SUMMER 2016
futurescape
Growing communities one idea at a time.
New program enables rural entrepreneurs across the Prairies It’s an initiative so new its age can be measured in weeks. It’s called Elevate and it is designed to assist promising Prairie entrepreneurs with disabilities with help to start their own businesses.
“As long as the entrepreneurs want to open their business in rural Manitoba, Saskatchewan or Alberta, it’s an option for them to be a part of our program,” said Bater.“ The key component is that they have a viable business idea.” “We already have our first 30 participants in the program; the response is better than we expected,” said Susan Bater, program manager with Elevate, a mere few weeks into the program. That is to say, the program has been public for weeks; Community Futures Manitoba had submitted the proposal over a year ago. The program’s duration is three years.
Elevate’s goal is to serve 120 potential participants in the three Prairie provinces’ rural areas, defined as anywhere but the five largest Prairie cities (Edmonton, Calgary, Regina, Saskatoon and Winnipeg). The program is offered in the 56 Community Futures’ offices spread throughout the Prairies and funded partly by the Government of Canada’s Opportunities Fund for Persons with Disabilities Program. “As long as the entrepreneurs want to open their business in rural Manitoba, Saskatchewan or Alberta, it’s an option for them to be a part of our program,” said Bater. “The key component is that they have a viable business idea.” There are three core principles in the Elevate program: • Entrepreneurship can be a powerful option for anyone who possesses the desire, drive and dedication • Elevate exists to reduce barriers for youth and adults with disabilities who wish to start and grow businesses • Community Futures is committed to providing the necessary supports and resources to assist aspiring business owners.
One of the particular things the program is hoping to address is the issue of higher unemployment rates (or underemployment) for Canadians with disabilities. Bater said the program is getting a wide variety of different submissions. ...continued on page 2
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“Right now, it’s all over the map,” said Bater, of the business concepts.“There are a lot of service-based businesses so far. Generally, the ideas revolve around something that makes sense for the entrepreneur, something they’re passionate about.” To be clear, Elevate is a different program from the almost 20-year-old Entrepreneurs with Disabilities program. “We’ve had EDP in place but some of the participants had additional barriers, and we wanted to put in a program that assisted them with that,” said Bater. “We provide assistance for six months, in terms of services, then track them and connect with them for an additional 12. So we provide them with 18 months of service.” The program’s funding of entrepreneurs is intended to give the participants the ability to overcome hurdles presented to them specifically because of their disabilities. “There are some dollars for entrepreneurs that need additional supports,” said Bater. “If someone starts a business but needs assistive technology to attend business training for example, this program has dollars to assist them.” Bater says there’s been support for the program from outside Community Futures which has been important to get the program up and running. “We really appreciate everybody’s support,” said Bater. “The service providers have been great. I think it will be a highly successful program, and we will meet the numbers faster than anticipated.” “For us, we just really wanted to connect with people in rural Canada.”
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Crowdfunding offers strength in numbers From music to travel, the Internet has changed how many industries work. One new Community Futures project is looking to the Internet to harness the fairly new creation of crowdfunding. “What had happened is that I went to Northlands College to talk to students and one of the questions was ‘How much equity do you have to put into a business?’,” said Bill Hogan, the General Manager of Visions North, based out of La Ronge. “One student asked, ‘could we use crowdfunding?’ I said, ‘sure,’ then I went back to the office to look it up.” At its most basic, crowdfunding is a form of alternative financing, which uses social media and the Internet to seek out donors to raise money for a particular venture. Typically, each project will be funded by many users, each with modest amounts of money, as opposed to having one large benefactor. Generally, a person seeking funds will post their project in an effort to garner interest with a target amount of money they seek to raise and a time limit; Everything from consumer products to award-winning movies have been funded through crowdfunding. For many people, Kickstarter and Indiegogo are words they think of when they mention crowdfunding. Wikipedia reports that in 2013, $5.1 billion was raised through crowdfunding. And now Community Futures is in the crowdfunding game. Back in La Ronge, Hogan’s office has their website up and running, doing crowdfunding directly with their own site, as opposed to using another platform. The site is at: cfcrowdfund.net.
Often seen logos of two of the most popular crowdfunding platforms.
“It went live probably about a month or so ago,” said Hogan. “We’ve got some tire-kickers; no one is using it yet. We’ve had some enquiries. We have to approve any project that comes in.” One of the positive aspects of the project is that it doesn’t cost a lot to maintain. “We paid hosting fees. There isn’t a lot of money to invest; the start-up money has already been invested. The keeping it going is not that much of a problem financially.” It’s also low maintenance. “It’s done out of the office here. I go in to do the changes and updates. Everything like approving and disapproving, we’ll do it out of the office.” Also, it’s an equal opportunity funder; you don’t just have to be from La Ronge to join in. “Can anyone in western Canada participate? Absolutely. It’s not just restricted to Saskatchewan,” said Hogan.
SUMMER 2016
Well-Deserving Appreciation Innovation Winner
Lori Ries was awarded the 2015 Community Futures Award for Volunteerism back in February… but it took a while for her to receive it.
Another Community Futures program that was honoured with an award was the 1,000 Miles of Snow initiative arranged through Community Futures Newsask. It won the 2015 Community Futures Award for Excellence and Innovation.
“They didn’t tell me beforehand and I couldn’t make the ceremony because I had shoulder surgery,” explained Ries. The educator and long-term town councilor is a busy person. Ries has been involved with Community Futures for over a dozen years, serving at the local, provincial and now national levels. She’s also on the town of Eston’s Economic Development Committee, is involved with a local doctor recruitment initiative and is involved with the EK Water West Board. “On a personal level I didn’t know anything about Community Futures before I got involved,” said Ries. “When I went on council, I was appointed to the Community Futures Meridian region, that was in 2003. Then I became chair of local Community Futures, chair of Community Futures Saskatchewan, then chair of the Community Futures Network of Canada.” “I thought it was a phenomenal program. I had never realized the impact that small and medium sized businesses have on rural Canada.” Ries has sung the praises of Community Futures at international events, such as a presentation to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), which promotes policies that will improve the economic and social well-being of people
Lori Reis, winner of the 2015 Community Futures Volunteerism Award
around the world, in Memphis, Tennessee. She also presented at the International Conference on Territorial Inequality and Development in Mexico. “It’s been a real honour to explain the program on an international level. The Community Futures program is huge and internationally recognized, and I’ve been proud to carry that to the international stage.” Ries will be stepping away from Community Futures, for a little while, at least, because of term limits, but her time with the organization has had a huge effect on her, she says. “The local boards, that’s what makes it successful. It’s helped me become a better volunteer and councillor. I’ve developed so many friendships across Canada. There’s a lot of good people out there doing a lot of good things.”
It is an ongoing collaborative, regional effort to market the area and its impressive series of trails to snowmobilers and involves eight local communities: Arborfield, Carrot River, Hudson Bay, Kelvington, Melfort, Nipawin, Porcupine Plain and Tisdale. “It was wonderful, there were little passports sent out, and you got a stamp every time you went into a community,” said Newsask’s acting manager Cindy Reaume. “It’s a good initiative; we got some funding through Saskatchewan Government Insurance, too.” The program kicked off in the winter of 2013-14 and generally goes each winter from January to the start of April, depending on the level of snow, of course. The initiative has harnessed several different types of marketing over the years, from coordinated ads in specific magazines, a Facebook page (Snowmobile North East Sask, with, at this point, 380 ‘likers’) and local deals for participants. “We’ve got some really nice posters done up,” said Reaume. “They had decals done up one year, and there’s a map that shows all the communities that the trails go through.”
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Rebirth for Local Icon Community Futures’ John Parker calls them Maple Creek’s Group of Seven, but they have nothing to do with landscape painting. They are the seven Filipino friends that pooled their money (and skills) in order to take over a faltering and flood-damaged historical hotel in Maple Creek and turn it back into a jewel of the community. “The only thing I can say is that Community Futures is the only reason we were able to do this project,” said Noy Lim, the chef at Maple Creek’s Commercial Hotel. He is known as Chef Noy. “They walked 1,000 miles just to get this operation up and running.”
“Most of my partners came from different fields; one is a welder, one is a carpenter. Our wives work in different industries, too.” When heavy rains hit Saskatchewan in June 2010, it flooded the downtown core of Maple Creek, an event that might have signed the death warrant for the old building. “The building sat empty for almost two and a half years,” said Chef Noy. “When you leave something without power or heat it starts to break down.”
The newest Commercial Hotel owners, (l-r) Marcelo Del Barrio, Jayson Catalasan, Ronald Del Barrio, and Noy Lim, hold a painting of the original hotel built in 1884/1885. The 1886 Territorial Directory describes the hotel as “The largest hotel in the Northwest Territory.”
The team even managed to make the hotel the Greyhound bus depot for the town.
In Saskatchewan there are 13 Community Futures offices. Each is led by a local board of directors who volunteer their time, energy and expertise. A team of skilled staff provides a wide range of community economic development and business services.
The Commercial Hotel Dining Room is known as just that—no pretentious name here--and the chef says that they specialize in steaks and ribs on one hand and an Asian stir-fry buffet on the other. (And, yes, occasionally, they serve lumpia.)
To find the Community Futures office that serves you... • visit www.cfsask.ca • e-mail info@cfsask.ca
The decision to go to Community Futures was a fairly natural one.
East Central - Broadview
“I’m a chef by profession,” said Chef Noy. “Most of my partners came from different fields; one is a welder, one is a carpenter. Our wives work in different industries, too.”
“We already had an idea of who to talk to,” said Chef Noy. “Working in the restaurant, I had met Community Futures’ John Parker. One day we approached him and he said, ‘Okay, make a business plan and we will be able to help you.’ They opened their minds really easily. They said it’s good for the community. The hotel was one of the icons of Maple Creek, the first hotel. The only time it was interrupted was because of the flood. Community Futures are really open to challenges faced by small business in small towns.
The restoration started in the dead of winter at the start of 2013. The bar opened in summer of that year, then the rooms, the restaurant and the patio followed, all within the next 18 months.
The intention of the project was to restore the building and make the business more stable. Our goal is to return it to someone who is local; we’re just instruments in restoring the business again.”
So, Noy and his friends bought into a property that was both water-damaged and vandalized. But they had the skills to revive the place.
Community Futures is a volunteer directed, locally driven program that operates across Canada. Our goal is to help rural Canadians start or expand businesses and to help communities improve their local economies.
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