This week's meeting was held in the Palliser Hotel's Crystal Ballroom. Our sergeant-at-arms Tom Tait called the meeting to order, and President Rick Erven introduced the head table. David "Brom" Bromwich led us in an a cappella singing of O Canada, while Ali Bandali delivered the invocation.
President Rick thanked our meeting volunteers Ralph Lundberg, Larry Martin and Bruce Millar.
Carmen Goss welcomed this week's visitors and guests, which included Rotarians Kathy Cook and Lina Souki-Schmidt, and acknowledged the four club members celebrating birthdays this week. Bringing back the "did you know" feature of our club meetings from five years ago, Carmen reminded us that in 1914 our club was the ninth Rotary club to be chartered in Canada. Two months after the club was chartered, Archibald Wayne Dingman stuck wet gas at Turner Valley, launching Alberta's first petroleum boom and forever changing our city and province.
President Rick reminded us that our club dues for the 2019-2020 were due on July 1st. He thanked Ralph Lundberg and David Richardson for taking pictures at our meetings each week, and told us that they will be updating all of our ClubRunner profile photos this year. He also noted that club members can obtain vouchers for reduced rate parking at the Palliser Parkade. Vouchers (Tuesday rate is $5 per hour or $18 for the day) are available from Jo-Ann.
Finally, tickets for unGala are available from Catherine Scheers. This year's unGala will take place on October 1st.
Vern Kimball introduced our speaker Frank Savoia, club member and Executive Director of Vibrant Communities Calgary. VCC engages Calgarians to promote long-term strategies that address the root causes of poverty, and is the steward of Enough for All (E4A), Calgary's poverty reduction strategy. E4A was unanimously by City Council and the United Way in 2013, while the community retains ownership of the strategy. As Calgary has experienced significant social and economic change over the past five years, the strategy was revised as E4A 2.0 in 2019.
Enough for All 2.0 is a refreshed strategy with the goal of achieving a 30 per cent reduction in Calgary's 2015 poverty level by the end of 2023. E4A 2.0 envisions a community where 'there is enough for all', and identifies its mission as creating opportunities to align and leverage the work of hundreds of organizations and thousands of Calgarians to reduce poverty in our city.
Enough for all means
All Calgarians live in a strong, supportive and inclusive community
All Calgarians have sufficient income and assets to thrive
Indigenous People are equal participants in Calgary’s future
In order to achieve the three primary goals of E4A 2.0, the refreshed strategy includes ten levers of change, representing specific areas of focus that must be addressed if we are to reduce poverty in Calgary. The ten levers of change comprise
Adult literacy and foundational learning
Early learning and care
Employment
Financial empowerment
Food security
Housing
Income support
Justice
Physical and mental health
Transportation
Peter Giuffre
Thanks Our Speaker
Our speaker concluded his presentation with a request for the club to enter into an E4A Shared Value Agreement with the strategy. Under such an agreement, the club would commit to aligning future projects with the strategy. We would do this by looking at each project through the lens of the ten levers of change, as well as the principles of the E4A 2.0 strategy.
The community hubs initiative is an excellent example of an initiative that is already aligned with the E4A strategy. Though our partnerships with the other Rotary clubs in the city, the United Way and the City of Calgary, we are already activating the levers of change.
At the conclusion of Franco's presentation, Peter Giuffre thanked our speaker for his most inspiring presentation.
COG Staff - July 16th, 2019
Editor
Craig Henderson
Photography
Ralph Lundberg
Rotary Club of Calgary - Chartered April 1914 as Club #949
Suite 305, 105-12 Avenue SE, Calgary, Alberta, T2G 1A1
