national housing day 2023
On November 19th, 2023, Multifaith Housing Initiative hosted its annual National Housing Day celebration. At National Housing Day, we recognize the work non-profit housing providers have undertaken over the year, and bring awareness to the ongoing affordable housing crisis in Ottawa and across Canada.
We were grateful for the many local politicians for their attendance and support of MHI, as well as MHI's Religious and Civic patrons, donors, volunteers, and supporters who were all in the audience.
Thank you to all of our guest speakers; Elder Albert Dumont from Algonquin Nations, Imam Sikander Hashmi from Kanata Muslim Association, The Mayor of Ottawa His Worship Mayor Mark Sutcliffe, Carl Nicholson from Catholic Centre for Immigrants (check out an excerpt of his keynote address below!), MHI tenant participants Aisha Mohammed, Maryam and Khadijah Brave, violinist Firdaus El-Darymli and Just Voices choir.
Thank you for attending and we hope to see you next year!
We were grateful for the many local politicians for their attendance and support of MHI, as well as MHI's Religious and Civic patrons, donors, volunteers, and supporters who were all in the audience.
Thank you to all of our guest speakers; Elder Albert Dumont from Algonquin Nations, Imam Sikander Hashmi from Kanata Muslim Association, The Mayor of Ottawa His Worship Mayor Mark Sutcliffe, Carl Nicholson from Catholic Centre for Immigrants (check out an excerpt of his keynote address below!), MHI tenant participants Aisha Mohammed, Maryam and Khadijah Brave, violinist Firdaus El-Darymli and Just Voices choir.
Thank you for attending and we hope to see you next year!
Carl Richardson, keynote speaker
Below is an excerpt from Carl Richardson, Keynote Speaker at MHI's National Housing Day. He spoke about the challenges faced by MHI over the next few years of an accelerated growth period within the context of the National Housing Day theme: The Joy of Dreaming Big!
Happy reading!
Happy reading!
1. Stay focused on the mission
This is the reason why you exist. Don’t do mission creep. Our mission is to provide and promote safe, affordable, and well-maintained housing in inclusive communities, and to mobilize resources for these purposes.
2. Serve and Advocate
Serve and advocate – that is, not only ‘do’ but change the context in which you operate in order to achieve leverage, by enlisting other players. It is relatively easy to focus on program delivery but eventually you realize that you cannot achieve our vision of significant social change through service delivery alone. Ultimately, you must find a way to bridge the divide between service and advocacy. You must become good at both. Your grassroots work helps inform your policy advocacy, and helps to make legislation more relevant.
3. Make Markets Work
Tapping into the power of self-interest and the laws of economics is far more effective than appealing to pure altruism. This means you work in partnership, with other actors in the system. You find ways to work with these markets, companies or institutions. Get to know them, what they are looking for. You help them “do good while doing well.” This gives you an opportunity to influence how others do business, increasing access for your service delivery clients.
Sometimes you can even get additional resources. And in todays economy where inclusivity and fairness seen as important, you have leverage.
4. Inspire Ambassadors
High-impact not for profits build strong communities of supporters who help them achieve their larger goals. They value volunteers, donors, and advisers not only for their time, money, and guidance, but also for their ability to recruit others to your cause. To inspire supporters’ commitment, these not for profits create emotional experiences that help connect supporters to the group’s mission and core values. These experiences convert outsiders to ambassadors, who in turn recruit others in viral marketing at its finest. High-impact not for profits then nurture and sustain these communities of supporters over time, recognizing that they are not just means, but ends in themselves. You must find creative ways to convert core supporters to ambassadors and to mobilize super-ambassadors.
5. Nurture Not For Profit Networks
Nurture networks –A core strength of our sector comes from the social capital we create through our activities. Although most not for profits pay lip service to collaboration, many of them really see other groups as competition for scarce resources. But high impact organizations help their peers succeed, building networks of non-profit allies and devoting remarkable time and energy to advancing their fields. They freely share wealth, expertise, talent, and power with other not for profits not because they are saints, but because it’s in their self-interest to do so. Together we are a lot more powerful. This type of coalition building also frequently works to promote policy and to pass legislation. We build our sector through collaboration rather than competition. High Impact organizations share financial resources and help other non-profits succeed at fundraising. They give away their model and proprietary information in an open-source approach. They cultivate leadership and talent for their larger network, rather than hoarding the best people. And they work in coalitions to influence legislation or conduct grassroots advocacy campaigns, without worrying too much about which organization gets the credit. These not for profits recognize that they are more powerful together than alone, and that large-scale social change often requires collaborative, collective action.
6. Master the Art of Adaptation: Be agile
High-impact not for profits are exceptionally adaptive, modifying their tactics as needed to increase their success. They respond to changing circumstances with one innovation after another. You have to master the ability to listen, learn, and modify your approach as needed; combine creativity with disciplined systems for evaluating, executing, and adapting ideas over time. This ‘cycle of adaptation’, has four critical steps. First, listen to feedback from their external environments and seek opportunities for improvement or change. Next, innovate and experiment, developing new ideas or improving upon older programs. Then evaluate and learn what works with the innovation, sharing information and best practices across their networks. Then modify plans and programs in a process of ongoing learning. It’s a never-ending cycle that helps to increase and sustain impact. It is important to develop business plans and conduct more research before diving into new programs.
7. Share Leadership
You must share power in order to be stronger forces for good. High Impact not for profits distribute leadership within their organizations and throughout their external not for profit networks, empowering others to lead. Leaders of high-impact not for profits cultivate a strong second-in-command, build enduring executive teams with long tenure, and develop large and powerful boards. Pay attention to your people. Look after them.
8. Become digitally savvy, experts in the online environment
This is a whole new dimension, a brand-new universe, and the whole world has embraced this, No one knows yet how to be perfect in it, so go for it, be always learning. everyone is looking for the best ways to use this.
Data and communication are now kings. You will need to invest in this and it will give you evidence, reach, and power.
9. Pay attention to the $$
Invest in good financial management systems. Your business is capital intensive and in our fast-paced world fundamental changes happen rapidly. Don’t be caught without sufficient reserves.
This is the reason why you exist. Don’t do mission creep. Our mission is to provide and promote safe, affordable, and well-maintained housing in inclusive communities, and to mobilize resources for these purposes.
2. Serve and Advocate
Serve and advocate – that is, not only ‘do’ but change the context in which you operate in order to achieve leverage, by enlisting other players. It is relatively easy to focus on program delivery but eventually you realize that you cannot achieve our vision of significant social change through service delivery alone. Ultimately, you must find a way to bridge the divide between service and advocacy. You must become good at both. Your grassroots work helps inform your policy advocacy, and helps to make legislation more relevant.
3. Make Markets Work
Tapping into the power of self-interest and the laws of economics is far more effective than appealing to pure altruism. This means you work in partnership, with other actors in the system. You find ways to work with these markets, companies or institutions. Get to know them, what they are looking for. You help them “do good while doing well.” This gives you an opportunity to influence how others do business, increasing access for your service delivery clients.
Sometimes you can even get additional resources. And in todays economy where inclusivity and fairness seen as important, you have leverage.
4. Inspire Ambassadors
High-impact not for profits build strong communities of supporters who help them achieve their larger goals. They value volunteers, donors, and advisers not only for their time, money, and guidance, but also for their ability to recruit others to your cause. To inspire supporters’ commitment, these not for profits create emotional experiences that help connect supporters to the group’s mission and core values. These experiences convert outsiders to ambassadors, who in turn recruit others in viral marketing at its finest. High-impact not for profits then nurture and sustain these communities of supporters over time, recognizing that they are not just means, but ends in themselves. You must find creative ways to convert core supporters to ambassadors and to mobilize super-ambassadors.
5. Nurture Not For Profit Networks
Nurture networks –A core strength of our sector comes from the social capital we create through our activities. Although most not for profits pay lip service to collaboration, many of them really see other groups as competition for scarce resources. But high impact organizations help their peers succeed, building networks of non-profit allies and devoting remarkable time and energy to advancing their fields. They freely share wealth, expertise, talent, and power with other not for profits not because they are saints, but because it’s in their self-interest to do so. Together we are a lot more powerful. This type of coalition building also frequently works to promote policy and to pass legislation. We build our sector through collaboration rather than competition. High Impact organizations share financial resources and help other non-profits succeed at fundraising. They give away their model and proprietary information in an open-source approach. They cultivate leadership and talent for their larger network, rather than hoarding the best people. And they work in coalitions to influence legislation or conduct grassroots advocacy campaigns, without worrying too much about which organization gets the credit. These not for profits recognize that they are more powerful together than alone, and that large-scale social change often requires collaborative, collective action.
6. Master the Art of Adaptation: Be agile
High-impact not for profits are exceptionally adaptive, modifying their tactics as needed to increase their success. They respond to changing circumstances with one innovation after another. You have to master the ability to listen, learn, and modify your approach as needed; combine creativity with disciplined systems for evaluating, executing, and adapting ideas over time. This ‘cycle of adaptation’, has four critical steps. First, listen to feedback from their external environments and seek opportunities for improvement or change. Next, innovate and experiment, developing new ideas or improving upon older programs. Then evaluate and learn what works with the innovation, sharing information and best practices across their networks. Then modify plans and programs in a process of ongoing learning. It’s a never-ending cycle that helps to increase and sustain impact. It is important to develop business plans and conduct more research before diving into new programs.
7. Share Leadership
You must share power in order to be stronger forces for good. High Impact not for profits distribute leadership within their organizations and throughout their external not for profit networks, empowering others to lead. Leaders of high-impact not for profits cultivate a strong second-in-command, build enduring executive teams with long tenure, and develop large and powerful boards. Pay attention to your people. Look after them.
8. Become digitally savvy, experts in the online environment
This is a whole new dimension, a brand-new universe, and the whole world has embraced this, No one knows yet how to be perfect in it, so go for it, be always learning. everyone is looking for the best ways to use this.
Data and communication are now kings. You will need to invest in this and it will give you evidence, reach, and power.
9. Pay attention to the $$
Invest in good financial management systems. Your business is capital intensive and in our fast-paced world fundamental changes happen rapidly. Don’t be caught without sufficient reserves.
