Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Newcomers Community Forum + Cultural Program: Taking Action through the Arts!

Community forum: Refusing to Settle for Less:
Newcomer Policy Recommendations to Overcome Poverty; March 27, 2010
© Poster by Harold Ivan Padilla
Credit: mnlct.org

FORUM
REFUSING TO SETTLE FOR LESS:

Newcomer policy recommendations
to overcome poverty.

Working together to reduce
poverty and enhance
newcomer voices!


Date: Saturday March 27, 2010
9:30 am to 4:30 pm
4:30 pm - 6:00 pm
Followed by Cultural Program:
Taking Action through the Arts!

Location: The Mennonite New Life Centre
1774 Queen Street East, Toronto ON M4L 1G7
(Queen Street East and Kingston Road)
Getting here by TTC:
From Coxwell subway station; take bus # 22 south to Queen Street East.
On the Queen Street Streetcar #501, get off at the Lark Street stop.

Forum Goals:
  • To reduce poverty and strengthen newcomer voices.
  • To bring together newcomers, allies, service providers, employers and government to build shared solutions to newcomer employment challenges
  • To share newcomer policy recommendations for improving access to fair and meaningful employment
  • To discuss strategies for achieving full civic participation by newcomers to Ontario.
Followed by an evening program of music and artistic expression on themes of newcomer employment and civic participation.

Organized by:
Mennonite New Life Centre and Newcomer Advocacy Committees
For information and registration, contact Adriana Salazar at:
asalazar@mnlct.org / 416-699-4527 X 229 / www.mnlct.org
Advance registration required

Download the forum brochure, poster and registration form in pdf format or register on-line.

Toronto, December 2009
Dear Friends:
On behalf of the Mennonite New Life Centre and our Newcomer Advocacy Committee, we would like to invite you to participate in our community forum "Refusing to Settle for Less: Newcomer Policy Recommendations to Overcome Poverty". This forum will be held on Saturday March 27th, 2010 from 9:30 am to 4:30 pm in our meeting space at 1774 Queen Street East.

As you know, the Mennonite New Life Centre is a vibrant, multicultural settlement agency for newcomers, with a vision for a city and province where people from diverse cultural and religious backgrounds participate fully in the social, economic and political life of Toronto and Ontario.

During the forum, we hope to engage a wide variety of stakeholders in dialogue regarding newcomer employment challenges and policy proposals, and to identify new ways of working together so that newcomers might contribute their skills and their ideas to this country. To facilitate this dialogue and action planning, we are planning four roundtable discussions around the themes of access to employment and political voice for newcomers:
  1. Employment Equity Legislation: a proposal to ensure equitable representation of diverse groups in the workplace.
  2. Paid Internships: an employer incentive strategy.
  3. Upcoming Municipal and Provincial Elections: opportunities and challenges for newcomer civic participation.
  4. Community organizing experiences: learning from grassroots newcomer initiatives
Your participation is key to the success of this forum. We look forward to hearing your experiences, ideas and proposals for improving access to fair and meaningful employment for newcomers and building strong and inclusive communities where immigrants and refugees participate fully in civic life. We look forward to your participation in our March 27th 2010 Forum. Please mark this date in your calendar!

Regards,
MNLCT and Newcomer Advocacy Committee

Monday, February 15, 2010

Gurus of the Art of Marketing Will Share Knowledge & Wisdom in Toronto on March 2

Poster: The Art of Marketing Conference, Canada's Marketing & Innovation Forum, Toronto, March 2, 2010Poster: The Art of Marketing Conference
Canada's Marketing & Innovation Forum
Credit: theartofmarketing.ca

The Art of Marketing Conference


When: Tuesday, March 2nd, 2010
9:00am - 5:00pm

Where: Metro Toronto Convention Center
North Building – John Bassett Theatre
255 Front Street West
Toronto, Ontario M5V 2W6
t. 416-585-8000
w. mtccc.com

Speakers:
About The Art of Marketing Conference
This one day conference features six internationally renowned bestselling authors and leaders who will share an exciting blend of cutting edge thinking and real world experience on today’s most critical marketing issues. Don’t miss out on your chance to be a part of history and network with over 1,200 of Canada’s most influential marketers.


BTW, we found this info in the Seth Godin's blog. But even we missed Kate Trgovac Giving Away a Pair of Tickets to "The Art of Marketing" in Toronto on March 2 we will say hi if we can.

Monday, February 01, 2010

Step-by-Step Soap Making Project: Do-It-Yourself

Soap Making Project

We've spent one day in our lives to making our own soaps. Exploring the art of handmade soap making, we went through several steps to get the soap ready:

Step 1: Soap Making Project: Our equipment, ingredients and understanding of the golden rules of soap making at home
(digital kitchen balance scale, plastic and metal containers, oils, sodium hydroxide, wooden stick, hand mixer, small saucepan, forms, fragrances, rubber gloves)

Step 2-1: Soap Making Project: Oil mix weighting
(coconut oil, olive oil, grape seed oil, sesame oil and whatever you want to add)

Step2-2: Soap Making Project: Oil mix weighting
(use 10% more oil mix solution than it needs for the reaction)

Step 3: Soap Making Project: Preparing sodium hydroxide solution
(adding sodium hydroxide to water, placing a plastic container in snow to cool it down)

Step4: Soap Making Project: Melting oil mix in a water bath ( small saucepan)

Step 5-1: Soap Making Project: Combining oil mix with sodium hydroxide solution

Step 5-2: Soap Making Project: Mixing soap with a wooden stick

Step 5-3: Soap Making Project: Step 5-3 Mixing soap with a hand mixer
( may add fragrance and additional ingredients)

Step 6: Soap Making Project: Preparation of soap making forms

Step 7: Soap Making Project: Soap forming time to pouring the mixture into the forms

Step 8: Soap Making Project: Soap should stay in forms from 7 to 10 days

Step 9: Soap Making Project: Our final product - handmade soap