remarks for PolicyWise for Children & Families’ event Action through Connection were given by entrepreneur and PolicyWise Board Chair, Michelle Okere.
Michelle spoke about how women need sustainable community-driven solutions to close the employment gender gap. She continues by stating community social profit organizations play a key role in supporting women’s participation in paid work through the connections they build and the community they weave where women and families can thrive.
Action through Connection was an interactive day of workshopping grassroots-informed program and policy solutions to support women’s employment and entrepreneurship. The event took place on October 27, 2023, and connected community leaders and change-makers working across many different sectors.
Keynote Address – Advancing Equitable Entrepreneurship Opportunities by Rochelle Ignacio
This keynote address for PolicyWise for Children & Families’ event “Action through Connection” was given by Rochelle Ignacio (she/her).
Rochelle spoke about advancing equitable entrepreneurship opportunities through her grassroots community-based experience in building Feed the Soul Dining Week and Black Owned Market Edmonton.
She is the Director of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion for Tamarack Institute for Community Engagement, a learning institute focused on solving major community challenges including ending poverty, building youth futures, building belonging and addressing climate change. Rochelle brings a diverse range of experiences to her work including a Bachelor of Science in Human Ecology, an Occupational Health and Safety certificate, growing up in rural Alberta, and work experience across a broad range of sectors and roles.
Rochelle is committed to community organizing, creating opportunities for Black mobility, and belonging through projects such as Feed the Soul Dining Week, which spotlights Edmonton’s Black-owned food and beverage businesses, and the former Black Owned Market Edmonton which created economic opportunities for Black business owners.
In her spare time, Rochelle loves to indulge in international travel, snowboard, camp, connect with friends and family (over food), and spend time with her cat Marlo.
Rochelle is the recipient of CIBWE’s Top 100 Black Women to Watch in Canada (2022), Edify Magazine’s Top 40 under 40 award (2021) as well as the African Caribbean Community Leader of the Year award (2020).
For more information regarding Rochelle’s portfolio, check out enidrosecollective.com, feedthesoulyeg.ca, or Rochelle Ignacio on LinkedIn.
Duty to Accommodate for Employers by Lara Apps
This workshop address for PolicyWise for Children & Families’ event “Action through Connection” was given by Lara Apps.
She presented on Duty to Accommodate in the workplace for employers and entrepreneurs in Alberta.
Lara is a Director of Complaints Management with the Alberta Human Rights Commission. She was a Human Rights Officer at the Commission for nearly seven years, specializing in investigations. She was part of the Case Inventory Resolution Project team and served as the Alberta Human Rights Tribunal Registrar for six months. Lara also works for Athabasca University as an Individualized Study Tutor in History. Her past work experience includes teaching courses in History and Religious Studies at the University of Alberta and Concordia University of Edmonton, FOIP Advisor at Alberta Health, and Ombudsman for Graduate Students at the University of Alberta. She has a PhD in History from the University of Alberta.
Closing Panel: Transforming the Ecosystem: How Can We Build Crucial Connections?
“Transforming the Ecosystem: How Can We Build Crucial Connections?” was the closing panel of PolicyWise for Children & Families’ event “Action through Connection”.
During this session, panelists were asked:
- In reflecting back on the conversation during the event, what stood out to you? What are you taking away?
- Where do we go from here? How can we build the crucial connections that can transform the ecosystem for women to thrive?
The panelists were:
- Arzoo Sabour, Program Coordinator, Edmonton Mennonite Centre for Newcomers
- Marcela Mandeville, Chief Executive Officer, Alberta Women Entrepreneurs
- Róisín McCabe, Director of Status of Women Policy and Engagement, Alberta Arts, Culture and Status of Women
- Shannon Pestun, Senior Advisor to the Diversity Institute, Women Entrepreneurship Knowledge Hub
- Tracy F. Barry, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, GROW Women Leaders
Partners
PolicyWise for Children & Families hosted this event in collaboration with the Government of Alberta and the Women Entrepreneurship Knowledge Hub.
This event was funded by Women and Gender Equality Canada.
