Yearly Archives: 2011

Gordon Walker – Our Gentle Horse Whisperer

Those of us associated with PLAN are fortunate to be tethered to passion.  Our range is the life and death struggles of people who surmount labels, stigma, and ignorance, supported by the love of their friends, neighbours and families.  A … Read More

John Ralston Saul – Speed Does not Equal Intelligence

John Ralston Saul from the Foreword to Through The Eyes of Artists, 2004 Nina Hagerty Centre for the Arts … those of us who are lucky enough to have been close to a person with disabilities know the talents they … Read More

Ashoka – Impresario for Social Entrepreneurs

Ever wonder if the social organizations that were founded in the 19th or 20th century are capable of handling the complexities of the 21st centuy?  Ever wonder who is inventing the 21st century version of the Red Cross, YWCA, Big … Read More

Frances Westley Presents to Nobel Laureates

Frances Westley is a Canadian treasure. Not enough people know that.  I am biased because she is a friend and colleague.  Sometimes we don't appreciate how special someone is until the world takes notice. I can't think of a more … Read More

Ten Innovations that have Shaped the World of Disability

In previous posts I have highlighted that social innovation is not an incremental change to the status quo but a substantive, disruptive one.  Social innovations improve our ability (whether as individuals, families, networks, communities) to define and solve our challenges, … Read More

Happy Mother’s Day courtesy Shane Koyczan

Can we ever repay our Moms?  Never, is the worn truth, every child eventually realizes.  But Canadian poet and spoken word virtuoso,  Shane Koyczan has an insight that might just satisfy the Moms of this world.  Koyczan is an immensely … Read More

Disaster, Disability and Haiti

Two things are predictable concerning people with disabilities and natural disasters. One, they will be displaced making it even tougher to gain access to basic supports.  Two, there will be even more people with disabilities as a result of the … Read More

Inspire, Innovate, Incite, Invent – Increasing the Resilience of Commuities

The re-named Canadian Centre for Community Renewal has a new e-journal (i4) about Inspiring, Innovating, Inciting, and Inventing ways of life and work that permit humanity and the planet to thrive in this century of unprecedented challenges. Both the Centre … Read More

Who Invented the Blue Box? Jack McGinnis did.

I was saddened to learn that Jack McGinnis, inventor of the ubiquitous curbside recycling, blue box, died earlier this year.  Sad at the death of someone who touched all our lives in such a positive way.  Sad because such an … Read More

Phil Allen – The One Most Likely to Succeed

When Phil Allen was 27 his friends helped him escape from the Saskatchewan Institution where they were kept against their will.  They figured he was the one most likely to make it and come back to help them. They were … Read More