Social development

The Canadian Task Force on Social Finance was established in 2010 to identify opportunities to mobilize private capital for public good, within either non-profit or for-profit enterprises. The term “social finance” refers to an approach to managing money that delivers both a social or environmental dividend as well as an economic return.

This report, prepared by the Early Childhood Learning Knowledge Centre (ECLKC) of the Canadian Council on Learning (CCL), assesses the state of early childhood development in Canada according to five indicators: birth weight; physical development, including both fine and gross motor skills; cognitive development; language and communications skills development; and emotional and social development.

The authors examine the concept of learning cities, defined as communities where lifelong learning is explicitly used as an organizing principle and social goal in order to foster healthier, more inclusive, better educated cities.

This document presents an overview of how well equipped Canadians are as learners to meet the needs of the future. The authors state that while Canada has an enviable system of formal education, Canadians could benefit from a wider range of learning opportunities to sustain economic well-being and achieve greater social equity.

This research review includes reports on seven theme areas of adult learning: literacy, culture, e-learning, gender, barriers and access, learning communities, and social movements. The document presents the common findings across the seven theme areas, an analysis of gaps in the existing research and recommendations for promising programs of inquiry.

Suzanne Smythe's theseis explores literacy advice to parents as a gendered practice of power rather than an institutional truth.

This position paper presents a vision of a professional, fully funded and secure infrastructure for family literacy.

Investing in family literacy programming is a concrete and proactive way to
address the educational and training needs of Ontario's future.

By investing in family literacy, Ontario can take its place as a leader in the area of this important intergenerational approach.

This article is about an innovative, educational programme designed for, and in collaboration with, older women. The Social Health Outreach Programme (SHOP) has helped middle-aged and older women increase their sense of self through a strengthening of their personal and social resources. SHOP provides an educational model which can inform program planning initiatives geared toward increasing the independence and self-esteem of older women.