Happy new year to our amazing community!

Our latest blog recaps some highlights and impacts from 2022, while looking ahead at what's possible for the new year as we work collectively to create community capital: healthy communities that are rich in human, social, cultural, physical and economic capital.

Read the blog post to learn more. Together we can continue to unleash the transformative power of the market in 2023.

What if we upped your games lasting legacy?

You are invited to join Buy Social Canada and Toronto Community Benefits Network to explore pathways to community impact through social procurement and community benefit agreements. Both are great ways to grow engagement and commitment to your games and your community at once.

If you would like to learn more please join us for a participatory webinar on:

Learn more and register for free to get the link.

Charlotte Lewthwaite is an advocate for community economic development and believes in an economy that is inclusive to all. Her experience running a successful social enterprise and supportive employer in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside brings a hands-on perspective to the Buy Social Canada team. Charlotte currently advocates for the needs of Vancouver’s business community via her position on the Board of Directors for the Hastings Crossing BIA.

As Manager of Community Benefits and Partnerships, Charlotte will be working with the social procurement community to generate opportunities and benefits at all levels of the marketplace. She will leverage her background in economics to improve how social impact is reported and how the story of social enterprise is told.

When Charlotte is not working, she can be found skiing or floating in lakes – seasonally dependent.

Our team has grown and evolved a lot in the past year. Here is a refresher on who to contact.

For Purchasing Partnerships, corporate social procurement consulting, and Community Benefit Agreements (CBAs), contact Elizabeth Chick Blount, Executive Director or Charlotte Lewthwaite, Manager of Community Benefits and Partnerships.

For Social Enterprise Certification and support, contact Niamh O'Sullivan, Manager of Social Enterprise and Community Benefits.

For sharing stories, media requests and other communications needs, contact Emma Renaerts, Communications Manager.

For training opportunities and public sector consulting services, contact Tori Williamson, Director of Consulting and Education or Raeesa Farooqi, Manager of Consulting and Education.

For invoicing and general inquiries, contact Sarah Pickering, Operations Coordinator.

We are currently accepting applications for a Social Procurement Consultant to join our remote-work team.

Our team is fast paced as interest in social procurement is skyrocketing. We are looking for someone with writing and facilitation skills to work with corporations, governments, non-profits, and institutions to support the development of social procurement policies, implementation strategies and training.

Learn more and apply now.

Register soon to save your spot in training courses scheduled for 2023.

Public and private sector purchasers, join a cohort of the Social Procurement Professional Certificate course to gain in-depth knowledge of the fundamental components of social procurement success from development to implementation.

February 2023 (Registration deadline: January 19)

April 2023 (Registration deadline: March 22)

More details or apply now.

Are you interested in learning about how your purchasing can support systemic changes to promote community wealth and work to reduce poverty?

Purchasing Power is a speaker series featuring experts who are putting the principles of a social value marketplace into action, hosted by the British Columbia Social Procurement Initiative (BCSPI).

Join us for:

How can procurement help address poverty?

With speakers:

Jill Zacharias, Tamarack Institute

Susannah Cameron, End Poverty Edmonton

Karen Bruno, End Poverty Edmonton

Did you miss a previous purchasing power event? Get the recaps and recordings on our blog:

Every purchase has a social, economic, cultural, and environmental impact. Glenn Cyrankiewicz, the CEO of Delnor Construction (a Buy Social Canada Social Puchasing Partner) takes us to the construction site of the Kihciy Askiy project in Edmonton, which will be a place for members of the Indigenous community to host ceremonies and sweat lodges and to grow medicinal herbs. It will also be a place for non-Indigenous people to learn about Indigenous culture. It is a partnership between the City of Edmonton and the Indigenous Knowledge and Wisdom Centre.

This project had a strong social procurement component, to ensure Indigenous owned companies with an Indigenous workforce were involved with the project.

Watch the video to learn more.

We are sharing this video with permission from EndPovertyEdmonton. It was produced by Bangel PR and filmed by Chad K. Productions.

Join certified social enterprise Community Impact Real Estate Society (CIRES) and Buy Social Canada for a conversation about the past, present and future of CIRES, and the impact they've had, on:

David LePage, Managing Partner of Buy Social Canada and founder of CIRES, and Steven Johnston, the current Executive Director of CIRES, will interview each other about their roles in the foundation of CIRES, the impacts they've created over the years, and the future of the social enterprise.

Register for free now.

The online social procurement Community of Practice meetings we host each quarter are an opportunity for those interested or engaged with social procurement to connect and learn together. Participants in this procurement networking group include social enterprises, government and corporate purchasers, intermediaries, and community members.

We invite you to gather to share ideas and updates on what is happening in social procurement from every corner of Canada throughout 2023.

To join the Community of Practice please contact info@buysocialcanada.com. 

Social enterprises, get involved and fill out a short survey that will take about 10 minutes of your time. You will be among the first to receive the study’s findings on best practices for project management in social enterprises, and you can enter for a chance to win Buy Social Canada procurement training and a copy of David LePage's book Marketplace Revolution.

Respond to the survey.

The first N.L. Social Procurement Summit took place in November 2022. The event was organized by the N.L. Social Enterprise Innovation Coalition in collaboration with Buy Social Canada and supported by Memorial University of Newfoundland's Office of Public Engagement.

Read the full recap to learn more.

Photos by Ritche Perez and Jae Hong Jin.

Canadian Hard of Hearing Association - Newfoundland and Labrador (CHHA-NL) offers Lottery Management Services, Read Our Lips online speech reading workshops, and sells various kinds of hearing assistive technologies. The sale of these goods and services supports improved communication opportunities for people living with hearing loss.

The Compost Education Centre is a non-profit organization providing waste reduction and diversion, ecological conservation and gardening education to children and adults in Victoria, BC. They offer educational workshops and free resources, and sell various compost bins, garden seeds, produce, and plants.