Friday, September 21st, 2018
9:00am-10:30am
The Ottawa Mission
35 Waller Street
Program Overview
8:45am – Registration
9:00am – AGM
9:45am – Keynote
Keynote Speaker: Michael Maidment, CEO Ottawa Food Bank
Every municipality, every town, and every city in Ontario is faced with hunger. From securing fresh and healthy food sources, to driving change through policy research and public education programs, the Ottawa Food Bank unites local business leaders, the food industry, food banks and social service agencies to work together to eradicate hunger across the city.
According to the Ottawa Food Bank’s 2017 Hunger Report, of those accessing emergency food services in Ottawa 35% are children under 18, 35% are families with children and 31% are living in social housing. Join Michael Maidment, CEO of the Ottawa Food Bank to hear more about their work, advocacy and systems level engagement with community partners to address the root causes of hunger.
“Housing is the single biggest expense for people in Ottawa. And, for many who turn to food banks, the biggest problem is access to decent affordable housing,” said Maidment. “We have an election coming up. We have an opportunity in front of us that we cannot miss. Building affordable housing doesn’t only decrease homelessness, it reduces dependency on emergency food banks.”
Hunger is a symptom of poverty, and without long-term solutions to poverty reduction, there will remain a need for food banks in Ontario.
Background: By-Law Amendments 2018
At the 2017 Annual General Meeting of the Alliance, updates to the organization’s General Operating By-Law No. 1 were proposed and approved. These changes are reflected in the revised By-Law attached. The principal changes were to replace “Steering Committee” with “Board”; broaden the potential organizational membership; reduce the size of the Board, the Executive Committee and the number of meetings; and change the fiscal year end from December 31st to March 31st.
Since then, the Board has also reconsidered the categories of officers and proposes to re-introduce the Vice-Chair position to the Board and the Executive Committee. In addition, the responsibility (in Section 7.04) to provide a semi-annual accounting of funds held in trust by the Corporation has been moved from being a responsibility of the Secretary to being a responsibility of the Treasurer (Section 7.05). These changes are also reflected in the revised By-Law.
By: Karen Umurerwa, Expert Steering Team Member
Housing and Mental Health in Black Communities
In 2012, my family made the hard decision to move from Rwanda to Canada. The transition from my homeland to Canada was the toughest process I could have gone through. Canada was a land of opportunities, but it was one that was completely foreign to us as we had no friends or family that could ease our integration.
By: Yetunde Amanda Ona
Embracing Identity: The Bonds of the African Diaspora
The following piece was written by Yetunde Amanda Ona who arrived in Canada 6 years ago with her young children as a refugee claimant. She navigated the homelessness system, and is now an Alliance staff member working to create a more effective and dignified housing and homelessness system. These are her reflections on identity and the African Diaspora.
By: Gail Gallagher
National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women (Dec. 6th)
On this day, we remember the innocent lives lost and of the murder of 14 young women at Polytechnique Montréal on December 6, 1989. As a result of this tragic event, December 6 was designated as the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women.
In addition, the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence begins on November 25 (International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women) and ends on December 10 with International Human Rights Day. The 16 Days of Activism are an opportunity to come together to speak out and renew our commitment to end gender-based violence.
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