ICO World Edition 2 - March 2011

ICO WORLD

Registered Canadian Charity BN/Registration Number: 8711 262 49 RR0001

ICO WORLD

we are friends

Issue 2 March 2011

Above all,

ICO WORLD


Hello everyone. It is with great pleasure that I bring you the second issue of ICO‘s

e-magazine ICO WORLD. I am following in the very capable footsteps of Kait Richardson, who shepherded in the inaugu-ral issue, so I will have to work very hard to hold up the standard she has set. Our plan is to publish four times yearly. In this issue you will find articles and reports that represent the breadth of ICO‘s activities. ICO is undergoing incredible growth and attracting many new people into the organization, which promises a very exciting future for us all. Thank you to everyone who contributed to this issue. In particular I would like to mention Michelle Clement, who has now taken on the new role of marketing co-ordinator. Michelle brings a wealth of business and marketing experience to the table...not to mention buckets of patience! Best wishes to everyone, and don‘t forget, we welcome your ideas! - Julie Warren, Editor. [email protected]

2 Editor‘s notebook 3 John‘s Jottings Update from Chairman of the Board, John Mitchell 4 Profile: Susan Gage Team Leader—ICO Atitlan Initiatives

5 Greetings from Maureen Miller Team Leader—ICO Courtenay Initiatives

6 Profile: Maeva Gauthier Learning Centre For Sustainability 9 Welcome to the Communications

Centre By Michelle Clement

10 Update: ICO Courtenay and ICO

Vancouver Communities

11 Micro-Finance in ICO By Michael Hemmings

12 By Malcolm Anderson 13 Welcome to the ICOOO By Donald Kennedy 14 Contributors Meet the writers from our Communications team

contents editor’s

notebook

R T un for omorrow

[Contents, except as noted, © 2011 InnovativeCommunities.Org Foundation]

mailto:[email protected]

ICO WORLD


Above: John Mitchell, Chair, ICO

John’s Jottings

It has been a remarkable few

months since our first ICOWorld Emag was published. We have brought on over 30 new Team Mem-bers. The Development Chaord is now fully operational and is handling the planning and development of new ICO Communities, ICO Centres and ICO Initiatives. We have brought ICO Courtenay and ICO Vancouver to full operations. ICO Madagascar and ICO Mali are both in the develop-ment stage. They are all members of the Council of ICO Communities with full service assistance from the Secretariat to the Council. Planning and development of ICO initiatives are now part of the Research and Evaluative Centre. The new Centre for Innovative Housing has 5 Team Members and is currently focusing on improvements at Banfield House in

Victoria and is involved in a potential development in ICO Courtenay. The Assignment Centre is now fully oper-ational with 12 Team Members in transition and re-assignment. The Interns Centre will be the next Cen-tre to be in full operation followed by the ICO Inns Centre and the Centre for Initiative Funding. We also welcome Felix Ernst as Pres-ident of the ICO Institute, Malcolm is now focusing on the very heavy load of the Run-For-Tomorrow. The proposed Courtenay Housing Initiative is in the evaluative phases and the ICO Mali Initiative is now in the first stages of coming to opera-tion. The new donations system is now fully functional with online cheque administration and with online credit card and PayPal donations being han-dled by CanadaHelps.Org. We are also exploring the capability and costs of additional donations being handled by cell-phone texts in $10.00 amounts which get charged to a do-nors cell-phone bill. This would ap-pear to be very appealing to younger potential donors according to current research. A very big occasion for ICO was the acceptance of ICO as a full member of

the British Columbia Council for In-ternational Co-operation on 24 Sep-tember 2010. A little overview of BCCIC from their website: Mission: BCCIC is a coalition of

British Columbia voluntary international development organizations and provincials branches of such organizations which are committed to achieving sustainable global development in a peaceful and healthy envi-ronment, with social justice, human dignity, and participation for all. Vision: All members are supported in their international development work and all Brit-ish Columbians are active and engaged glob-al citizens. Our Aims: We carry out our mission by providing our members with networking opportunities, information sharing, training, and representing their interests in dealing with government and other parties.. ICO intends to play a very positive and pro-active role in BCCIC. We especially want to emphasize the ICO process which has proven very suc-cessful and we are working with BCCIC to host workshops on Trans-parency in Governance.

Thanks and warmest regards

and of course Onwards!

ICO WORLD


Profile: Susan Gage Team Leader — ICO Atitlan Initiatives

For the past four years Susan Gage,

has worked in the highlands of San Antonio Paulo, Guatamala with a small group of women, installing en-ergy-efficient stoves in Mayan homes. It was through this initiative to help people cook and live safely that Gage joined the ICO team. Since then Gage says Guatemala has been the focus of her work within the organization. Throughout her life, Gage has nur-tured her love for international devel-opment: in the 60‘s she volunteered with CUSO in Nigeria and for twenty years has worked at Global Village; a local store dedicated to selling fair trade goods. Gage says during the buying and selling process for the store she met Jacqueline Mealing, the woman who inspired her, and along with Mary Lynch, Kathy Cos-ter and Lesley Wicks they formed the nucleus of the ICO Atitlan Initia-tives Team. Gage says the ICO values reflect those of the Team, as essentially they‘re friends who share a collective passion for community development. ―The kind of vision that ICO has [for] community development and work-ing with the community is something that‘s always been part of this project

and we share that commitment,‖ says Gage. Gage also studies Spanish. She has been perfecting the language for the past seven years and be-lieves that communicating with the Mayan people in their native language is crucial to understand-ing their culture. ―Part of being able to work effec-tively in these communities [means] you really have to be able to operate in Spanish.‖ Gage says working on her Span-ish throughout the year keeps her dedicated: ―It‘s a wonderful experience to be able to go Guatemala and find that people really do understand and to [be able to] work in Spanish.‖ Currently, Gage is raising funds for San Antonio Paulo. On September 4th

2010, the village was struck by land-slides. This was its second disaster of the year. Three months previously tropical storm Agatha wreaked havoc on the area. The landslides which struck in Sep-tember destroyed 30 homes and wiped out water and electrical ser-vices. Displaced families are sheltering in the marketplace and in the Catholic Church. Fortunately, no one was killed.

An important initiative currently un-derway is the reconstruction of the village school. As a humanitarian and ICO volun-teer , Gage says the Mayan people inspire her. She says it‘s an honour to work hand-in-hand with people who have so little yet hold true to a rich sense of charity as well as their an-cient cultural identity and practices.

―Through hundreds of years of violent and oppressive

colonization [the people] have held on to so much of their

culture… there is still a sense of Mayan spirituality.”

By Claire Watson

ICO WORLD


‘ Greetings from the Courtenay Community’... A letter from our friend

Maureen Miller

This is Maureen from the recent-

ly created ICO Courtenay Community. We are about a 1.5 hour drive north of Nanaimo and I live in a small community up the highway from Courtenay. I first met John Mitchell at a work-shop put on by PLAN (Planned Life Advocacy Network), about 18 months ago. I was there to find a solution for a dilemma faced by parents when their child has a disability and they have to ask themselves, ―What will happen to my child when I die?‖. I also belong to an international organization called the XXYY Project and this question permeates our organization, as a large group of young men start to reach

adulthood. I stood up at the workshop and said, ―I have a big vision. I want my son to have a home, a personal net-work and security so that when I get old I know he will be taken care of. I don‘t trust the government to take care of him and its not fair to ask his siblings to shoulder the re-sponsibility. I want to be able to duplicate what I create so that eve-ryone in my organization can do the same.‖ John immediately met me at the first coffee break. His first words were, ―We need to talk to you. I think our organization can help you create what you want.‖ And every-one knows that those words were just the beginning. It has been a huge learning curve to become part of ICO. I‘ve learned to ask the right questions to get the help I need to move on to the next step. I‘ve realized the power and potential of an organization that is driven by its Communities. We now have about 12 members in the ICO Courtenay Communi-ty and every time I turn around someone else asks if they can join. It‘s a big switch to have peo-ple ask me if they can join, rather than beg someone to help me. I‘ve talked to some young people who are keen and excited and who will bring more people along with them. Together with the families who are in the community, we started off just wanting a home for our

children. But I‘ve gracefully let go of that simple idea and have watched as the members of this community have asked, ― Hey why can‘t we do this?‖, to which I reply, ―Okay, why not. This will make it look so much more like a community than just a home.‖ My favorite saying to anyone who starts to doubt, is a quote from Ma-rianne Williamson:

“Our deepest fear is not that we are

inadequate. Our deepest fear is that

we are powerful beyond measure. It is

our light, not our darkness that most

frightens us. We ask ourselves, „Who

am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented,

fabulous?‟ Actually, who are you not to

be?”

We hope to have photos and up-dates to share with the larger ICO community in the near future.

To Campbell River

Comox

Parksville

Nanaimo

• • ▲

Mt. Washington

•

•

To Victoria Pacific Ocean

•

Courtenay

Port Alberni 194

N

Georgia Straight

ICO WORLD


«I was more focused on the environment for a while and

studied ecology… But then I realized that often

environmental issues are starting from a disconnection of people

with nature.»

Maeva Gauthier's academic achievements

might lead you to expect a quiet, shy character, happiest indoors with her books. She has two degrees - one in tourism from Collège Montmorency and one in biology from the University of Quebec, She is currently studying for her Masters in Marine Ecology at the University of Victoria and is considering a PhD. But when we meet in the ethically-minded Habit coffee shop in Victoria, she seems to have a lot of energy even though she's meeting me after a yoga class. She reveals that she likes Habit for its great coffee and the fact that you can work there all day. (It has big tables and mel-low ambient music.) And when I ask about hobbies I find she's got so many outdoor interests that she hardly knows how to choose between them. In fact although Maeva has done a lot of studying – she's in her 7th year right now, it has been broken up by stints of work and travel. She has taken a course in film-making and produced documentaries on environmental issues, including a marine scientific documentary. This has meant travelling to the locations of the documen-taries, including the Arctic. She has been been twice to Cuba and loves the culture. Now she's interested in Asia, the South Pacific and In-donesia. ―I think Indonesia and the South Pacific, in some places, have the highest diversity in terms of cul-tures and biodiversity,‖ she says.

Cont’d. on Page 7

Profile: Maeva Gauthier ICO Learning Centre for Sustainability

By Rebecca Beard

ICO WORLD


Maeva Gauthier… cont‘d from page 6

Learning Centre For Sustainability

Maeva is interested in preserv-

ing this and in helping communities adapt to climate change, and has contacted Pacific Peoples Partner-ship in Victoria, a charity that works with nations in the South Pacific. She likes sailing and would like to be able to combine that with marine ecology, travel and helping others, she says. She has a raft of other outdoor pursuits ―I like to get out there: yoga, surfing and camping and hiking and a bit of diving - although it's very cold water here so we need different equipment. I'd like to get a dry suit.‖ Maeva got involved with ICO after hearing about it from ICO Chair John Mitchell, who she happened to get chatting to while on a ferry jour-ney to Salt Spring Island in May this year. She was with her friend Denise Gabriel and they were both impressed by ICO's community-led approach to projects.

«It's great to have a place that believes in

community based projects,»

Maeva says. ―We don't always know

the answers but (the) people who live in (the) place – they know the answers; they know the needs they have.‖

She and Denise agreed to help with the ICO Learning Centre for Sus-tainability, rotating the role of Facil-itator Operations between them. The Centre will be looking at ways to ensure that ICO's projects and activities are truly environmentally friendly and helping the local com-munity. ―Questions we should ask ourselves every time we accept a new project and also regarding the projects already existing (are): Is there any thing that could change to make it more sustainable?‖ Maeva says. Maeva has always been concerned about environmental degradation; it is only recently that she's become interested in also helping people. ―I was more focused on the environ-ment for a while and studied ecolo-gy,‖ she says. ―But then I realized that often environmental issues are starting from a disconnection of people with nature. ―The environment is going bad because people are disconnected from it and if we can help them to survive and get their food and get their basic needs met and under-stand that they really rely on their on their environment to have things

for their children for their nations -”

She leaves the sentence unfinished

but the implication is clear: consid-

ering social and economic factors in

environmental work is important. If she pursues a PhD in future it will be in the field of ethno-ecology – human relationships with the envi-ronment. ―It gives a wider perspec-tive on things and is more realistic too,‖ she says.

She is referring to eco-tourism parks that have been set up without the backing of the local people. Maeva saw a good example of eco-tourism in Cuba. She filmed a documentary there in 2006. Because it is a small island, Cuba is very aware of sustainability, she says.

Cont’d on Page 8

«I don't really believe in creating a park and then getting rid of all the people that live in the park for the sake

of saving the environment. It's not

going to be sustainable in the long

run.»

ICO WORLD


Maeva Gauthier… cont‘d from page 7

Learning Centre for Sustainability

The local people recognized that

the cutting of mangroves and other trees to make way for hotels was causing erosion. And so they began to put new rules into place. Now tour-ism is more sustainable in Cuba. ―Instead of taking all the resources from the environment we can help people to manage and protect their environment and get an economy out of it,‖ Maeva says. ―It's a good way to protect the environment and make people happy at the same time.‖ Twelve members of the ICO Learning Centre for Sustainability had their first meeting in August. Some team members are now working on a defi-nition and framework of sustainabil-ity that ICO can work with. Team member Mike Optis has drawn up an initial business case, and JP Sapin, who is studying sociology, has re-viewed it. Maeva's pleased that JP's academic background makes him able to flag problems with issues that might have gone un-noticed, for in-stance, with definitions. JP noted that talking about sustainable devel-opment instead of just sustainability gives the definition a capitalist frame-work, an important distinction. Among the team's practical ideas, which are still under discussion, are

to work on making ICO's building in Esquimalt more sustainable. This is likely to be mainly by changing the types of energy it uses, Maeva says. ―If you save energy you save money. Also you are decreasing your impact on the planet, on the environment: your foot-print.‖ Another idea they‘ve considered is boosting food security on Vancouver Island by encouraging locally-grown food. If Vancouver Island was cut off from the mainland for some reason its food supply would last just three days, Maeva explains. So they would love to get involved in urban planning. The team is looking at working with Victoria's Fernwood community on gardens. According to Maeva, it‘s important that the ICO Learning Centre work with people already ac-

tive in sustainability. ―This is some-thing I think we need to look at be-fore we get too involved in developing our projects, There's already some very active environmental and sus-tainability groups in Victoria, and you don't want to duplicate.‖ A big part of the learning centre will be education. ―I think we also need to work inside out,‖ Maeva says. Team members proposed workshops to en-courage sustainability on a day-to-day basis in all aspects of ICO operations — meetings, dinners, property man-agement and travel. Plane rides proba-bly constitute ICO's biggest carbon consumption, Maeva says. It will be hard to eliminate but ICO might manage to attain carbon neutrality. The workshops would also invite speakers and talk about how sustain-ability can be applied in different countries. Maeva‘s enthusiasm for and commit-ment to the philosophy of sustainabil-ity is an example of the kind of youthful, dynamic energy that is ani-mating the Learning Centre making it a laboratory for new and exciting ide-as that will propel ICO forward into the future.

« If you save energy, you save money.. You are decreasing your impact on the planet, on the environment:

your footprint.»

ICO WORLD


The Communications Centre consists of many

writers, some media and one marketer—a diverse and focused team! The team is diverse geographically with members in Victoria, Vancouver and Calgary. Meetings therefore, tend to be via Skype or email. Responsibilities of this Centre are vast and some examples include the e-magazine, which you are currently reading, biographies, media representa-tion, and updating the website and FaceBook page. We currently have writers for Guatemala, Uganda, Rwanda, and Latin America but are in need of inspiring writers for our other Communities and Regions, such as Africa and North America. Com-municating the activities and Initiatives of ICO is essential to the Foundation‘s learning and growth. We have some lofty goals and exciting ideas for the next few months. First off, is to produce a video showcasing ICO and its strengths. We will be pull-ing our creative resources together from most of the team members to accomplish this task. Next we are hoping to update the ICO banners for tradeshows, and invest time into understanding the website.

The website is our foundation stone for communication and

one goal of the Centre is to create a timeline for regular up-

dates. Finally, we will be producing another version of the e-

magazine which is issued quarterly. The next edition will

focus on providing an overview and explanation of ICO, its

hierarchy or lack thereof, and its overall goals. Stay tuned…

Michelle Clement has moved from the role of Facilitator Opera-tions — Communications Centre, and is now Marketing Co-ordinator for the Foundation.

Appointments and Changes in ICO

Because of the continuous growth and dynamic nature of ICO, it is simply impossible to accurately show all personnel changes in ICO World. For an up-to-date report on all new appointments and changes, visit: http://News.InnovativeCommunities.Org And for the ICO Directory, go to: http:/Directory.InnovativeCommunities.Org

Welcome to the Communications Centre

By Michelle Clement

ICO WORLD


ICO Vancouver Community

Jessica Dexter, Representative for ICO Vancouver Communi-ty (right), pictured here with Peter Lukwiya, Chair of the Council of ICO Communities (centre) and Justin Howard, from the Secretariat to the Council of ICO Communities. The occasion was Peter‘s visit to Victoria in May 2010.

Update: ICO Courtenay and ICO Vancouver Communities The ICO Courtenay Community meeting which took

place on Remembrance Day centred around what ICO is and what it has to offer, mostly in regards to the potential Courtenay Initiative. These talks were led by the Team Leader—ICO Courtenay Initiatives, Maureen Millar. Courtenay is a deeply caring community, which hopes to see a broader range of social services and affordable hous-ing for fully-functioning disabled citizens. This is where the initiative comes in, talk centered around what the housing would look like, ie: an apartment building, rural, urban, as well as where the money will be coming from. Partnerships with various organizations such as the BCSPCA was discussed and are presently being looked into by Maureen and other members of the ICO Courte-nay Community.

The recent ICO Vancouver Community launch did

not take place in a five star hotel or any posh location, it took place in an ordinary artist loft overlooking Water street, in the city‘s downtown eastside. The humble loca-tion was perfect because ICO members present could feel close to those who are most in need of ICO's help. This gave the meeting a ―real feel‖. Jessica Dexter, Representative for the ICO Vancouver Community (also Team Leader—Kampala Initiatives, Uganda) led the presentation and discussion on what ICO stands for, and is presently doing around the world.

Emphasis is always placed on creating a dialogue, which leads to community building, and finally an Initiative—not the other way around. The Initiatives in Uganda and Mali, which were primarily discussed at the launch, are perfect examples of this pro-cess. Presently, the Kampala, Uganda Initiatives focus on finding innovative ways to engage children and youth in educational opportunities, incorporating music, dance, and art. The Mali Initiatives‘ focus on shipping crucial school and health supplies. These two Initiatives and ICO as a whole, focus on accessing knowledge and skills from the people in the community.

ICO Courtenay Community By Caitlyn O’Brien

ICO WORLD


Micro-Finance in ICO

In brief, micro-finance is the process

whereby a lender provides a small loan to a borrower in order that the borrower can have the means to both provide for themselves and their fami-ly as well as, perhaps, start a small business. We have already loaned a small amount to a village in Rwanda for a bee-keeping project. For ICO the chief idea here is not to make money but to help families or even whole neighbourhoods or villages in less de-veloped nations. The interest on ICO loans will be quite reduced from the rates charged by other such ventures. It is important to have some interest applied to loans because it gives incentive for people to pay them off and virtually all borrowers will, in fact, want to pay back their loans. Another aspect of micro-lending is that it has been found by others that it

is better to reach a loan agreement with a number of persons in a co- op-erative because they will then support each other, easing the burden and responsibility for the loan across many shoulders rather than just one set of shoulders. In my view, the role of micro-finance within ICO should include the above elements. Precisely how we will set up the process for making the loans has not yet been decided. We had to build the raft as we went down the river for the Rwanda loan. And per-haps to an extent we will do the same for others. If we can develop the cen-tre in such a way that it provides an efficient and productive (for the bor-rowers) means of making loans then we can probably attract monies from donors to apply to new loans. We can then recycle the principle from old loans into new ones. A final piece for the future is that we might find a not-for-profit partner with whom we can

work to be involved with the micro lending of the Community Initiatives Centre. Richard Shorten has taken on the role of Team Leader—Micro-Finance Initi-atives in the Community Initiatives Centre. Michael Hemmings has been an

Anglican pastor for eighteen years. He

is also a writer, researcher and an avid reader.

Michael is moving to a new role with-ing the Policy Unit to develop new governance and transparency models for the Foundation.

By Michael Hemmings

ICO WORLD


ICO WORLD

Run for Tomorrow (R4T) is a major charity fundraising event that will take place in the first half of 2012. ICO, along with Diabetes and Heart and Stroke are the three core charities that will benefit from R4T. R4T is a continuous relay-style run around the world by a team of experienced mara-thon runners. Each member of the team runs a marathon distance and passes the baton to the next runner. Through 30 countries and for 178 days, the baton never stops moving. Each day, the team will cover approx-imately 120 miles as the runners con-tinuously pass the ‗Commitment Scroll‘ to one another (through night and day). The Commitment Scroll will list names of people who either have committed money to the R4T goal or have committed volunteer time to provide support to one of our affiliat-ed charities. When people sign on to the Commitment Scroll they also make a public commitment to do a physical activity of their choice, the goal of which is to improve their own health and wellbeing. R4T also has a ‗Virtual Commitment Scroll‘ – people sign-on to the scroll through the R4T website, state their level of commitment to their own health, and the extent to which they will support the respective charities. Currently R4T is developing partner-

ships with a major foundation just starting up in the United Kingdom and is developing ties with several universities around the world. A number of prominent individuals from the running world are advisors to R4T, including Olympian and one of the world‘s top running coaches Jeff Galloway, ‘The Running Room‘ founder John Stanton and Dave McGillivray, Race Director of the Boston Marathon and a two time transcontinental runner who has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for chari-ty through running. These are exciting times for R4T.

There will be significant develop-ments over the next few weeks. If you‘re interested in learning more

please contact Malcolm Anderson.

Malcolm can be reached at: [email protected]

R T 4

By Malcolm Anderson

Dr. Malcolm An-derson, principal organizer of ‗Run for Tomorrow’ and Past President of ICO Institute, chats with Aus-tin Vanderzee (left) from the ICO Research and Evaluative Centre, at an Au-gust ICO dinner hosted at Drag-onfly Farm.

mailto:[email protected]

ICO WORLD


Within a traditional office, nothing forms relationships and pro-vides the catalyst for task creation and fa-cilitation like hallway conversation. These informal exchanges allow people to dis-cover what others are doing in the office, determine common interests and goals, and create and develop projects based on the links uncovered through casual interac-tion. In order to recreate the con-structive communication environ-ment of the office hallway, ICO has introduced the ICO Online Office, or ICOOO for short.

The ICOOO is a social media soft-ware package that enhances the transparency of our organization, and embodies the motto, ―Above all else we are friends working to-gether.‖ The main feature of the ICOOO is a sharing tool which encourages ICO members to com-municate in an open forum, rather than through the hierarchical pat-terns of email. With this tool members can provide updates on what they are doing within the

organization, as well as share events, documents, and web links.

Members can use other features of the ICOOO to view calendars of other members, as well as the or-ganization as a whole; create and share documents, spreadsheets, and presentations using Google-Docs; access the ICO directory, and access other organizational information. This isn't just a Face-book clone: this is something much more in-depth.

Under Project X, the ICOOO will be developed to incorporate ac-counting, human resource manage-ment, and other ICO information which is currently scattered across other online modules. Eventually the template created under Project

X will be made availa-ble as a free software package to every sin-gle non-profit in the world. By creating a non-hierarchical sys-tem for online com-munication and mak-ing it available to the world, we can foster projects that are creat-ed and developed at

an indigenous level, but result in global change.

Currently access to the ICOOO is only available to ICO team mem-bers, but this is temporary. By making live accounts viewable via our website, diverting 100% of do-nations to initiatives, and allowing donors to decide exactly where they want their money to go, ICO gives more power to its donors than any other charitable organi-zation. In future the ICOOO, save human resource management in-formation, will be completely viewable to anyone online. This will further enhance the power of our donors by allowing them to engage with our organization be-yond the giving of a cheque.

Welcome to the ICOOO By Donald Kennedy

ICO WORLD


Rebecca is

new to ICO and Victoria. She

contributed the article about

Maeva Gauthier on page 8.

In her spare time….

Rebecca loves the

beaches in Victoria and

often spends her leisure hours getting out to

admire the views along Dallas

Road.

When she gets the time she

enjoys hiking in coastal places like East Sooke Park or challenging

herself with

climbs like Mount Work.

She was a writer and editor in the UK, her country

of origin.

Rebecca came to Canada in 2008,

and is a Writer in the Communica-

tions Centre

Claire contributed the

article about Su-san Gage, seen on

Page 6.

With a diploma in Journalism from

SAIT Polytechnic and a degree in

Communication from Royal Roads

University, Claire‘s passion is

writing.

She‘s worked as a broadcast

journalist for

CHAT News and has been

published in Beat Route magazine.

After living a year in Madrid, Spain,

Claire speaks Spanish and holds

the Spanish culture close to

her heart.

In her free time Claire paints,

reads and blogs about gender

equity and wom-en‘s rights. She

hopes to one day

work for the United Nations

as a reporter.

Claire joined ICO in April 2010 and is currently the

Regional Co-ordinator for Latin America — Communications.

Contributors — the people behind the scenes

Above: Rebecca Beard

Above: Claire Watson

ICO WORLD


Got an urge to do some writing? We can always use help in the Communications Centre. We need people who can write, research, take photos and/or shoot video. Drop a line to the Communications Centre: [email protected]

Michelle has

moved from the role of Facilitator, Operations

of the Communica-tions Centre to the

new role of Marketing Co-ordinator of the

Foundation.

Michelle has over 15years of marketing

experience in the service sectors of

business and government. Thirteen

years were spent working for Procter & Gamble mainly in the

Pharmaceutical Industry while three

years were spent working in the

Protocol department for the Provincial

Government.

For the past five years, Michelle has been teaching at Camosun College and Royal Roads University in the Faculty of Business, specializing in Marketing. She also takes great pleasure as an Advisor with Royal Roads, guiding students who are completing their consulting projects in the MBA program. On a personal note, Michelle‘s greatest passion lies with her family— her 11 year old son and 8-year-old daughter. She enjoys running, hiking, rock climbing and hockey as well as playing the guitar and reading.

Caitlyn is ICO‘s Team Leader —Writers in the Communications

Centre. She supplied the updates on the ICO

Courtenay and ICO Vancouver Communi-

ties, seen on page 11.

Currently a student at Royal Roads University,

she is studying for a BA in professional communica-tions. What lead her to

make this choice? ‘Like many individuals taking

the giant leap into post secondary education, I jumped right into what sounded interesting, and it has worked out just fine! I went to Simon Fraser University for 3 years , and decided on a change in scenery, hence my decision to come to Victoria, and more specifically to Royal Roads University.‘ In 2008 Caitlyn volunteered to work in Guatemala with an organization called ‗Los Patojos‘ (the little ones)

where she taught adult English classes. She joined ‗Canadian Students for Darfur‘ at SFU to raise awareness about the conflict in that area, and took great pride in doing this. As well, she participated in the 2009 ‗Inca Trail Trek‘ fundraising initiative with Save the Children Canada.. ‗the greatest challenge both physically and mentally I have ever faced.’

Above: Caitlyn O’Brien

Above: Michelle Clement

ICO WORLD


Photo Credits: Contributor photos courtesy of each contributor or sourced from the ICO website. Photos of Susan Gage, courtesy of Susan Gage Photo of Maeva Gauthier by Rebecca Beard. Photos on Pages 12 and 13, by Julie Warren Photo of Donald Kennedy by Donald Kennedy Central Vancouver Island Map on Page 7, by Julie Warren Cover photo & mail graphic,Pg. 3: Microsoft Clip Art

Don’t forget to check our website: http://InnovativeCommunities.Org To Donate: Visit the website or you can donate to ICO through: CanadaHelps.Org Interested in checking out volunteer opportunities? Contact: [email protected] ICO is a registered Canadian charity: Registration # 8711 262 49 RR0001

...above all we are Friends working together,

if the Task gets before Relationships, do not do the Task...

and

100% Volunteer + 100% Transparent + 100% Online Administration = 100% donations to the Initiative

Donald Kennedy (left) our ICOOO Trainer, wrote the article on the ICOOO and is responsible for developing the support and training for our ICO Team Members to use the ICOOO. ―I arrived in Victoria eight years ago—drawn by the city's artistic vi-brancy and the openhearted nature of its residents. Since crossing the strait I have devoted myself to studying how people create meaning through their relationships with media. I have also gone to a lot of concerts, ate a lot of burgers, done a lot of biking, and spent years working for public radio. This July I will graduate with a BA in Pro-fessional Communication from Royal Roads University. ―

Documents

ICO World Edition 2 - March 2011