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by Daniel Morton in Vancouver
One year after Canada first resettled 25,000 Syrian refugees into Canadian communities — a number that has since grown to 40,000 — the refugee program has left Canadians divided as to its merit and efficacy. A recent poll by Angus Reid showed that 6 in 10 Canadians approve of the way the government has handled the influx, but a deeper dive into the polling reveal almost one in four Canadians support a Trump style ban on Muslims. Despite its welcoming reputation, Canada has already seen an alarming rise in Islamophobic incidents. At this point, failing to help newcomers settle runs the risk of a more intolerant future in Canada.
In Metro Vancouver, a region that has seen a 20 fold increase in immigration since 2001, newcomers often have trouble navigating the services they need. In 2016, seven Metro Vancouver municipal districts identified access to information and services for newcomers as a top priority to strengthen resettlement efforts. As an example, Metro Vancouver immigrants struggle with backlogs for government funded English lessons while failing to make use of the network of free lessons — many offers are not getting to the people who need them.
At a time when social media discourse about immigrants grows more toxic everyday, Vancouver's vibrant non-profit community is stepping up with a positive response. Currently a top 10 finalist of the Google.org Impact Challenge, Vancouver-based NGO PeaceGeeks has partnered with the immigrant settlement community to explore how to better connect immigrants to local services such as health, language programs and housing options to ease their transition. PeaceGeeks is one of several Canadian non-profits vying for $750,000 from Google through a public vote to make their project a reality.
The idea for this application builds on another PeaceGeeks project called Services Advisor, a smartphone app that connects refugees to essential humanitarian services like food and medicine across Jordan—a country that has housed almost 656,000 Syrian refugees according to Amnesty International. The Services Advisor prototype was successfully deployed by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Jordan and will soon be deployed in Turkey and Somalia to support another 3 million displaced people.
Now, PeaceGeeks is exploring how tools like Services Advisor can help to significantly improve the experience of newcomers arriving in Metro Vancouver and beyond, through generating personalized roadmaps for newcomers to navigate what is often a dizzying array of settlement and community services.
PeaceGeeks intends to build this app so that it can eventually be used across Canada.
"We want to create better visibility and access to existing services and providers while reducing what can be an overwhelming experience for immigrants as they navigate the steps to becoming active and vibrant citizens in their new communities," says Renee Black, the Executive Director of PeaceGeeks. "Services Advisor Pathways (the Vancouver version) aims to connect them to the most relevant and timely services to help with their particular circumstances at any given stage of their immigration journey."
The project is being developed in partnership and consultation with cities, local newcomers, immigrant service providers such as MOSAIC, Immigrant Services Society of Canada (ISSofBC) and S.U.C.C.E.S.S., as well as Local Immigration Partnerships (LIPs) across the Metro Vancouver region. LIPs are federally funded, cross-sectoral partnerships that aim to improve integration of newcomers into the fabric of local communities and create more inclusive workplaces.
"By building on their global experience using technology to support refugees combined with innovative approaches that will be developed locally, PeaceGeeks is poised to make a pioneering contribution to the way that immigrants and refugees access information about services in Metro Vancouver," says Nadia Carvalho, Coordinator of Vancouver's LIP.
The project has received over thirty endorsements since the beginning of March from key individuals and organizations across settlement, tech and humanitarian spaces, including the B.C. Minister of Technology, Innovation and Citizens' Services.
"By facilitating the integration of newcomers into British Columbia, this new technology will return benefit the whole Province," says Minister Amrik Virk.
PeaceGeeks anticipates that Services Advisor Pathways can help reduce the stress on government services, by connecting immigrants to the pathways for success before and upon arrival, straight from their smartphones.
At such a critical time for Canada to stand apart from the closing borders of other nations, PeaceGeeks is hoping that Services Advisor will show that Canada's strength continues to come from its diversity and inclusion.
For more information about PeaceGeeks' project, visit votepeacegeeks.org.
The Google.org Impact Challenge supports Canadian nonprofit innovators who are using technology to tackle the world's biggest social challenges. Google.org will award $5 million across 10 organizations to help bring their ideas to life.
Between March 6 and March 28, Canadians are invited to visit g.co/canadachallenge to learn more about the finalists, and to vote for the projects they care about most. One winner will be chosen based on this public vote to receive a $750,000 grant from Google.org. The remaining winners will be selected by a jury during a live pitching session on March 30 in Toronto.
Daniel Morton is a volunteer for the organization.
Review by Anita Singh in Toronto
Almost 40 years ago, my grandparents changed our family's history by deciding to move to Canada. I recently asked my grandma about her immigration story.
She wistfully told me of the navy blue suits tailored for her husband and sons, her special saree, and the frock for her then-young daughter to wear on the flight.
With amazing clarity for her 80-plus years, Dadi recounted the first house she bought with my grandfather, how every member of the family worked to make sure the mortgage was paid and how they slowly but surely made Canada their home.
'Weather-Permitting & Other Stories' by Pratap Reddy is a collection of stories that taps into a similar wistfulness. The 12 short stories in this collection wonderfully narrate some of the universal aspects of the immigrant experience – the nervous excitement, inherent disappointment, and yet, steadfast determination for success.
What makes this collection unique is Reddy's willingness to talk about the darker side of this experience. His stories do not shy away from broken marriages, children sent back to India to stay with grandparents, the disabling lack of Canadian experience or education to gain employment, and most significantly, the loneliness associated with being far away from 'home'.
Unrealized Expectations
In 'Going West', the character named 'The Prince' is a creative foil to the newly-arrived Kumar, foreshadowing the learning curve of each immigrant when coming to Canada. "You should approach an employment agency. They pay about 12 dollars an hour for factory jobs," he suggests, highlighting the reality of some immigrants as they try to gain any foothold in Canada.
Kumar wonders, "Did he think I came halfway across the globe to become general labour? The Prince was aware that I had held a middle level position in HR in India."
Reddy also does an excellent job narrating the different stages of the immigrant journey, which does not begin or end on arrival in Canada, but lingers every day.
In 'The Toy Flamingo,' Venky, despite being settled in Canada for 10 years, discovers that an important part of his personal history still lies in India. As he surrounds himself with people and places in his new homeland, an uninvited memory invades Venky's outwardly perfect life, "'Hasve agataday' I cry out. Something falls to the ground with a crash. I hear him mutter in a strange language. I'm certain now that dinner will take even longer to come."
Venky's lifestory is an excellent metaphor for how an immigrant's relationship with their former homelands continue to affect their lives – even while attempting, desperately even, to become Canadian.
Relying on stereotype
However, as a second-generation Canadian, I do take issue with Reddy's continuous reliance on the stereotype that portrays settled Indo-Canadians as selfish, distant, uncouth and presumptuously inhospitable, who lose their 'Indianness' in their adoption of a new life in Canada.
This anti-Indo-Canadian bias runs tacitly throughout the collection.
In 'Mango Fool,' Kavita describes her Indo-Canadian customer as "a big woman, bulging out of her blue jeans and nondescript top" who becomes hostile when questioned about her sale purchases. In this story, Reddy pits the niceties of Kavita's Indian sensibilities against the brashness of the Indo-Canadian customer. Settled immigrants in Canada, Shyam and Shilpa in 'Her White Christmas' are barely tolerant of Shyam's Indian mother's presence in their home, while in 'Weather Permitting', the landlord Maya is scheming and unfair to the newly-immigrated Ravi, eventually kicking him out of the house into the cold Canadian winter.
In 'Demon Glass', the hardworking newcomer Lalita is targeted by the overwhelming libido of Indo-Canadian Prem, who preys on the single mother and her daughter. And in 'Going West', Kumar passes considerable judgment on his first entry into the Patel guesthouse, noting "I was at once assailed by the stale aroma of Indian cooking. I had not experienced such a powerful bouquet in India where a billion mouths fed on Indian cuisine everyday."
Reddy has told a one-dimensional story about Indo-Canadians, missing an opportunity to include the positives of the immigrant experience that have emerged from 100 years of Indian immigration to Canada. He ignores how the Indo-Canadian community has succeeded in developing a comfortable co-existence of Indianness and Canadianess, where cultural events, places of worship, cricket pitches, Indian languages and arts schools create a home and community for many immigrants, while becoming an integral part of Canada's multicultural society.
Despite these misgivings, Weather Permitting and Other Stories is a welcome addition to the growing Canadian literature on immigration. I look forward to Reddy's forthcoming full-length novel and new collection of short stories as an ongoing contribution to this important literature.
Anita Singh is Toronto-based consultant and a Research Fellow at the Centre for Foreign Policy Studies at Dalhousie University. Her research examines the role of diaspora groups and their influence on foreign policy, particularly the Indo-Canadian community and Canada-India relations.
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by Melissa Shaw in Vancouver
A new novel reflects on the experiences of Filipino Canadians through the story of one family, and aims to inspire newcomers to achieve their dreams.
Eleanor Guerrero-Campbell's novel, Stumbling Through Paradise: A Feast of Mercy for Manuel del Mundo, is a work of fiction inspired by the author's experiences working with immigrants.
"Home – one's identity – is not geographic-based, it's not culture-based, it's not age-based. It's who you love and who loves you and who you care about and who cares about you," says Guerrero-Campbell, who co-founded the non-profit organization Multicultural Helping House Society to assist newcomers with settlement, education, housing and employment in Vancouver, British Columbia.
"This is our home and we will never be torn when we think of home this way."
The story follows Josie and Manuel del Mundo's journey from the Philippines to Vancouver with their children.
Manuel is a proud engineer who has trouble adjusting to his new work environment in Canada. Josie has a teaching background, but finds work as a cook and eventually becomes the chief executive officer of a catering company.
Manuel later helps a caregiver in distress, which leads to an affair. His son Bobby discovers his father's secret, resulting in the family's separation.
After a confrontation between father and son, Manuel has a heart attack. The next section of the novel focuses on the lives of the older del Mundo children: Sonia, who faces racial discrimination, and Bobby, who becomes involved in a Filipino gang.
The third section of the book focuses on the youngest child, Manolita, who becomes involved in politics.
Familiar stories
"When I was reading the book, I had to stop for a little bit and wipe my tears. It really resonated with me as a newcomer in Canada," says Irene Querubin, who was born in the Philippines and now hosts the Vancouver radio program The Filipino Edition.
Querubin was emcee at the book's launch at the Creekside Community Centre in Vancouver. The event featured dramatic readings by members of Anyone Can Act Theatre, which sponsored the launch.
Vancouver-Kensington New Democratic Party member of legislative assembly (MLA), Mable Elmore, B.C.'s first MLA of Filipino descent, read Manolita's political campaign speech from the book. Elmore says the novel captures the challenges and struggles immigrants face in Canada, including racial tensions and underemployment.
She says although the Filipino community in B.C. is relatively young, she has noticed increasing participation of Filipino immigrants in their community through literary work, council presentations and musical performances.
Challenges for Filipino youth
Among those using the arts to promote inter-cultural dialogue are members of DALOY-PUSO, a mentorship and arts program for Filipino newcomers in high school. The group, whose name means "flowing from the heart" in Tagalog, benefitted from proceeds collected at the launch.
"The mom and the dad are working three jobs and they don't have a lot of supervision at home," Vancouver School Board youth settlement worker Adrian Bontuyan says of young newcomers.
He explains that many mothers come to Canada from the Philippines through the Caregiver Program, through which they provide childcare in Canadian homes. After working for 24 months or 3,900 hours, they can apply to become permanent residents and bring their family members to Canada if their application is approved.
Bontuyan says he will read Stumbling Through Paradise to learn about how he can further support immigrant youth and start discussions to help them understand their parents' experiences.
"The aspect of mentorship that [Guerrero-Campbell] mentioned is very important, because the youth need someone to look up to as an example of success and basically someone that the youth can be comfortable with sharing his or her struggles of being a newcomer," he says.
Guerrero-Campbell also explores the idea of home through her young characters. The del Mundos' daughter Sonia finds belonging through the satisfying relationships she builds with people in the Philippines and in Canada.
Empowering other newcomers
Guerrero-Campbell says she hopes people who have read her book will discuss it with others and start a dialogue about the challenges immigrants face.
"The one message I really want to convey is empowerment – for our newcomers to feel empowered," she says. "They came all the way to achieve something and I want them to know that they can achieve their dreams."
Guerrero-Campbell came to Canada in the late 1970s with a master's degree in urban planning and regional planning from the Philippines. She was a planner for the City of Edmonton, Alberta, and continued to work in planning in Surrey, B.C. and Richmond, B.C.
She helped author Hiring and Retaining Skilled Immigrants: A Cultural Competence Toolkit for B.C. human resources managers. Guerrero-Campbell was the CEO of the Minerva Foundation for BC Women and a co-convenor for the Vancouver Immigrant Partnership's Access to Services strategy group. Stumbling Through Paradise is her first novel.
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by Elvira Truglia in Montreal
Kim Thuy's fourth novel continues the author's style of recalling her own journey to Canada and crossing linguistic and cultural boundaries.
"I don't mind at all being considered as migrant literature, Asian literature, Canadian literature, or Quebec literature," says the award-winning author, who just published Vi. "It depends on the person who's reading it and what the person sees in it."
Vi tells the story of a woman, Vi, who returns to Vietnam after growing up in Canada. Vi is on a journey to discover the vastness of life, or 'vie' in French. At the same time, in Vietnamese, vi means microscopically small.
"Like we say in Vietnamese, [with] every single step that we make, we come back with a basket of knowledge," says Thuy. "To me, Vi is about learning to become a person, to become a human."
Although "the family situation of Vi is not me, the vision of Vi is a lot like I see life," says Thuy. The character Vi studies translation and then law, much like Thuy who has reinvented herself throughout her life – first as an interpreter, then a lawyer and restaurateur, and now an author.
Life provides a springboard
In her 2009 novel, Ru, the author traces a young woman's trek from her home in Saigon, Vietnam, during the Vietnam War, to a Malaysian refugee camp, and then to Quebec where she struggles to adapt. With a plot line based on her own life chronology, Thuy writes what she knows. She says this is the only writing process that works for her.
"I stick with women . . . because I think women are so extraordinary and many of us are misunderstood or underestimated," says Thuy. "Vietnamese women are often considered submissive or obedient or kind and attentive," she adds. "I wanted to show that . . . social codes sometimes mislead our interpretation of the person."
Thuy says paintings of Japanese, Chinese and Vietnamese women portrayed, "with a little tiny dot of red for the mouth," act as a cultural metaphor.
"Women are not supposed to speak if they want to be elegant and dignified women . . . so that's why they are very often misunderstood."
A story that resonates
In many ways, Thuy speaks for those unable to tell their own stories.
"She was one of the boat people," says Jenny Lam, referring to her mother and the Vietnamese refugees who fled to Canada after the Vietnam War. Lam says that while literature is not her thing, she does read Kim Thuy and even attended a recent launch for Vi featuring Thuy in Montreal.
Reading Thuy's novels is like reading her mom's story, she says.
Sabrina Cordy says she also seeks to feel connected through Thuy's "spontaneous" writing. Adopted by Belgian parents, the 24-year-old of Korean descent now lives in Montreal and says Thuy's writing "reminds me of my culture."
Thuy says she is "touched" that so many Asian Canadians read her novels and attended the launch of Vi, and notes that many of them are young women.
"Most parents don't talk about their experiences," she says. She adds that Ru "triggered a conversation between the parents and the children about that episode in their life."
Accessing immigrants' stories
A best seller in Quebec and in France, her first novel, Ru, has sold more than 235,000 copies abroad and has been translated in 25 languages.
The popularity of her books is partly due to their poetic and accessible style, or what Francois Godin of Quebec publisher Libre Expression calls her ability to "create literary bridges."
"I like the images, the simplicity, the human element of her writing," says Catherine Emond, who has read all of Thuy's books, adding that as a "dyed-in-the-wool Quebecois [a Quebecer of French Canadian descent], Thuy's books are educational about the immigration story."
In 2015, the English translation of Ru won CBC Canada Reads as the Book to Break All Barriers thanks to Cameron Bailey, Artistic Director of the Toronto International Film Festival, who championed the book.
"A lot of Canadians have grown tired of being nice to newcomers. That's the barrier that we're trying to break and Ru reminded me why migrants matter," Bailey said in 2015.
"Ru did that with a deep and moving beauty. It's a hopeful book. It invites compassion and draws a wide circle of readers in."
Reflecting on the competition, Thuy says she is happy she won, but wasn't out to break barriers when she wrote Ru.
"When we arrived here, people welcomed us with open arms . . . And if I wrote Ru, it was to thank all these people who have given me access to everything," says Thuy. "In Ru, it's about how life is perfect after all, even though it is hard and there are so many challenges, it is still perfect in the end."
Thuy says life is beautiful because it is difficult.
"You cannot have one without the other," she says. "You cannot appreciate white without knowing black."
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by Rosanna Haroutounian in Quebec City
A trip to an organic dairy farm in Ontario was enough to inspire a former Wall Street banker to launch a global search for better ways to treat farm animals.
"This was an organic farm, but the cows still weren't treated well," recalls author Sonia Faruqi. "They were indoors two-thirds of the year and outdoors only one-third of the year, and while they were indoors, they were chained to stalls, which is really unnatural for cows, who are grazing animals."
After volunteering for two weeks at the dairy farm, Faruqi visited other Ontario farms, but not without resistance from farmers, who she says are part of a tightly knit community.
"Everyone they know is a farmer, so if you're someone who comes from a city, or who's brown, or even a woman in a very male-dominated industry, you're immediately very different," explains Faruqi, who was born in Pakistan and raised in the United Arab Emirates.
She worked at an investment bank on Wall Street in the United States before the 2008 economic crisis, after which she joined her family who had just immigrated to Canada.
Faruqi says she used her savings to visit and volunteer at farms in several countries, including the United States, Malaysia and Mexico.
Her first book, Project Animal Farm: An Accidental Journey into the Secret World of Farming and the Truth About Our Food, documents her experiences abroad and what can be done to create a farming system that is better for farmers, animals and consumers.
A world view on farming
While Faruqi says she witnessed many examples of animals being mistreated, such as chickens being kept in overcrowded cages and pigs covered in their own feces, she also visited farms where animals were well treated and healthy.
In Belize, Faruqi stayed on a farm with female Mennonite missionaries, who she says have a holistic view of the land and do not refer to raising livestock as agriculture or business, but as "animal husbandry."
She says the women named their cows and allowed them to graze in fields with ponds and other animals.
"It was interesting for me to see that kind of affection for the animals and the land."
Faruqi also compared the farming practices between Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore to explore how industrialization affects the treatment of animals.
She explains that in Malaysia, which has recently experienced rapid economic growth, the popularity of fast food chains like KFC and McDonald's has led to an increase in factory-farm practices, including artificial insemination, antibiotic use and corn-based diets.
"It's all changed to an extremely industrialized, very low-cost system," she explains. "Local farms, breeds, and knowledge that people have of animals and of the land – all of it is eradicated."
By contrast, in Indonesia, which is less industrialized, Faruqi witnessed hens walking freely in villages that only visited their owners' homes in the mornings for breakfast.
"I noticed people walking their cows," she adds. "It was interesting to see that bond that people have with animals."
She notes that at some of the farms she visited in Ontario, farmers didn't visit their farms and relied on automated systems to update them on their animals.
The many downsides to factory farming
Faruqi says that despite the downsides to factory farming, the government in Malaysia promotes fast food because it symbolizes industrialization and development.
"The same way people wear jeans and listen to American music, they're also eating American foods, which are hamburgers and fries and actually not good for you," she says.
"There's tens of billions of farm animals in the world and most of them are being made to suffer to produce cheap food for people, who should not be eating that much meat, milk and eggs to begin with."
Faruqi says consumers have the power to promote good farming habits by eating less animal products and demanding that the animal products they do eat be produced in healthier ways.
"There's a misconception that you have to be white and wealthy to even think about this, which is not true, because in the end, everyone's health is important."
A disproportionate impact on immigrants
She notes that while language or income barriers might prevent newcomers from making healthy choices, many of them come to Canada practising healthy eating habits that they don't retain.
"When people move here, they really want to integrate to the extent that they leave their own food heritage."
The vegetarian diet that is popular in India is an example that Western societies can learn to value, she says.
She notes that immigrants can also be disproportionately affected on the production side, because factory farms employ many immigrants in slaughterhouses.
"Part of the reason is that these are jobs non-immigrants don't want, for clear reasons," she says. "Workers have mental and physical health issues, which are not really treated."
Faruqi advocates for more government oversight of factory farms and regulations to protect animal rights, as well as the inclusion of more women in agriculture.
She says that under current laws in Canada and the U.S., a pig has the same rights as a table, "which is really ridiculous when you think about it, because one is an animate being with instincts and interests and desires, at the very least, to not suffer."
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by Danica Samuel in Toronto
"Just because you've fallen off ship doesn't mean you're drowning."
In the film My Internship in Canada, the person struggling to stay afloat is the politician who fails to please everyone. Oscar-nominated director Philippe Falardeau's film is a satirical, yet eye-opening, take on Canadian politics that showcases just how non-democratic our government can be.
For National Canadian Film Day on April 20, charitable organization Samara Canada collaborated with the Regent Park Film Festival to fill a Cineplex movie theatre in downtown Toronto for Falardeau's political comedy.
The film is based on the journey of a young Haitian man, Souverain Pascal, played by Irdens Exantus, who greatly admires Canadian politics and culture. He gets a response to his 15-page application and secures an internship with a Northern Quebec member of Parliament (MP).
Steve Guibord, played by Patrick Huard, is the independent MP for Prescott-Makadew à Rapides-aux-Outardes and unwillingly finds himself in the awkward position of holding the decisive vote on whether Canada will go to war.
Guibord travels across his riding to consult constituents with his wife, daughter and Pascal. The story escalates when groups of lobbyists get involved in a debate that spins out of control. In the end, Guibord is tugged and pulled in various directions and must face his own conscience to make a decision that could affect the entire country.
Making politics accessible
Newcomers to Canada and members of the Toronto communities of North York and Lotherton were among those who attended.
"We thought it was a great opportunity to provide a little bit of education behind Canada's political system, in a fun way," said Madison Van West, coordinator of the Democracy Talks program at North York Community House (NYCH). She worked with her colleagues to bring 75 people to the screening from NYCH, which provides civic engagement and community development services to newcomers.
"Sometimes politics isn't the most accessible topic, but a movie screening is a great way to bring everyone together and learn more."
In the film, Guibord tries to initiate democracy by inviting members of his community to a town hall. Unfortunately, opposing viewpoints cause tension rather than a conversation that leads to a collaborative decision. The scene shows just how messy democracy can be.
NYCH program manager Zesta Kim said she understands and has witnessed the hardships politicians face in her community when having to weigh several interests to create an all-inclusive environment.
"We've seen them try to create platforms and implement mechanisms to be open and democratic, but in doing that, anyone can speak and say anything," she explains. "So, sometimes it doesn't turn out too well."
Falsification of equality
In the film, Guibord has trouble balancing the interests of his wife, daughter, protesters, the mayor, and the prime minister. He can only rely on Pascal to help find a middle ground that stays true to Canadian culture and democracy.
In a panel discussion held after the screening, emerging filmmaker Amita Zamaan said these competing special interests are what disappoint and deter people from engaging in Canadian politics.
She added that the disengagement is due to the lack of representation and the falsification of equality in our government.
Through her web series, Dhaliwal15, Zamaan, like Falardeau, approaches politics through satire when examining the lack of diversity in Canadian politics.
"We haven't seen a representation of minorities in politics and in Parliament," she said. "I'm trying to address that issue by placing this fictional character (Bobby Dhaliwal, played by Jasmeet Singh) in my film, but also addressing how limited our discussions in Canada are on progressive issues."
Explaining voter apathy
Another panel member, Algoma-Manitoulin member of provincial Parliament (MPP), Michael Mantha, said the problem is deeper than just having an open platform to discuss. He said there is a lack of interest from community members.
"I've being trying to engage with people throughout my riding, to try and get a pulse on what needs to be discussed for better engagement," Mantha said.
"Going off the numbers in my area, last election there was a 51 per cent voter turnout. People have look at politicians, their decisions, and their actions and think, 'Why am I going to get involved if they're not listening to me?'" he added.
Mantha, who was elected in 2011, has served two consecutive terms as MPP and said while he loves all aspects of his riding, from its environment to its citizens, he is well aware of the tactics that are often involved in getting politicians to make certain decisions.
"Individuals are put into difficult positions, but again it comes down to that person's principles and being responsible to the people that put you into that position," he said. "However you make your decision, you will have to put your head on your pillow and live with your conscience."
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Commentary by Winnie Hwo in Vancouver
The much-anticipated first federal budget from the new Liberal government was unveiled on March 22. To describe the general reactions, they would be "Wow," "Oh," and maybe even, "Oh no."
I was all "Yay!" and this is why.
I am a Chinese-Canadian mother with a university-aged child. I also work for one of the most respected environmental organizations in the country, after a long career in journalism.
For someone with my kind of profile, I tend to want my country to be cleaner, greener and friendlier. I want this because it is good for my health, my child's health, our lives and his future.
For a decade, people like me were frozen out of the federal government's national policy equation because our previous federal government was only interested in pushing fossil fuels.
The consequences of this are known: our major trading partners like the U.S. and China have spent the last decade developing their clean-tech industry and green infrastructure. We are grossly behind in this very competitive new economy.
A struggling Canadian economy
As it turns out, our previous government was also reluctant to invest in our infrastructure, while it continued to take in more immigrants.
One thing about accepting more immigrants is that while newcomers help our country grow, they also increase demands for housing, transportation and other services.
We know many new Canadians gained acceptance to our country by paying millions of dollars for investment funds to contribute to the nation's economy even before they landed.
One would expect that this money would be invested in areas to strengthen our economy, like in our clean-tech sectors and aging infrastructures. Unfortunately, that was not the case.
Over a billion of taxpayer dollars were invested in the fossil fuel industry in the form of oil sand subsidies.
As world oil prices plunge, so does our dollar. Today, Canadians struggle in the low-dollar reality and find ourselves stuck, with little room to juggle.
While workers in the oil sands industry are losing their jobs fast, those in the manufacturing sectors are only recently seeing their job prospects improve slightly.
Long overdue attention to First Nations
The investment in our First Nations communities is also commendable.
As immigrants, we came to Canada mostly for better job opportunities, clean water, air and food security.
Unfortunately, these are not always afforded to our Aboriginal Peoples. For those who live on reserves especially, their water supply is often compromised due to irresponsible mining.
When their only source of water is contaminated, they pay with their health and lives.
For generations, our First Nations people have had to see their loved ones, often small children, suffering serious health challenges because their homes were badly built, their water supply was contaminated and hope was always too far to reach.
The $8.4 billion funding for our First Nations communities is long overdue.
Welcoming a new era
The new Liberal budget is important to me because it signifies a new direction or even the dawn of a new era, if you will.
The vision I keep seeing is a huge ocean liner called Canada changing course in the high seas, making waves and making its passengers feel bumpy, disrupted or even unsettled.
But if we take a deep breath and think about it, the reason we feel so shell-shocked by this new budget is because a lot of the big-ticket items were not even addressed by the previous government.
The move to a new and green economy is a reality. Some might even say inevitable.
It would be wonderful if Canadians were served a gradual change, of course, but the 10 years of relying on oil and closing our ears to the call for help from our First Nations people by the Harper government means our journey from here on will likely feel a little bumpier.
Yes, we will have to spend a little time to play catch up, but I know Canadians are resilient and hard working. As long as we work together and support each other, I have no doubt we will make the journey.
Winnie Hwo joined David Suzuki Foundation's Climate Change Team in 2010 after a long and stellar career in journalism. She is passionate about Canada's multicultural policy and healthy environment.
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by Daniel Leon Rodriguez in Calgary
In 1993, when Dr. Hude Quan came to Calgary from China, he knew nothing about the city. With the support of a scholarship, he joined the University of Calgary's PhD program in epidemiology.
Dr. Quan recalled the struggles he overcame in his path to adaptation – from learning a new language, culture and way of thinking. "I typed every page of my thesis. One, two, three, four times, again, again, and again," said Quan.
Quan shared his experience while receiving the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Immigrant Services Calgary's 20th annual Immigrants of Distinction Awards gala, at the Westin Hotel in downtown Calgary on Mar. 11.
He said the award doesn't just recognize his work, but that of all the individuals who helped him in his adaptation in Calgary. "They made me who I am," said Quan. "Thank you for believing in us immigrants."
Today, Quan is one of the most globally cited researchers, according to Thompson Reuters. He is an associate professor at the University of Calgary and the director of the Calgary World Health Organization Collaboration Centre.
Everyone's duty to help newcomers
Quan isn't the only example of how newcomers' success relies on support from the community, social agencies and governments.
White hats for the #IDA2016 Immigrants of Distinction recipients. What an honour to be part of this event! #OurYYC pic.twitter.com/bFeqJmjtdI— Linda Olsen (@Linda_Olsen) March 12, 2016
At the awards ceremony, Immigrant Services Calgary (ISC) celebrated other distinguished immigrants who excel in business, community involvement, arts and culture, and academia, as well as organizations that support diversity.
Under the message of "fostering a legacy of excellence," Josephine Pon, chair of ISC's board of directors, said the awards celebrate Calgary's most committed and community-minded individuals in the city.
"You're the true superstars and you're an inspiration to all of us," Pon said.
Senator Victor Oh said at the event that Canada is a country blessed by immigration. However, this intake of immigrants "represents a great challenge," added the senator who emigrated to Canada from Singapore in 1978.
"It is everyone's duty to help newcomers feel at home," Oh told the audience of over 500 people, which included provincial ministers, members of Parliament and diplomatic representatives.
Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi's words resonated with Oh's. He said that the secret of successful newcomers and communities is mutual support and understanding.
"We're all in it together. Our neighbour's pain is our pain, our neighbour's success is our success, our neighbour's failure is our failure," said Nenshi.
The mayor said those nominated for the award "ask (themselves) the most Canadian and Calgarian of questions: 'how can I help?'"
"We celebrate 20 years of people who not only ask that question, but answer it every day," said Nenshi.
.@askISC Chair Josephine Pon, @nenshi @twpyyc & Senator Victor Oh at #IDA2016 pic.twitter.com/XGG2kX1KS8— Anila (Umar)Lee Yuen (@anilainyyc) March 12, 2016
Multiculturalism goes two ways
The Immigrants of Distinction Awards are the first commemoration of its kind in Canada according to Peter Wong, former chair of the board of directors at ISC.
Wong envisioned the award in 1997 to highlight the contributions of immigrants in the community. He said that celebrating diversity in the workplace and government recognition of immigrants wasn't popular at that time. "It wasn't seen as a critical aspect of society."
However, Wong says this has changed. "What I see today is multiculturalism has become part of mainstream."
Honorary chair of this year's awards, Wayne Chiu, said immigrants have to play their part in the Canadian mosaic. Newcomers have to choose how to adapt in Canada.
They might decide to surround themselves with only people from their own ethnic culture, explained Chiu, who is the founder and CEO of Trico Home and who was recently appointed to the Order of Canada for his philanthropic and business leadership.
"This might bring us great – but temporary – comfort and security," said Chiu. However, he added, "We are hindering ourselves from merging into the mainstream culture of Canada."
Chiu added that when any immigrants feel they aren't being accepted, not being listened to, not being understood, or not given the opportunity to excel like others, they have to ask if they have opened themselves up to the larger community.
"One of the hardest things is to move outside from our comfort zone," said Chiu, who moved from Hong Kong in 1976 to study engineering in Winnipeg.
He said that connecting with people outside of the Chinese community helped him to excel. The experience taught him that effective communication, mutual respect and understanding of other people's ideas are an "essential part of adopting into a new country."
A quick look at the award recipients
Achievement Under 35 Award // Dr. Irehobhude O. Iyioha is an independent policy consultant in the field of health law and policy. She has advocated at several conferences and presentations worldwide about women health's issues.
Arts and Culture Award // Jose Duque through his passion for classical music empowers children. His goal is to give youth, of low income families, the opportunity to learn music through a multicultural orchestra.
Community Service Award // Bojan Tosic has been involved in community development for years creating innovative and well-evaluated programs, enhancing cross-sector relationships and increasing access to support and services.
Entrepreneurship and Innovation Award // With little financial backing Bob Dhillon formed one of the largest publicly held real state companies in Canada, Mainstreet Equity Corporation, of which he is CEO and president.
Hadassah Ksienski Lifetime Achievement Award // Dr. Hude Quan is internationally known for his accomplishment and contributions in the field of health services and for his efforts to improve the health of ethno-cultural communities. // Dr. Serdar Yilmaz is the head of the transplant section of the University of Calgary's faculty of medicine, and the leader in transplant surgery in Alberta.
Science, Technology, Engineering and Math Award // Janaka Ruwanpura is the Vice-Provost (International) at University of Calgary and the Canada Research Chair in Project Management Systems. His work improved the culture of the Canadian construction industry.
Organizational Diversity Award // Calgary United Soccer Association (CUSA) gives adults an opportunity to learn and enjoy soccer in a social and recreational environment. CUSA is a founding partner of Calgary Street Soccer and KidSport Calgary.
Youth Scholarships
As a Grade 12 student Andrew Min co-founded the EquaLearn Foundation. He is also a member of the mayor's youth council and is politically involved with the Community Outreach Committee.
Dan Yang (Lucy Ni) is a third-year biological sciences student at University of Calgary. She is a director and founding member of Outrun the Stigma and the president of the Hearth and Stroke Foundation Student's Association.
Moiz Hafeez is in his final year of his bachelor in biological sciences at the University of Calgary. He has held executive positions at the Genetic Jungle run, Muslim Student's Association, and the Red Cross Club.
Grade 12 student, Sophie Zhao, is founder of both the French and poetry clubs and leader of the Verbattle debate club at her school. Zhao is founder and public relations director of Wishful Thinking.
Varun Kundra is in Grade 10 where he excels in the sciences and volunteering. He scored in the 94th percentile in The College Board's Preliminary Scholastic Aptitude Test (PSAT) of the juniors while still in Grade 9. The University of Calgary approved his lab-assistant appointment to Dr. Minh Dang Nguyen and his team, who specialize in the discipline of transactional neuroscience.
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by Matt D'Amours in Montreal
Community organizations and immigrant lobby groups in Quebec are speaking out against a provincial welfare reform bill that would require new social assistance applicants to enter the job market sooner.
Activists say that Bill 70, "An Act to allow a better match between training and jobs and to facilitate labour market entry," will have a disproportionate impact on Quebec's immigrant population, which is overrepresented in the welfare system.
At the Minister of Labour's request, Bill 70 would seek to introduce a "workfare" system that requires welfare recipients to enter a job training program, or "accept any offer of suitable employment."
Those who fail to meet these conditions could see their social assistance cut in half. For a single adult receiving $623 a month, that would mean a drop down to about $308.
Political opponents have also criticized the plan, introduced last year by the province's Liberal government. In a National Assembly debate on Feb. 25, Bernard Drainville of the Parti Québécois called the law "heartless, arbitrary, unwise, myopic and disrespectful."
During a parliamentary hearing on Feb. 17, Labour Minister François Blais defended Bill 70, saying that Quebec's immigrant population would not be adversely affected by the legislation.
"In general, as you know, immigrants want to integrate and make the necessary efforts to find employment," Blais said. The minister added that, among the organizations he had spoken to, there was "zero worry" about how the proposed welfare reforms would impact the immigrant population.
Faulty perceptions of immigrants and employment
Pascale Chanoux, of the group Table de concertation des organismes au service des personnes réfugiées et immigrantes (TCRI), testified at the Feb. 17 hearing, and said the minister's comments highlight the government's faulty logic about immigrants and employment.
"Bill 70 claims that if we want to, we can – which is to say that whether someone gets a job or not is based on whether they want to or not," Chanoux explained. "The minister does not see that on the path of professional integration for immigrants, there are systemic obstacles … [for him] everything is always about the willingness and responsibility of the individual."
Another person who testified that day was Nalawattage Pinto, a Sri Lankan immigrant who came to Canada in 1993.
Pinto described the systemic barriers that made his job search difficult upon arrival, including his lack of French language skills, and the market's lack of recognition of his professional experience in Sri Lanka.
Pinto was forced to work nights at a chemical plant, which he alleged only hired new immigrants because it was dangerous work.
He also said the company only hired people for six months, so that workers wouldn't have time to unionize. After Pinto and his wife lost their jobs in 1994, they were forced to apply for welfare.
Pinto is not alone. According to a provincial report on social assistance published in November 2015, new Canadians make up nearly a quarter of welfare recipients in Quebec.
However, another provincial report, which tracked immigrant welfare requests between 1996 and 2004, found that most made their application early after their arrival in the province – usually within the first six months.
That same report found that once these immigrants opted out of the welfare program, they generally didn't return.
"This first stay in social assistance is, in the large majority of cases, a unique episode in the process of integration for immigrants," the report concluded.
'Suitable' employment for who?
The concern with Bill 70 is that for immigrants seeking assistance within their first months in Quebec, the mandate to accept a job that is deemed "suitable" by the government could force people into a cycle of low wages, and further trivialize the qualifications they held in their native countries.
"We talk about accepting a suitable job – but suitable for who?" asks Chanoux. "Do we want to institutionalize de-qualification by pushing people into a job without regard to their socio-professional background?"
Those who refuse to accept "suitable" employment would see massive cuts to welfare benefits, which are already too low to live on, according to Project Genesis, a social justice community organization based in Montreal.
The group points to a fall 2015 report from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, which shows that the average rent for a one-bedroom apartment in Montreal now stands at $675 – $52 more than the current welfare benefits received by a single person.
"Any policy that reduces the income of households living in poverty is destined to … [increase the] depth of poverty experienced by people on low income," stated Project Genesis.
During his closing remarks at the Feb. 17 hearing on Bill 70, Pinto outlined the hardships he had experienced as an immigrant in Quebec.
"I've had jobs at minimum wage since I've been in Canada," Pinto explained. "I am now 65, and I did not achieve the dream that we had when we came here."
If Bill 70 passes in Quebec, the TCRI and Project Genesis argue, Pinto's dream of a better life will become harder to achieve for a whole new wave of immigrants.
"We're talking about poverty and exclusion," Chanoux said of the proposed legislation. "It's part of a tendency to try and recoup money on the backs of populations that are very vulnerable."
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by Marcus Medford in Toronto
Settlement agencies in Canada's Atlantic provinces are working closely with provincial governments to better service immigrants, but say they need federal support to attract newcomers to smaller communities.
The provinces and territories select which immigrants they want to accept based on their local economic needs. In the past 15 years, the number of immigrants settling in the Maritimes has increased, but their numbers remain the lowest of all the provinces, explained Ather H. Akbari, an economics professor at St. Mary's University in Halifax.
"Larger provinces are traditional destinations for immigrants and have established communities with multiple religious and ethnic institutions, which help immigrants with aspects of settlement, but [these resources] are scarce in Atlantic Canada," he explained, while leading a workshop titled "Economic Integration of Immigrants in Atlantic Canada," at the 18th National Metropolis Conference in Toronto earlier this month.
The five steps of economic integration are home ownership, car ownership, citizenship, English proficiency and earning a better income said Akbari. These five things are indicators that newcomers to Canada are invested in their new destination and intend to stay.
Akbari noted that the retention rates of immigrants in Atlantic Canada are low even in regions with large ethnic communities.
"If the networks are not instrumental then there is clearly a need for government policy and settlement agencies to play a larger role in immigrant settlement and integration," he said.
Resources for Entrepreneurs
In New Brunswick, the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency (ACOA) has partnered with the government to provide financial support for French-speaking immigrant entrepreneurs in an effort to retain the francophone community.
Attracting and retaining immigrants in rural areas can be difficult admitted Paul-Emile David, senior policy analyst for ACOA. David and ACOA work closely with businesses, governments and research institutions to find and develop entrepreneurial opportunities.
"We offer programs, initiatives and support so entrepreneurial activities can take place in these areas," he said.
There are more than 40 Community Business Development Corporations (CBDCs) in Atlantic Canada, many of which are in rural areas.
Entrepreneurial initiatives need access to financing, resources and business skills development courses, David explained. One example of this is Island Advance in Prince Edward Island, which stimulates entrepreneurial projects and helps immigrants recognize good business opportunities.
More funding for integration supports
As of the end of February, 25,000 Syrian refugees had arrived in Canada, and by the end of the year that total is expected to reach 50,000, making localized support for integration a key issue across the country.
"We're hoping that Ottawa will provide some strategic investments very soon in order to put the supports that are needed in place as soon as possible," said Chris Friesen, director of settlement services with the Immigrant Services Society of B.C.
He said he hopes that the new federal funding plan for the provinces and territories, along with help from local agencies, will speed up the process of matching immigrants and refugees with language courses.
For some immigrants and refugees learning English can be the most challenging part of integration.
It can take up to 16 months for newcomers to Canada to be accepted into federally funded language courses. Some have reported feeling "trapped" because of their lack of English knowledge, meaning they can't fully interact with society.
One of the reasons for the long wait-times to get into language programs is a lack of funding and resources. Wait-times also tend to be longer in bigger cities.
Challenges with government-assisted stream
Of the 25,000 Syrian refugees more than half of them are government-assisted, the others are sponsored privately or with some support from the government.
For refugees and immigrants alike, one of the most important steps to settling into Canada is finding a job and becoming economically independent.
Approximately 14 per cent of government-assisted refugees find work within their first year of being in Canada compared to more than 50 per cent of those who are privately assisted.
"One of the unique challenges for government-assisted refugees is that they're funded by the federal government for one year," explained Nabiha Atallah, communications and outreach manager at the settlement agency ISANS (Immigration Services Association of Nova Scotia). "After that they need to support themselves or go on social assistance, but they want to work. They really want to work."
Atallah spoke during the workshop about strategies for economic integration for immigrants.
She explained that for some immigrants and refugees, finding a job isn't just a matter of earning an income, but helps with overcoming the depression, frustration and feelings of loss of self or status that can accompany relocating.
Even highly skilled immigrants with work experience, education and English proficiency are experiencing difficulty finding jobs, Atallah said.
ISANS works with several companies to understand their employer needs and to develop training curricula so that immigrants and refugees know what it takes to work at a particular business or organization.
Matching clients' interests, skills and abilities with the right employers and planning with end goals in mind are some of the keys to successful job searching, Atallah explained.
"We also do a lot of work with interview skills because a lot of that is culture-laden. In some countries they don't have interviews at all and if they do, they don't look like ours."
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-- Canada's economic development minister Navdeep Bains at a Public Policy Forum economic summit


text:
Over the last few decades, many people have attempted to measure what is sometimes called social, public, or civic value—that is, the value that nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), social enterprises, social ventures, and social programs create.1 The demand for these metrics has come from all sectors: Foundations want to direct their grants to the most effective programs; public officials, policymakers, and government budget offices have to account for their spending decisions; investors want hard data analogous to measures of profit; and nonprofits need to demonstrate their impact to funders, partners, and beneficiaries. Metrics to meet these needs have proliferated over the last 40 years, resulting in hundreds of competing methods for calculating social value.2
Despite the enthusiasm for metrics, few people actually use them to guide decisions. In the nonprofit sector, good managers are very rigorous about tracking costs and income. But few use sophisticated metrics to help allocate resources. Meanwhile, in the public sector, political judgment counts more than cost-benefit assessments. In the rare cases when decision makers do use metrics of social value, it's far from clear that they should.
I've dealt with social value metrics in a variety of roles: as director of policy and strategy under United Kingdom Prime Minister Tony Blair; as director of the Young Foundation, an NGO that has created dozens of ventures, some for-profit, some social enterprises, and some public; and as an advisor to many other governments. In these positions, I've seen not only why social value metrics are ignored, but also how to make them more useful.
One recent project that proved particularly informative was a collaboration between the United Kingdom's National Health Service (NHS) and the Young Foundation. The NHS commissioned the Young Foundation to develop a practical tool for assessing service innovations and guiding investment decisions. The NHS is a vast organization with a budget of around $150 billion, a workforce of some 1.2 million employees, and contracts with more than 30,000 social enterprises. It needed a set of tools that would be both robust and flexible, and that could be used for decision making as well as evaluation.
We started by scanning existing social value metrics, such as the ones described in the table "10 Ways to Measure Social Value" on page 41. We found hundreds of competing tools, of which foundations and NGOs generally use one set, governments another, and academics yet another. In addition to discovering this segmentation, our survey suggested two more reasons why so few metrics guide real decisions. First, most metrics assume that value is objective, and therefore discoverable through analysis. Yet as most modern economists now agree, value is not an objective fact. Instead, value emerges from the interaction of supply and demand, and ultimately reflects what people or organizations are willing to pay. Because so few of the tools reflect this, they are inevitably misaligned with an organization's strategic and operational priorities.
The second reason that current measures of social value fail to influence decision makers is that they conflate three very different roles: accounting to external stakeholders, managing internal operations, and assessing societal impact. In the business sector, decision makers use different tools for each of these tasks. An airplane manufacturer, for instance, would use one set of metrics, mandated by laws and regulations, to explain to external stakeholders how it spends its money. The company would then use a second set of metrics to allocate resources in the building of airplanes. (It is a brave manager who would let investors see these internal accounts.) The company would then use entirely different kinds of measures to explain how its activities affect larger economic indicators such as gross domestic product.
Yet in the social and public sectors, some proponents of new social value measures claim that their metric can play all three roles. Not surprisingly, and despite courageous efforts, these attempts to do three things at once have resulted in the failure to do any one of them well.
Here, I describe a better way to think about social value: the product of the dynamic interaction between supply and demand in the evolution of markets for social value. I then show how decision makers in the nonprofit and public sectors can use these insights to measure what can be measured without pretending to measure what can't be. Finally I recommend better ways to make social value metrics. My main advice is that nonprofits and foundations should resist the current trend of developing assessment tools entirely separately from public policy and academic social science, and instead should collaborate across sectors.
Elusive Quarry
The failure of the social and public sectors to measure the value they create does not stem from a paucity of intelligence or good intention. Rather, it reflects four unavoidable complexities that bedevil the measurement of social value. First among these is the lack of hard-and-fast laws and regularities in the social field. Many people would love the social field to be more like natural science, so that they could definitely predict the effects of, say, a $10 million investment in a crime prevention program.
But unlike molecules, which follow the rules of physics rather obediently, human beings have minds of their own, and are subject to many social, psychological, and environmental forces. Several decades of involvement in evidence-based policymaking has shown me that although evidence should inform all action, very few domains allow precise predictions about what causes will lead to what effects. The social sciences (including business) simply do not have laws in the way that physics has. Even seemingly solid economic principles, such as the rule that demand falls when prices rise, have many exceptions.
A second reason that measuring social value is hard is that, in many of the most important fields of social action—such as crime prevention, childcare, and schooling—people do not agree about what the desired outcome should be. In other words, the public argues not only about social value, but also about social values. For example, many people want to imprison criminals to punish them, even when incarceration costs more and confers fewer benefits than do alternatives to prison. Psychologists call this willingness to sacrifice a lot to penalize others altruistic punishment.
Because people's ethics, morals, and priorities vary, social value assessments that look only at costs and benefits are bound not to influence many members of the public and the politicians who represent them. Philosophers (from John Dewey to Luc Boltanski) have long recognized that societies are made up of competing and conflicting systems of valuation and justification. But measurers of social value have often tried to deny this.
Even without these problems, many social value metrics are inherently unreliable. Measurements of social return on investment (SROI), for example, often quite arbitrarily estimate costs and paybacks, which dramatically affects the final calculated value. SROI calculations can help in broad-stroke predictions, but they can't help with finer-grained decisions.
Revealed preference and stated preference methods are also notoriously unreliable. Although they try to provide precise numbers, they are not very rigorous about the means of deriving these numbers. As a result, these methods confuse rigor with precision—a point that REDF and others in the SROI field increasingly recognize.
A final reason that measuring social value is difficult is the problem of time—estimating how much good an action will bring about many years in the future, relative to how much it will cost to implement it now. In predictions of commercial returns on investment (ROI), businesspeople use discount rates to account for the assumption that a given amount of money will be worth less in the future than it is in the present. With a 5 percent discount rate, for example, $100 of today's money will be worth only $35.85 in 30 years, and only $7.69 in 50 years. Many current measures of social value, such as SROI, likewise use commercial discount rates—perhaps because of a mistaken belief that treating social discount rates as equal to commercial ones will make social value metrics seem more rigorous.
But it's not clear why social organizations and governments should use commercial discount rates, especially as these rates radically devalue the future. Indeed, we should hope that the people in these organizations give greater weight to the interests of future generations than do commercial markets. A closer analysis of discount rates suggests that they do.3 In health, many countries apply a very low or zero discount rate, on the grounds that younger generations should not be disadvantaged relative to older ones. Governments ignore discount rates when investing in education and defense technologies. And in climate change policy, a furious debate has raged about what discount rates to apply—again in part a moral argument about how to weigh the needs of future generations against the needs of current ones. These examples reflect my broader point: Social value is not an objective fact. Instead, it emerges from the interaction of supply and demand, and therefore may change across time, people, places, and situations.
Constructing Value
Borrowing practices from business and economics has led to many mistakes in the measurement of social value. Yet these fields still offer some important lessons for the field of social innovation. For much of human history, philosophers and economists believed that value was an objective fact. Aristotle thought that there was a "just price" for everything, for instance. And Karl Marx thought that value came from labor.
But more recently, most economists have accepted that the only meaningful concept of value is that it arises from the interaction of demand and supply in markets. In other words, something is valuable only if someone is willing to pay for it. This blunt approach upsets many people because it implies that there may be no economic value in a beautiful sunset, an endangered species, or a wonderful work of art. But this definition of value is useful because it forces economists to observe real behavior, rather than trying to uncover hidden realities.
The time is ripe for the social field to take an equally simple starting point, and to view social value as arising from the interplay of what I call effective demand and effective supply. Effective demand means that someone is willing to pay for a service or an outcome. That "someone" may be a public agency, a foundation, or individual citizens. Effective supply means that the service or outcome works, is affordable, and is implementable. I use the qualifier "effective" because social problems will always invite simple supply and simple demand. But to measure social value, the supplies and demands must be effective in the senses described above.
Markets, conversations, and negotiations then link, on the one hand, people and organizations with needs and resources, with, on the other hand, people and organizations with solutions and services. Social value metrics are useful if they give shape to these markets, conversations, and negotiations.
In some fields, the links between supply and demand are mature. For example, many voters are willing to pay taxes for police forces and primary schools, and many governments are able to supply these services. Likewise, many donors are willing to fund health care for children in developing countries, and many local charities and churches are able to deliver this care. In these domains, analyzing social value is not difficult, because the links between what funders want and what providers know they can offer is clear.
But for other social issues, the links between supply and demand are missing. In some cases, effective demand may be lacking because funders, politicians, or private citizens do not view a need as pressing enough to warrant their resources. For example, some states are unwilling to fund sex education or drug treatment. In other cases, effective demand may be present—for instance, many governments are willing to pay to reduce obesity—but the supply of cost-effective interventions is limited. In these situations any descriptions of social value are bound to be more tentative and exploratory.
In still other cases, both sides of the supply-demand equation may be murky or complex. Many social policy makers, for instance, understand that more holistic solutions often yield better results. But holistic approaches necessarily have to deal with purchasers—that is, demand—that are split across many different public agencies and NGOs, each with its own view of what really counts as valuable. The supply side may also be fragmented: Helping homeless people, for example, may depend on the contribution of many different agencies to provide therapy, alcohol treatment, job training, and housing. In these fields, too, social value can become clearer only through iterative processes that bring together supply and demand in deliberation and discussion. Even the most brilliant researcher cannot measure or even describe social value if she is not immersed in these discussions.
Healthy Numbers
All of these points have become particularly clear in our work for the NHS, which is involved in everything from routine checkups, to surgeries, to behavior-change interventions, to community programs. The advantage of a single, integrated health service like the NHS is that it has to be explicit about its demands, that is, what it needs and what it is willing to pay for. The NHS's effective supply side is also reasonably easy to define, and it includes doctors, nurses, managers, social enterprises, private providers, and members of the public.
To help the NHS make better decisions and allocate its resources more effectively, we at the Young Foundation created a tool that makes explicit the social value of various alternatives. Earlier on I described the three very different roles metrics can play—external accountability, internal decision making, and assessment of broader social impact. The tool we developed focuses squarely on the second of these goals. It attempts to capture the value that accrues to the individual from being healthy, rather than sick; to caregivers; to the wider community (for example, from the control of infectious diseases); and to the taxpayer.
The tool we created is not a simple computer program or calculator. Instead, it is a framework for thinking about value. Like many of the tools used to assess social value, this one requires a series of judgments. The judgments fall into four main categories: 1) strategic fit (how well the proposed innovation meets the needs of the health service); 2) potential health outcomes (including likely impact on quality-adjusted life years and patient satisfaction); 3) cost savings and economic effects; and 4) risks associated with implementation.
When faced with a proposal, users of the tool apply a 0 to 5 scale to rate the proposal on items in each of these categories. Proposals range from a promising idea from a group of doctors or nurses, to an idea that has already been piloted on a small scale or a venture that is ready for scaling up. Users can also provide commentary along with their ratings.
In some cases, decision makers can draw on strong data—for example, evidence from a randomized controlled trial. In other cases, they must rely on less certain numbers. To capture this variability, the tool also includes measures of the reliability of the evidence on which judgments are based. The visual presentation of the results then makes judgments and their reliability very clear.
Once mastered, the NHS tool is quick to use and transparent. Multiple users can interrogate the judgments, and in due course compare them with what actually happened. It is also publicly available. Ten regional innovation funds (worth around $350 million in total) are using it as a basis for decisions and encouraging applicants to use the tool to assess themselves. Decision makers can also use the tool to review each other's work, to ensure consistency in their decisions, and to communicate with other public agencies.
The net result of the NHS tool is a picture of social value that is explicit about what's valued and what isn't; that doesn't try to combine everything into a single number; that is transparent and interrogatable; and that is simple enough to help decision makers having to cope with a large volume of examples. It also avoids the flaw of trying to impose a single discount rate onto diverse measurements.
Making Markets
I describe this tool because it is one approach to operationalizing social value that balances coherence, consistency, and simplicity with the flexibility needed to cope with messy and complex phenomena. Developing it was helped by the fact that the NHS is an organization with clear supplies and demands. But for most NGOs, supply and demand are fuzzier, and each field brings with it a different set of concerns.
For example, primary, secondary, and tertiary educational institutions create value for students and the wider society. They rely on a strong research base to decide which types of education deliver which returns to whom. Vocational education, in contrast, presents a different set of considerations. Certain kinds of skill may be of value to only one sector, or to a small set of employers. A program offering intensive support to a chaotic drug user will have a still more complicated set of values, including value for the individual (both financial and health-related), value for the community (for example, from lower crime), as well as value for a wide range of public agencies (from hospitals whose emergency services will be used less, to police, prisons, and welfare agencies).
Seen through this lens, the job of funders is not to alight on one particular method for measuring value. Although common frameworks for thinking about value are useful, funders must adapt these frameworks to the organization and field under consideration.
Indeed, the greatest contribution that funders can make is often not to measure value, but to forge the links between supply and demand that will later generate value. For example, they can invest in effective supply by supporting promising projects and collecting evidence of what works. They can invest in effective demand by persuading governments to use their much greater resources to pay for new services. And they can use their convening power to connect purchasers and providers and then encourage them to talk.
Foundations can also help less powerful players have a voice in the market. Many groups, such as homeless people, migrant workers, and people with mental illnesses, have clear needs but lack the resources and political power to translate their needs into demand. Foundations can turn this latent demand into effective demand. For instance, several European foundations that support undocumented migrants have developed the demand side of this emerging social market by encouraging larger NGOs and public authorities to allocate resources (for example, for housing and health care) to it. On the supply side, these foundations have funded promising projects that are more effective at meeting the needs of this group.
Some foundations are likewise developing the market for addressing elder abuse. On the demand side, they have funded research on the extent of the problem and influenced commissioners to allocate resources and attention to it. On the supply side, they have supported innovative programs to prevent or mitigate abuse.
In both cases, governments' resources vastly outweigh those of foundations and NGOs. This is almost always the case. Just about anyone wanting to make a big social impact has to engage with the worlds of politics and public provision.
Good Accounts
The field of social innovation can learn some lessons from business and economics. But it should not be naive. As the collapses of Enron and Lehman Brothers revealed, even such seemingly objective metrics as profit are not the facts they appear to be in economics textbooks. And in business, accounts are just that: accounts. They are ways of explaining what is being done, with an eye toward the often conflicting interests of investors, managers, regulators, and consumers. They involve judgments as well as facts.
Anyone who wants to finance social goods and anyone who wants to provide them should use metrics to clarify how inputs can contribute to outcomes, as well as to clarify choices and trade-offs. But they should abandon metrics that obscure these choices or that pretend to offer a spurious objectivity. And they should use metrics only in proportionate ways. It's not sensible for a small NGO to invest scarce resources in apparently elaborate estimates of social value—not least because these estimates are bound to crumble under serious scrutiny.
Meanwhile, larger NGOs that do need measures of social value should clearly distinguish between those that are primarily about external accountability, those that help internal management, and those that support assessments of broader patterns of social impact. If an organization is using the same method for all three, its findings are almost certainly flawed.
People involved in funding social value, whether at the stage of promising innovations or of large-scale practice, likewise need sharper common frameworks. Greater use of these shared frameworks would be more valuable than proliferation of ever more assessment tools. Building on these frameworks, what matters is the quality of the discussion and negotiation, and the depth of the learning several years later, when participants reflect on what worked and what didn't.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Vernal Equinox Surprise Shawl finished!
I have tried to take pictures of it on several days, with different light, outside, inside, it's just not happening.
Even Biko was an unwilling model.
I knew, as soon as the last stitch was done, that this was not a keeper. It's a pity, really, because there is nothing wrong with the pattern at all!
It was very much fun to knit, well written (charted), I was looking forward to each and every clue. It's a beautiful shawl, and there are pictures to proof it (click on the picture in this link and see a wonderful gallery of finished shawls), just not mine.
Angelika suggested to offer it for trade. Don't suppose anybody would want to trade it for fiber or yarn? Otherwise I'll just rip it out. I haven't woven in the ends yet, because of that.
Thank you Paivi for designing it and offering this shawl for free, it was a pleasure to knit!
pattern: Vernal Equinox Surprise Shawl by Paivi of Lankakomero
yarn: Spritely Goods, limited edition "Spring Greens" 100% superwash merino, 2 x 110g, 980yds
needle: 3.5mm circular
size after blocking: upper edge ~ 70", deep ~ 32"
I think in this picture the color comes closest to the true color.
The shawl found a new home. Thank you!
Since I've seen Bea's socks, I wanted to dye some yarn the same way. So I got the dye pot out over the weekend and the result was this:
I used a different color combination, obviously.
It was a learning experience. Since I'm a dabbler in dyeing, I know shit about it, that's why the results are rarely what I envisioned. But I'm always willing to learn from my mistakes. Two things about this yarn, or maybe three:
1. I like how it looks.
2. at the beginning I thought I was going to knit socks with this yarn (2x Knit Picks Bare, merino/silk, 440yds each), BUT I lost this pair of socks this weekend (after I wore them maybe 5 times) due to holeitis in the toe area, I doubt that I will knit socks in merino or merino/any blend without nylon etc. again. I'm sick of loosing socks, just because the yarn is too soft. So I have, as I think, the perfect pattern in mind, for one of these skeins - NOT socks.
3. I'd like to try this method of dyeing again, but with 50g yarn balls, 100g yarn cakes are just too big to get the result I want, and I have to find undyed sock yarn, which is not merino etc. you get the idea. :o)
By the way, I'm (test) knitting (I'm a terrible test knitter) Bea's socks (with Regia sock yarn, yes siry), I like them A LOT.
30 comments:
This is a very lovely shawl. It's really too bad you're not loving it.
- March 23, 2009 8:40 a.m.
- GoldenTracks said...
Hi Monika
Your shawl really did turn out pretty. I'm with you, love the lace pattern itself. Your yarn choice is much of what made it so pretty.
I'm not a fan of half circles either; beautiful but so big and not practical to actually use. I collected all the clues and thought I'd knit it in the future, but now that it's a half circle, probably not.
If it were me, I'd frog it, wind it up and do something I loved with that pretty yarn. But then, that's what I did with my Irish Diamond Shawl.
- March 23, 2009 8:40 a.m.
- Michelle said...
I would love to trade if you are interested!
- March 23, 2009 9:19 a.m.
- momsue84 said...
The shawl is lovely! Sorry you aren't loving it, but I know how you feel. I've had FO's that didn't please me, either. Onward and upward to the next project.
- March 23, 2009 10:05 a.m.
- Marissa said...
Oh, Monika, I'm sorry this shawl didn't 'do it' for you...it's very beautiful. I know it's not all about the finished product for you (except maybe socks!), and I'm very glad you enjoyed the knitting. On to the next project!!
- March 23, 2009 10:24 a.m.
- Lucy said...
I would love to trade for that shawl and show it some love! ...I don't know what you'd want to trade though... take a look at my stash or let me know what you're looking for. (I'm workbasket on ravelry). If you trade with someone else that's fine, but if you're going to unravel... I'm a redish-head who would love a green shawl! :)
- March 23, 2009 10:25 a.m.
- Eliza said...
I think the shawl is beautiful. Have you no one to gift it to? Or perhaps you know a worthy charity that could use it in a fundraiser such as a raffle or silent auction?
- March 23, 2009 11:02 a.m.
- MrPuffy said...
I can't believe you didn't absolutely love it!!!! It's gorgeous and whoever it was that traded with you really really really lucked out. Biko looks quite happy wearing it, too. Hump.
I'm searching for a nice lace weight merino yarn - you know yarns so much better than me - have any suggestions where I should look?
- March 23, 2009 12:10 p.m.
- Kirsten said...
I would happily have traded yarn or fiber for that beautiful shawl! Ah well, I'm too late.
That looks like such an interesting way to dye yarn. I'll have to give it a try some time. I love the way your yarn came out.
- March 23, 2009 1:02 p.m.
- pat said...
That is a gorgeous shawl, Monika and I think ALL the pictures are wonderful! (esp. Biko's photo!)
Someone is lucky - Let us know what you ended up trading it for :-)
- March 23, 2009 1:44 p.m.
- Martina said...
Hi Monika,
this shawl is sooo beautiful. I´m sorry fthat this shawl didn´t "do it" for...
- March 23, 2009 2:11 p.m.
- Stephanie said...
wow - I think that came out beautifully. Glad to hear you found it a home :)
- March 23, 2009 2:38 p.m.
- Susan said...
What pretty sock yarn! Thanks for the link; I'll have to try dyeing the yarn in a ball.
- March 23, 2009 2:51 p.m.
I understand liking certain shawl shapes but I do think it's very pretty anyway. :-)
- March 23, 2009 3:09 p.m.
- Yarn Devil said...
Bea's socks are beautiful! Enjoy the test knit... and the shawl was beautiful too... just not your taste eh?
- March 23, 2009 3:37 p.m.
I am so glad the shawl found a new home. It was too gorgeous to be ripped! I'm sorry it didn't make you happy. It's never fun to spend all that time and knitting and then be disappointed.
- March 23, 2009 3:44 p.m.
- Mary said...
Your shawl is beautiful!
- March 23, 2009 4:43 p.m.
- punkin said...
I like your dyed yarn very much! I would like to be able to accomplish that with my dyeing. I will have to try that technique. Lovely.
- March 23, 2009 5:27 p.m.
- 2paw said...
Biko looks like a Super Hero!! It is very beautiful and I love the colour. I am sad it didn't work out, but glad it is going to a good home.
- March 23, 2009 6:14 p.m.
- Dave said...
I'm so glad the shawl found a new home -- it would be a shame to rip out all that beautiful knitting!
I'm liking how that dyed yarn came out and looking forward to seeing what you do with it.
- March 23, 2009 7:07 p.m.
- Robin said...
Beautiful design! Triangular shawls just don't stay on my shoulders well. I usually end up wearing them slung sideways or just hung over one shoulder. So sorry you don't like it - you did a beautiful job!
- March 23, 2009 8:14 p.m.
- sgeddes said...
I'm glad the shawl found a forever home and you didn't frog it. I don't think I could bring myself to frog something like that, even if I was never going to wear it.
- March 24, 2009 7:37 a.m.
- hannah said...
The shaw looks lovely. But I can understand that you don't want to wear it. Nice you found someone who will use it.
The yarn looks nice too. It is always exciting to dye yarn. I hope you use it for something nice.
- March 24, 2009 8:28 a.m.
- Marianne said...
Ah, that shawl is gorgeous, I'm glad it's found a loving home :^)
Nice dye job on that yarn! I like it.
I hear you re: socks and soft merino yarn... walk holes in them every time.
- March 24, 2009 1:01 p.m.
- Ann said...
The shawl is gorgeous & it's good that you have found a home for it. Love the colors of your newly dyed yarn.
- March 24, 2009 7:07 p.m.
- Carrie K said...
I'm glad the shawl found a good home! It's really pretty, if not your cup of tea.
Those blues in the hank are gorgeous, I love the colors in that dye job.
Oooh, devur is my captcha word. I think it knows I want to devour your yarns. I've been knitting up your stash in my head for eons now.
- March 24, 2009 7:58 p.m.
- Mariella said...
So glad that beautiful shawl found a home!
It is lovely and I do like that green color too.
- March 25, 2009 11:39 a.m.
- picperfic said...
love the dyed yarn, looks like denim! That shawl is so beautiful, so many hours of love in that one!
- March 26, 2009 5:00 a.m.
- La Cabeza Grande said...
Even though Biko was an unwilling model, your pup wore the beauty of a shawl quite well.
Good thing you found a home for it.
- March 28, 2009 2:47 p.m.
- Monica aka Gloria Patre said...
Well even if it didn't find a home in your heart, I still think it's beautiful! I've been wanting to cast on a 1/2 circle shawl for a while now... just NOT in yarn that fine! LOL!!
- April 05, 2009 1:24 p.m.


text:
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text:
Cooking wine - Shaoxing wine and Chinese rice wine, I have used them both
Shaoxing Wine 紹興酒, taken at Puli 埔里 - Nantou county 南投 , Taiwan
I guess most of you, who cook, keep a bottle of cooking wine at home or your kitchen pantry, either it's (colorless) rice wine or (mellow yellow) Shaoxing wine, even dry sherry. Drizzle over while a fish steams, or make a dish such as Drunken Prawns or Shrimps. Season or marinate meat such as pork in cooking wine- sometimes touted as a way to "rid the fowl smell" in pork and additionally bring out the good natural flavor of pork. I even substituted white wine with Shaoxing wine to make my linguine vongole (Chinese-style) which does not taste any worse than that cooked in dry white wine such as Pinot Grigio.
Shaoxing wine (a grade of yellow liquor) is named after a famous wine making city of the same name in China. This type of alcoholic beverage is brewed directly from grains such as rice, millet, or wheat and is not distilled. These wines are traditionally pasteurized, aged, and filtered before being final bottled for sale. Taiwan also produces many types of Shaoxing 紹興酒 rice wine, and Puli locates one of Taiwan nationally owned Shaoxing Wine factory. Puli is famous for its four 'W's - water, wine, women and weather. This post is about wine, not women. Sorry guys. :P
Taiwan Chinese Sausage 香腸 (literally meaning, fragrant sausage) is famous, ya? This variety of sausage is emulsified and much sweeter in taste.
Guess what? This is a Chinese sausage marinated with lots of Shaoxing wine- Shaoxing Fragrant Sausage - 紹興香腸!
Well, this is what you get in a "Shaoxing" Wine Town in Puli. Everything has Shaoxing wine in them. Ice-cream, mochi, and even eggs!
This is Shaoxing wine aroma egg. Comes in vacuum-packed like this -
Looks harmless and just like a typical hard-boiled egg BUT BUT BUT oh my, this is so strong in alcohol taste. The entire yolk has been infused with alcohol (Shaoxing wine, what else?!) flavor. So strong that we did not really enjoy it. The sausages were much much better!
Recipes with cooking wine as ingredient (as seasoning or marinade) :
White pepper braised noodles
Stuffed mushrooms
Steamed cod fish rolls
Pan fried fish fillet in soy sauce and ginger
Warm fusili salad with wine-steamed shrimps
Tag: taiwan eating, cooking wine, shaoxing wine