CUP Events & Videos
This page houses CUP's previous events and videos. Use the accordion below to find a event or video of interest.
CUP's 2022 Annual Celebration Event hosted keynote speaker Shaun Loney, who delivered the talk “How Non-Profits Will Solve Government's Priciest Problems.” Loney presented his ideas about how systems-level relationships and structures can influence poverty elimination. He challenges the audience to rethink the value propositions behind our existing funding structure, the colonial nature of those structures, and the limits they place on our thinking and progress.
Watch his presentation here.
Shaun lives in Winnipeg, Treaty 1 territory, and is the co-founder of the social enterprise BUILD, which was ScotiaBank's Green Business of the Year in 2014. He is also a co-founder of Aki Energy, a social enterprise that installs geothermal heat pumps on First Nations in Manitoba to reduce heating bills and create jobs.
He is also the author of five books including Manitoba's best-seller An Army of Problem Solvers and The Beautiful Bailout, which is about how to rethink and improve the way governments work while saving taxpayers money. Shaun was also a senior civil servant with the government of Manitoba (Director of Energy Policy).
Shaun is recognized for his work as a social entrepreneur nationally as an Ashoka Fellow (first on Canadian prairies) and won Ernst and Young's prestigious Entrepreneur of the Year. He has a master's degree in Economics from the University of Manitoba.
In this Facebook live event, CUP researcher Dr. Robert Buschmann with Julie Kusiek (Public School Board Trustee) and Rakhi Pancholi (MLA) discuss the issues and opportunities ahead of the October 2021 municipal election.
Watch the live event here.
In this podcast episode, Dr. Robert Buschmann discusses what child care affordability means, how it can be measured and its impacts in society and the labour force.
Listen here.
In this lunch and learn presentation hosted by the Edmonton Social Planning Council, CUP research assistant Jennifer Fischer-Summers (along with other panelists), discuss the jurisdiction of government and school boards in supporting a system of early learning and care in Edmonton.
Watch the presentation here.
In 2020 CUP turned 20 years old. To commemorate the occasion, CUP is hosting the Issues and Impacts Series in 2020-2021. Throughout the series, we engage field experts in discussing issues relevant to the wellbeing of children, youth and families. As a complement to the field expert talk, we invite our local research partnerships to provide a more intimate discussion of local projects working to understand and achieve impacts on the same issue.
Kathleen Flanagan, Child and Family Policy / Early Childhood Education and Care Specialist, will host a presentation titled "Early Learning and Child Care - A National System for Canada" on February 24, 2021.
Watch the presentation here.
Dr. Robert Buschmann and the Edmonton Council for Early Learning and Care will host a presentation titled " Local Matters: Options for improving early learning and care in Edmonton" on March 10, 2021.
Watch the presentation here.
Read more about these presentations on the poster here
In 2020 CUP turned 20 years old. To commemorate the occasion, CUP is hosting the Issues and Impacts Series in 2020-2021. Throughout the series, we engage field experts in discussing issues relevant to the wellbeing of children, youth and families. As a complement to the field expert talk, we invite our local research partnerships to provide a more intimate discussion of local projects working to understand and achieve impacts on the same issue.
Dr. Shannon Sanchez-Youngman, Associate Director, Center for Participatory Research at University of New Mexico gave a presentation titled "Leveraging CBPR Practices to Advance System and Policy Changes for Health and Social Justice" on December 1, 2020. Watch the presentation here
Dr. Fay Fletcher and the Métis Settlement Life Skills Journey Team gave a presentation titled "Little "p" policies and their ripple effects on Community-University Partnerships" on December 15, 2020. Watch the presentation here
Read more here
In 2020 CUP turned 20 years old. To commemorate the occasion, CUP is hosting the Issues and Impacts Series in 2020-2021. Throughout the series, we engage field experts in discussing issues relevant to the wellbeing of children, youth and families. As a complement to the field expert talk, we invite our local research partnerships to provide a more intimate discussion of local projects working to understand and achieve impacts on the same issue.
On May 19, 2021, Drs. Michael Quinn-Patton, Founder and CEO of Utilization-Focused Evaluation and Mark Cabaj, President, From Here to There Consulting, discussed the need to transform the way we track progress, generate insights, develop and adapt evaluation. Watch the presentation here.
On June 2, 2021, Drs. Rebecca Gokiert, Javier Mignone, Isabelle Bourgeois discussed transforming evaluation capacity in the social serving sector. Watch the presentation here.
Read more here.
In 2020 CUP turned 20 years old. To commemorate the occasion, CUP is hosting the Issues and Impacts Series in 2020-2021. Throughout the series, we engage field experts in discussing issues relevant to the wellbeing of children, youth and families. As a complement to the field expert talk, we invite our local research partnerships to provide a more intimate discussion of local projects working to understand and achieve impacts on the same issue.
On September 20, 2021, Dr. Jim McCormick, Chair of the Edinburgh Poverty Commission discussed poverty reduction through changes in public service culture, holistic family support, housing and employment. Watch the presentation here.
On October 4, 2021, Dr. Maria Mayan and the EndPovertyEdmonton team described some work being done under the livable incomes gamechanger, specifically economic development and poverty elimination. Watch the presentation here.
To learn more about social procurement, watch this video where the EndPovertyEdmonton team presents a workshop about its contributions to vibrant and resilient communities.
Read more about the Issues and Impacts series here.
A Journey Through the Looking Glass
On Wednesday, October 16th 2019, Lisa Lalande, Executive Director, Mowat NFP was the keynote presenter at CUP's Annual Celebration Event. Her message was the nature of policy is never permanent - it is always exposed to being changed. It is challenging, complicated, complex and sometimes messy. The journey to policy is really about understanding 'impact' and being able to articulate what you do and why you do it. The work is intentional and ongoing. The relationships you create and the processes you also choose are as important as the outcome.
During her presentation she referenced these resources:
Mowat NFP
Bridging the Gap: Designing aCanadian What Works Centre
What Works Network: Fives Years On
Committing to Action: Next Steps to Canada's Evidence Ecosystem
Policy Capacity in the Social Sector: A critical time to engage
On Thursday, October 17th 2019 Lisa Lalande, Executive Director, Mowat NFP and Joanne Cave, Senior Policy Associate, Mowat NFP joined Karen Edwards for a panel discussion drawing on their experiences of engaging in social sector policy development provincially, nationally, and internationally to address the role we all play in policy. No matter what your perceived level of 'policy capacity', we all have ways we experience or interact with policy. Whether you are aware of the current context in which social policies are developed, contributing to the evidence they draw on, or engaging in emerging policy conversations, we all need to be part of the conversation. The audio of the discussion is available here.
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly: Learning Our Way Through Complex Social Issues
Projects and partnerships are becoming increasingly complex whether it is the complexity of the issue, the complexity of the partnership, or the complexity of the solutions that arise from the work. Mark Cabaj was the featured speaker at our Annual Celebration Event held on October 19, 2017. The Main Points of his presentation were:
- Complex issues require adaptive - rather than linear responses in order to be effective
- The stake of employing an adaptive response are high.
- The extent to which learning and evalulation in addressing complex social issues is good bad or ugly depends on the orientation towards evaluation
- The conditions for complexity-friendly evaluation not great but are getting better.
- Social innovators, and the evaluators, researchers, funders and policy makers that support them, can accelerate the development and adoption of complexity-friendly approaches.
His complete PowerPoint presentation is available here.
BureaucraZy Navigating Health and Social Services in Alberta
Reflections on CUP's First 10 Years and its future, July 2010.
Watch the Video here