On Friday, November 11, Raising the Roof’s staff and board assembled for our Annual General Meeting followed by a retreat where new and current board members and staff got to meet each other and learn more about our organizational goals and direction. Among the topics discussed were our new and growing initiatives, campaigns, and partnerships, as well as our organizational shift from homelessness solutions to homelessness prevention.

The first point of business was a restructuring of our board of directors with one member resigning and a few others shifting into new positions.

Board member Katie Davies resigned from the board and will very much be missed for her hard work and dedication to the issues surrounding homelessness.

Stephen Gaetz stepped down as Chair and handed the role over to previous Vice Chair, Eileen McCormack. Stephen has been an integral and critical part of Raising the Roof and our organizational shift to homelessness prevention. However, we are thrilled to say that Stephen will remain with Raising the Roof as a member of the Executive Committee. Former Treasurer David Bradshaw was nominated to the position of Vice-Chair while John Mountain was confirmed to remain in the position of Secretary.

We are happy to welcome two newly appointed board members, Sandra Mundy and Jesse Thistle. From her time at CIBC, Sandra brings a great deal of financial experience to the board and will take over for David Bradshaw in the position of Treasurer. Jesse is a scholar who brings a wealth of homelessness sector experience as well as lived experience to our board. In fact, Jesse has recently been in the national news with his newly published work about reframing an indigenous definition of homelessness.

The second major point of business at the AGM was Raising the Roof’s recent work on our Theory of Change and social impact. Raising the Roof’s staff have been working with the Innoweave organization to formulate our new Theory of Change as part of an overall organizational shift. Although it is still a work in progress, the Theory of Change was presented to board members who were happy to provide their valuable feedback and insight to the project.

Our AGM also featured some guest speakers including a long-time supporter and two new partners.

Our first speaker was Ngaio Potts from the Leo Burnett agency who have been our in-kind brand and awareness partner for several years. Leo Burnett has provided Raising the Roof with some of our most creative and controversial media campaigns and Ngaio gave the board and staff a sneak-peak of what’s in store for this year.

Next, Marc Soberano spoke about his organization, Building Up which employs youth with barriers while teaching them skills in the building trade. Raising the Roof has recently partnered with Building Up on our Reside program.

Finally, Kyle Monczak spoke about how Raising the Roof and his organization, Business in the Streets, are partnering to create a program to assist marginalized youth in an entrepreneur program which will hopefully lead to employment.

All in all, our AGM and board/staff retreat was a great success and provided an insight into where we are headed as an organization while wrapping up the activities and finances of our last fiscal year. Our Report to the Community which details our 2016-17 fiscal year is available by clicking here: Report AGM – EN.