Thank you for making our First Anniversary a huge success!

One Year of Learning, A Lifetime of Social Change

              “I remember the first time I told my story. I cried in front of a room full of people and felt embarrassed. But then I realized, if I didn’t tell my story – someone else would do it for me. And it won’t be the story you want them to tell. And that’s why I hope you get involved with the Institute for Change Leaders. Because now, more than ever, we need more movement leaders. We need more change leaders.” ~ Christopher Torres

We need more change leaders like you to take action:

1. Donate to the Institute so low income students can experience the training model Christopher discussed.
2. Join and share our upcoming November Building Skills for Change training: a two day intensive workshop on how to apply all of the skills Christopher expanded on in his speech.
3. Could members of your organization benefit from this training? Email changeleaders@ryerson.ca and we can design a training suited to your organization’s needs
4. Sign up to volunteer with the Institute and follow our work on Facebook and Twitter.

February's Building Skills for Change was an experiment for us. The Institute just implemented a new pricing structure that preserves subsidies for students from marginalized backgrounds, while actually being sustainable. It worked! Students and facilitators had a wonderful weekend learning how to organize more effectively together. If you want to attend our next session, you can apply at www.changeleaders.ca/skills

Canroots 2017 was a huge success.

Over 300 people joined us for two days and 91 percent of those who gave us evaluations thought that the conference was either fantastic or solid.

Many took from the session “how big organizing changes everything” practical skills on how to engage, trust, rely and work with large numbers of volunteers through expert advices from Becky Bond and Zack Exley of the Bernie Sanders campaign.

Others were challenged and inspired by the Black Life Matters panel of speakers, Zanana Akande, Sandy Hudson, Desmond Cole, Anna Willats and Howard Morton.

Participants learned from Gilary Massa - National Council of Canadian Muslims, how to deal with Trump's message of hate and provide solidarity with the Muslim Community. They vowed to work together to repeal safe third country agreement after hearing from Raoul Boulakia - Refugee Lawyers Association of Ontario and Syed Hussan - No One Is Illegal.

Other specific actions were generated from the conference, ranging from pooling data for collective benefit, to working on different campaigns like say no to nestle bottling Ontario fresh water, fight for 15 minimum wage, professional pay for early childhood educators and update the employment standard act so it reflects real workers conditions.

All in all, the participants gave us a ringing endorsement as 93 percent said if CanRoots happens again next year, they would attend.

 Thank you again. Let’s continue to work together to creat a more fair and progressive society.

We trained 200 community members how to recruit their friends and lobby their MPPs for the Ontario Federation of Labour (OFL)'s #MakeItFair campaign! You can help win decent work for all by visiting www.makeitfair.ca

Additional thanks are due to the Fight for $15 & Fairness and Brampton Action Committee for making our training such a huge success.