Newsroom - Laidlaw

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Most Significant Change

As part of its evaluative framework, the Foundation is beginning to use the Most Significant Change technique to help monitor and evaluate social change through its investments. It is a participatory process that occurs throughout our programs cycle. We will collect “change stories” from the field and systematically select the most important of these by panels of designated stakeholders and staff. In-depth discussions about the value of the reported changes help the foundation focus on program impacts. More information on the Most Significant Change technique is available at http://www.mande.co.uk/docs/MSCGuide.pdf

Benefits for Children in Ontario Incomplete and Unfair

A new report says children not living with their parents are denied financial benefits that other children get.

Not so Easy to Navigate, a report written by social policy experts John Stapleton and Anne Tweddle for the Laidlaw Foundation, reveals that the most vulnerable children in Ontario - those living in state care - don’t benefit from federal programs like the Canada Learning Bond and Canada Education Savings Grant the same way that children living with their families do.

The report recommends that the federal government fund the matching payments that they do not allow at the present. The cost would be $8 million in Ontario.

"Parents with children living at home often use their federal child benefits to open RESPs for their children, triggering contributions from the federal Canada Learning Bond and Canada Education Savings Grant. When a child goes into the care of a Children’s Aid Society (CAS), the basic child benefits are transferred to the CAS to help...

Youth Converge near Bancroft to Build a Social Infrastructure

Recently, more than 80 people shared a few days together to ‘celebrate, explore, amplify and accelerate’ youth work in Ontario.Youth leaders, youth-centric organizations and funders of youth work such as United Way Toronto, Laidlaw Foundation, Trillium Foundation and McConnell Foundation, met at Cedar Ridge Camp in McArthur Mills near Bancroft.

Everyone brought their perspectives about what youth work in Ontario could look like if a more collective approach was taken.

The gathering was the follow-up to a session convened by the OTF, Laidlaw Foundation, and Tides Canada Initiatives in the spring of ‘09. There, thought-leaders from across the province first began exploring how they could collectively work together to...

How Funders are Supporting Social Innovation: Three Examples from the Youth Sector

The Foundation's Violetta Ilkiw, Arti Freeman from the Ontario Trillium Foundation and John Cawley from the McConnell Foundation discuss how funders are supporting social innovation in the youth sector in this recent article in the Philanthropist  http://www.thephilanthropist.ca/index.php/phil/article/view/854

Foundation Grantee REMIX featured in Toronto Star

Remix supports innovate and entrepreneurial young people by providing opportunities to meet and interact in a positive, safe environment with other youth of diverse backgrounds and faiths. REad the recent aarticle in the Toronto Star

http://www.thestar.com/opinion/editorialopinion/article/930187--remixing-urban-education

Foundation Releases Report on Building Youth Organizing Platforms

Recently published, this research report undertaken jointly by the Laidlaw Foundation and Tides Foundation and funded by HRSDC identifying key learning necessary for supporting youth organizing.

Fostering Platforms for Youth Led Social Innovation

Violetta Ilkiw and Chris Kang  were recently invited to SiG Waterloo's speakers series to talk about Youth Social Infrastructure.  Check out the video's here: http://sig.uwaterloo.ca/feature/fostering-platforms-for-youth-led-social-innovation

2010 Annual Report Now Online

Click here  for the Laidlaw Foundation's 2010 Annual Report, which includes a list of all funded initiatives.

ArtReach Toronto Launches Toolkits Microsite

A new microsite at www.artreachtoronto.ca/toolkits contains resources, videos and kits developed as part of the Grassroots Organizing and Leadership (GOAL) Youth Capacity Building Workshop Series that has been going strong since 2007. The workshops create a space for facilitators (many of whom are young people, or those that have been involved in grassroots organizing and project development) to share their insights and resources with youth groups, organizers and artists. TheToolkit site offers info on a range of topics, from grant-writing to event planning, fundraising and financial management.

Foundation Grantee Oluwasegun Akinsanya Featured in G&M Article on How Federal Legislation is Tough on Young Offenders

Federal crime legislation is poised to make changes to the Youth Criminal Justice Act.  One of our grantees, Oluwasegun Akinsanya talks about his experiences with the crimnal justice system in this Globe and Mail article that outlines the proposed changes.  http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/time-to-lead/federal-legislation-tough-on-young-criminals/article2100253/page1/