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Developing economy is their game - CEDEC is their name |
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“Entrepreneurship, to many people, means running your own business to make living. But thinking in an entrepreneurial way infuses innovation and opportunity into all aspects of life,” is the motto the Eastern Townships CEDEC lives by.
With only two staff members, director Martha Crombie and assistant Marie-helene Boucher oversee the Community Economic Development and Employability Committee, and with a handful of volunteers from all walks of life they help local English-speakers build on their strengths.
“We do this by connecting people together, and by connecting people to local organizations, institutions, and government partners who want to help,” said Crombie, who has spent hours applying for and researching the government help available to Townshippers.
“There are lots of opportunities to learn and see community economic development in practice, and to get to know some of the amazing people who live and work in our region. CEDEC stands for a committee and we believe that every community has assets that they can contribute to their futures. We just help people discover them.”
The organization, formed in 1998, is run out of a Boulevard Bourque office in the Rock Forest borough in Sherbrooke.
“Our goal is to encourage people and groups to find and act on opportunities for local community economic development, and to make CEDEC available to the widest possible range of people, groups, and communities throughout the Townships,” said Crombie, who has been the outfit’s director for three years. “We also work effectively with other organizations and networks in achieving our goals.”
In January CEDEC connected with Bishop’s University for a Youth Leadership Symposium. It saw some 80 anglophone secondary school students and staff meeting and encouraging each other. They had to come up with something in common that could lead to a business venture.
Presently Crombie and Bouchard are devoting time to Magog’s Hands-On Learning Program, a five-week program that begins April 3.
“Basically, it is a chance for volunteer instructors to showcase their skills. We’ve assessed that Magog is an aging community with many skilled individuals. It also has a valuable asset, its elementary school (Princess Elizabeth). Our goal is to bring them together, look at the problems the community faces and then figure out a new way to tackle them. The Magog community is a bit fractured and this is a place for residents to come and rebuild that network.”
CEDEC has a core group of around six volunteers. They come from all sorts of backgrounds —business, education and health care — and have different reasons for getting involved in community economic development, but they share a love of the Townships and a belief in the potential contribution of the English-speaking community to the region’s vitality.
They meet on a regular basis over dinner to discuss upcoming projects, share ideas, hammer out challenges, and find ways to better respond to the needs they discover.
“We believe that the English-speaking communities of the Eastern Townships have unique assets, which they can tap into in order to secure a stronger social and economic future for themselves. One plus one is not always two and we are helping communities identify what they have.”
Then they mobilize assets and help plan realistically for the future.
“There are a few groups that work closely with the English public like the school board, Literacy in Action, but what makes us different is we do not offer a specific service. We are by the community for the community. We work with different groups and adapt to what that community wants to achieve for themselves. We don’t offer employment or provide employment. We build skills that help get individuals and community members employment down the road,” said Crombie.
CEDEC’s funding comes from Human Resource and Social Development Canada. For more information or to volunteer, call 819-566-7228.
By Jen Young
March 27, 2008 |
Montreal Canadiens
