Community development is not easy. If you want to get more connected to others who share your passion please consider making a spot for next Friday.
David "Lobie" Daughton will be hosting a party for Rupert Downing who is the ED of the Canadian Community Economic Development Network next Friday 16th at 5.30 pm at the QSC 224 Queen Street - just next to the parking garage.
Rupert is also co-chair of the Social Economy Research Hub at UVic.
Here is a short bio:
Rupert Downing is Executive Director of the Canadian CED Network. Under Mr. Downing’s leadership the Network has grown to involve over 10,000 communities, organizations and institutions across Canada, representing a major national voice on the potential for community-driven approaches to Canada’s challenges.
Prior to joining the Network, Mr. Downing directed the Government of British Columbia’s responses to the economic revitalization needs of rural, urban, coastal and resource-dependent communities and regions. He led provincial initiatives with Federal, First Nations and Voluntary Sector partners to build partnership approaches to community development, including the successful Columbia Basin Act that revitalized regions impacted by flooding from hydro projects.
Mr. Downing has also been an international leader in the development of responses to homelessness, rural decline, and urban poverty, working with government, business and community partners in Canada, the US, England, Europe, Latin American and the Caribbean. He led government and community responses to urban issues in London, England during the 1980s leading to the creation of community economic development initiatives that have since won European Union awards for their outcomes. In the 1990s he led changes to the Municipal Act in British Columbia that introduced social planning as a key component of the development process.
He is currently the co-director of Canada’s national research program on the social economy, supported by the Social Science and Humanities Research Council, involving universities and communities in every province and territory. He is also Canada’s representative to the International Network on Community and Local Economic Development which is based in Lima, Peru and involves nations throughout the Americas.
Mr. Downing lives with his wife, Christine, in Victoria, British Columbia, and enjoys spending time with his two daughters and three grandchildren.
