We'd like to welcome the latest members to CCSPI: City of Nanaimo, qathet Regional District, Alberni-Clayoquot Regional district and the City of Port Alberni. These new members bring the total up to 17. It's exciting to see our CCSPI community growing!
Over the past two months, CCSPI has held three training sessions for member organizations. These three half-day sessions were held at different locations throughout Vancouver Island. The training, An Introduction to Social Procurement, provided an overview of the best practices, policies, and tools to advance social procurement within local governments and the wider community.
This training session was held at the Maritime Heritage Centre in Campbell River. There were four local governments represented at this training including Campbell River, Powell River, Comox Valley Regional District and Port Hardy.
This session was held at the VICA offices in Nanaimo. There were five different organizations represented at this training including Campbell River, qathet Regional District, City of Nanaimo, Strathcona Regional District, and the Vancouver Island Regional Library (13 participants in total).
Taking place at Victoria City hall, there were 3 organizations represented at this training session including the City of Victoria, Cowichan Valley Regional District and the Office of Small and Medium Enterprises - Pacific Region (Canadian Federal Government).
In fall 2019, we are scheduling several training events around Vancouver Island. For our newest members, and those who were unable to attend the previous sessions, we will hold one more Introductory training (date and location TBD).
For those members who have already attended the introductory training session, we will be holding a Social Procurement 201 which will include practical tactics, translation of policy objectives into purchasing activity, and steps to piloting/rolling out social procurement in your community.
We are looking for 3 CCSPI member organization to host these training events - please email bschmidt@scalecollaborative.ca
Online Training Reminder
As a CCSPI member, you have access to online courses through the Social Enterprise Institute such as Introduction to Social Procurement with Larry Berglund To gain FREE access, use the link above and discount code SCALE4563 at checkout.
At the recent Connect Money Impact event in on June 14, CCSPI was discussed on the panel Social Procurement: Mobilizing Capital. The audience at this event included local social enterprises, non-profits, impact investors and other financial professionals. Key questions included: What is the difference between buying local and social procurement? How can local social enterprises learn about upcoming institutional procurement opportunities? The audience expressed a lot of interest from social enterprises in being prepared to bid on upcoming opportunities.
Panel members Josie Osborne, Mayor of Tofino and Co-Chair of the CCSPI Steering Committee along with CCSPI contract partners Rory Kulmala (CEO of the Vancouver Island Construction Association) and David LePage (Managing Partner of Buy Social Canada). Kim Smythe, CEO of the Greater Nanaimo Chamber of Commerce was also on this panel and spoke to the opportunities for social procurement in Nanaimo.
This webinar explores the role of procurement in affecting social and economic development. Learn about how and when to engage with social enterprises and how to measure the social return on investment for social procurement projects.
Presented by Larry Berglund, Principal, Presentations Plus Consulting, Inc.
Over the next 6 months, we will be supporting members communities to develop their social procurement policies and test their initial pilot projects. We are excited that several members, including Campbell River and Comox Valley Regional District, are moving forward!
Are you currently working on your social procurement policy or pilot project and need one-on-one consultation? As a member of CCSPI, you have access to social procurement experts to help make your job easier.
Our CCSPI Project Coordinator, Beth will be headed off for maternity leave on July 19th.
"It is exciting to see CCSPI gain momentum and I look forward to watching it grow in the near future! I feel fortunate to have worked with our many partners and members to help advance social procurement on Vancouver Island and Coastal Communities."
Beth's maternity leave replacement, Teri, will start on July 8th. We look forward to introducing her to you all over the next month!
