Holistic Approach to Economic Capacity Building

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Holistic Approach to Economic Capacity Building
Holistic Approach to Economic Capacity Building
Wholistic or holistic-the struggle! We are often
asked what the development approach to our
inclusion and engagement network we embraced.
Often, we used the words wholistic and holistic
interchangeably! But we were wrong! The correct
term to describe our approach to economic
capacity building is in fact holistic. When
did the preverbal light go off? Like many of you
I suspect, when challenged to use a word in its
proper context, go to the dictionary! The word
holistic is connected to holism, which focuses on
the total entity and the interdependence of the
diverse parts of this totality. Such is the case
when we speak about the economy. Its
interdependence of the diverse sum of all its
parts! This is truer in an Indigenous community
than any other I have seen.
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The economic platform must start with jobs, job
creation and the impact sustainable employment
has on a family and community. Income is, as we
have stated many times, in our opinion is the
single most important social determinant of
health. Healthy families create healthy
communities. So, there are some facts worthy of
repeating Indigenous youth is the fastest
growing demographic in Canada. In fact, a recent
study shows that by 2027 we will have close to 1
million indigenous youth! This is an incredible
opportunity! Heres another interesting fact. In
Ontario alone there is a labor shortage of
250,000 people! So, heres the deal- ITFC has
made it possible for companies, especially
construction companies, associations, the
resource industry or anyone else for that matter
to post a job and we will push it out to
communities and become your HR specialist! Beyond
your membership fee, we wont charge you a dime!
Job opportunities do not have to be on reserve
believe it or not we have heard that from
companies before! Procurement- so very important
and on so many levels! There are companies that
are very familiar with Indigenous procurement
practices and they dont want to tell anyone!
Seriously there are those who have benefited
from restrictive policies and practices that have
been forced upon Indigenous communities for
decades! Things like rapid response time on
funding envelopes that force communities to get
the three mandatory quotes in order to proceed
with a project within a specific time frame.
Policies whereby an independent authority gets
to decide whether or not a community has the
capacity to fulfill the scope of work expected on
a procurement opportunity within their community
or traditional territory! The ITFC economic
inclusion network recognizes all types of
Indigenous procurement and connects buyers and
sellers in a hassle-free environment. If the
federal government lies up to their commitment to
ensure that 5 of government spending includes
Indigenous communities, their people and
businesses, procurement platforms like ITFC will
be a critical part of the strategic economic
growth plan of all Canadian companies. These
are two critically important features of the ITFC
inclusion network, to learn more book a spot
here and select your topic of interest and
discover the real holistic capacity building
efforts of the ITFC economic inclusion network.