Care – Community – Cooperation
A New Portrait of Social Economy Organizations in Northern Canada
Starting in 2006, a northern-based research network, the Social Economy Research Network for Northern Canada (SERNNoCa) was created to find out how social economy organizations in Canada’s North could better help northern communities deal with the various social and economic problems they faced. This organization was active from 2006 until 2013 when a lack of funding resulted in reduced activities. The federal government is now planning on supporting social economy organizations (which they refer to as social purpose organizations) so they can be more effective in helping communities deal with the challenges they face. This is seen to be particularly important in the north and they have decided to fund a new portraiture project to gather more information about these organizations and what their needs are. Building on the earlier work of SERNNoCa, a new portraiture project will be undertaken in 2023 to find out more information about what social economy organizations currently exist in the region and what are the challenges that they face.
Our research intends to find ways to help these organizations grow.
The social economy is made up of organization in the not-for-profit sector that seeks to enhance the social, economic and environmental conditions of communities. They use the tools and some of the methods of business, on a not-for-profit basis, to provide social, cultural, economic, health and other services to communities. Separate from the private sector and government, the social economy includes non-profit organizations, the voluntary sector, charities, foundations, cooperatives, credit unions, and other social enterprises.
They operate in areas ranging from housing to communications and in areas such as recycling, home care, restaurants, catering, Indigenous economic development and manufacturing. These enterprises are flexible and sustainable tools that allow communities to address objectives related to social and economic concerns while furthering goals of community participation and control. We believe these organizations are important to the future development of Northern communities.
In order to understand the importance of these organizations in the North, we need to determine the
number and types of organizations that currently exist in the North. We are therefore conducting a survey of social economy organizations in the Northwest Territories, Yukon, Nunavut, Nunavik and Labrador. Based on an initial database created in 2013, lists of social economy organizations in the north will be updated. A sample of these organizations would then be selected to answer a questionnaire dealing with their characteristics and the challenges that they currently face. The updated database will then be made available to social economy organizations. In addition, information will be shared on what challenges northern social economy organizations are currently facing.
Professor Chris Southcott from Lakehead University (and formerly of the Yukon Research Centre) was the Principal Investigator for the original SERNNoCa research and is also in charge of the research for this new project.
Sascha Robertson-Lawless, based in Whitehorse, is the Coordinator of the current project.
Until recently, SERNNoCa used a website which allowed easy access to our existing database, all our past research, and other useful tools for social economy organizations in the north. Technical issues have caused this website to go offline but we hope to use this project to re-launch it.
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Contact Us
coordinator@sernnoca.ca