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The Spur Change national conference is a signature event to bring together Canadian small and medium organizations (SMOs), educators, and youth in the international cooperation sector. Organized annually over the course of our 5-year programming window, the conferences have been rooted in peer-knowledge sharing and have each focused on a different action area of Canada’s Feminist International Assistance Policy (FIAP) with the United Nations’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as a cross-cutting theme.
To answer participants’ call for a space for deep, relationship-based exploration and peer knowledge sharing, this year, the 2023 annual conference was held as seven separate, smaller regional events. Each event, or “Spur Spark,” had its own main themes, programming and feel, but centered around the theme of People and Planet, in line with FIAP Action area 4: Environment and climate action.
The first three Spur Sparks were SMO and educator-led in May and June 2023. After a call for applications through February and March of this year, 3 events took place, led by Change for Children (CFC) and the Alberta Teachers’ Association (ATA) in Alberta, Manitoba Social Sciences Teachers’ Association (MSSTA) in Manitoba, and Katalizo in Quebec.
The four remaining Spur Sparks were led with Spur Change implementing partners in later summer and fall 2023: three provincial and regional councils for international cooperation, including the British Columbia Council for International Cooperation (BCCIC), the Ontario Council for International Cooperation (OCIC), and the Northern Council for International Cooperation (NCGC), hosted regional gatherings, while the ICN’s Fund for Innovation and Transformation (FIT) hosted a national gathering in Ottawa highlighting SMO innovation.
Through this series of regional events, we aimed to spark conversations from coast to coast to coast. In total, the 7 regional events gathered 166 participants (of which 72 were from SMOs and 41 were educators) to come together and engage on environmental issues, climate justice, and more. Learn more about each of the events below.
With these events happening from coast to coast to coast, Spur Change, as a program housed by the Alberta Council for Global Cooperation (ACGC) on Treaty 6 Territory, in ᐊᒥᐢᑿᒌᐚᐢᑲᐦᐃᑲᐣ otherwise known as Edmonton, would like to recognize the diverse territories and lands upon which these events took place. We acknowledge the diverse Indigenous Peoples whose ancestors’ footsteps have marked this land for centuries and continue to do so through their histories, languages, ceremonies, and cultures.
We remind ourselves that, whether we are treaty people or on unceded lands, we all have roles to play in righting the historical wrongs that have taken place and are ongoing. Indigenous people’s connection to the land teaches us about our inherent responsibility to protect and respect the Earth and to recognize that we are all connected to each other.
"[...] I feel that I learned so much while also being able to contribute. It was such a safe space for people to be vulnerable and share their knowledge. It was a very formative experience and I am sure to remember it for the resto my life."
"The convergence was an opportunity to stretch our hearts, minds, and bodies, to what climate change means to us and how we relate to it. It brought people from all different backgrounds together, reminding each of us of the unique role we play in the collective challenges we're facing. Thank you!"
"I am excited to bring back the ideas we discussed about meaningful an active allyship and solidarity back to my work and to share that with my department."
"[...] we learned a lot from the organizations about their innovations and had the opportunity to connect for future collaboration."
"We made new contacts with other aligned SMOs we were not already working with, we also made connections with larger multi-nationals through the public engagement event, and we are currently planning a collaborative workshop with another SMO."
"Meeting the other organizations, brainstorming ideas, and discussing possible partnerships was one of the best parts of the forum."
"Great exchanges [...] it was great to explore possibilities for collaboration with RÉMI!"
"It was an excellent opportunity to share and dialogue with other teachers about teaching the global issues course."
"[...] schools everywhere are revamping how citizenship and sustainable ideas can be taught as kids are increasingly bombarded with misinformation and too much information, making it a necessity to look at how to meaningfully engage students in learning and the context of the world around them."
"It was earthshaking to a degree I had absolutely no expectation of."
"Participating in this experience further solidifies and reinforces the realizations that I have come to regarding the way in which the education system in Canada reinforces tenets of settler colonialism and systemic racism. The experience has given me further notions to ponder and explore as I continue working toward unlearning and decolonizing my own practices as an educator."
"Thank you for the opportunity. It was the best professional development I have had in my 25 years as a classroom educator. Thank you for the experience. I was truly blessed to be among a great group of educators and facilitators."
"That's the great added value of the retreat for me, professional collaboration comes through human bonds, shared values and trust developed, and these are three things we were able to develop at Wasan. I knew very little about the organizations present before the retreat, and I came away with a good understanding of their approaches and activities, and often a concrete ideas of potential collaborations."
"I was able to create local connections to further my work and build a larger network for partnerships and awareness."
"This was a true example of the important work we are all doing. We need to support each other's work by sharing information about the various initiatives, campaigns and policies everyone is dedicated to."
As part of CFC preparing a group of Alberta-based teachers to go to Nicaragua to teach in partnership with the ATA, their Spur Sparks event equipped teachers for a cross-cultural exchange of ideas and understanding what to expect as international visitors. Through online engagement with local educators in the Bosawas region of Nicaragua during the event, good practices and learnings for integrating Indigenous Knowledge into climate change education in the classroom were also shared. Want to see some of the lesson plans worked on during this event? Check them out here. Learn more about the 2023 CFC and ATA teacher tours here.
MSSTA, in partnership with the Manitoba Council for International Cooperation (MCIC), for their Spur Spark event offered an opportunity for teachers in and around Winnipeg to take some time and talk about how they are engaging their students and their school communities in global citizenship, the people and the planet. With guest speaker Dr. Marc Kuly from the University of Winnipeg, the event was a launching point for dialogue in the learning community on how to better engage students in global citizenship through the social sciences. Learn more about MSSTA and keep up to date with upcoming events in Winnipeg here.
Katalizo’s hybrid event for the Spur Sparks series began with a meeting of the Réseau mondiale des intersections (RÉMI) followed by collaborative activities between SMOs and youth on the intersections of social and environmental issues. With participants joining in-person in Montreal and partners from France, Morocco, and The Democratic Republic of the Congo, the event was an opportunity for knowledge sharing from a variety of perspectives focused on brainstorming actionable solutions to the intersecting issues at hand and realizing hopes for the future. Learn more about Katalizo and get engaged here.
For their Spur Spark event, NCGC brought together passionate teachers from the Social Studies Educators Network of Canada (SSENC) from coast to coast to coast to critically examine their teaching practices through a decolonial lens. The impact of this event was magnified by its ability to bring together educators with diverse backgrounds, experiences and perspectives. The content of the workshops and the setting in which they were given facilitated deep internal reflection and fostered human connection, encouraging participants to critically think about ways to help students better understand the complexity of history so they can better navigate the world through empathy and open-mindedness. Learn more about NCGC’s work here.
FIT hosted their Innovation Forum in Ottawa as part of the Spur Sparks series. The event brought together SMOs who received FIT funding over the past four years to share their experiences, their lessons learned, and their impacts advancing gender equality through innovative programming solutions. In addition to peer-sharing sessions, workshops on scaling and communicating impact were also held as part of the event. SMOs from across the country were able to attend as well as a few international partners from Mali and Nicaragua, to name a few. Wondering which SMOs have received FIT funding and were able to make it? Find all the info on FIT’s website here.
Bringing together SMOs and youth from Ontario, Quebec, and Atlantic Canada, OCIC with support from the Association québécoise des organismes de coopération internationale (AQOCI) and the Atlantic Council for International Cooperation (ACIC) organized the retreat on Wasan Island as an opportunity to deepen collective awareness, understanding, and action towards the UN International Decade for Action on Water and the UN 2023 Water Conference in addition to FIAP Action Area 4: Environment and climate action. Wasan saw presentations by participants on their experiences with water protection and climate conservation as well as many deep participant-led conversations on these issues. The event brought the knowledge sharing of community-led initiatives and calls for action, globally and locally. Find out more about the outcomes of this year’s Wasan retreat here.
BCCIC’s Spur Spark event brought together participants from the West Coast, Prairies, and the North under the notion of a Convergence (i.e. of ideas, approaches, and perspectives). Adopting an intersectional lens, the event convened participants from a diversity of perspectives and backgrounds to spark dynamic conversations, which participants noted as essential and deeply impactful. Participants included SMOs; Indigenous, climate justice, and youth activists; as well as academics committed to climate action and climate justice. Through workshops and introspective approaches, participants were directed to ask themselves important questions surrounding allyship, solidarity, and the role of climate justice advocates in the Global North. The tools and lessons learned seek to aid participants in their solidarity actions and mutual fight for climate justice worldwide. Learn more about BCCIC's work here.
On behalf of Spur Change, we thank everyone who attended and engaged with the Spur Sparks series and profoundly thank the organizations and teams for their collaboration and work in delivering this amazing series of events. Each Spur Spark event was different, and each managed to spark discussion and knowledge sharing in their own way. Looking forward, we are excited by the future collaboration and work these discussions, ressources, and tools will lead to for people and the planet.
The Spur Change annual national conference is a signature event to bring together Canadian small and medium organizations (SMOs) and educators in the Canadian international cooperation sector.
To answer participants’ call for a space for deep, relationship-based exploration and peer knowledge sharing, this year, the 2023 annual conference will be held as eight separate, smaller regional events.
Four of these SMO and/or educator gatherings will be SMO and educator-led in May and June 2023. These events, led by SMOs, educators, or combined groups of the two, should be focused on peer-knowledge sharing. Peer-knowledge sharing can take many forms, but centers around creating spaces where we learn from other practitioners in our field with the understanding that everyone can contribute and learn from each other. For the selected event leads, up to $5000 towards a peer-knowledge sharing event will be offered via a subcontractor relationship. Find more details below.
These four SMO and educator led events can be based in either Alberta, Manitoba, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, Québec, or Saskatchewan.
The submission must: