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This webinar is part of the CWKN 2023 Festival of Wellbeing Conversations.ÌýÌý

A growing number of governments worldwide, and in Canada, are taking a new approach to public policy, one that puts the wellbeing and quality-of-life of citizens at the centre of policy decisions and budgeting. Through the Spring and Fall of 2023, the Canadian Wellbeing Knowledges Network (CWKN) is hosting a series of webinars discussing key issues, challenges, and opportunities of the wellbeing approach to policy and sharing examples of wellbeing policy initiatives across Canada and globally. For more information on wellbeing policy, the CWKN, and future events you can contact jennifer.proudfoot [at] mcgill.ca (Jennifer Proudfoot).

Moderator:

Heather Keam
Associate Director
Deepening Communities, Tamarack Institute

Heather Keam is the Associate Director for the Deepening Community practice area. She has been at the Tamarack Institute for over 6 years. Heather has 13 years in public health and 20 years of experience generating action at a grassroots level using ABCD and Collective Impact. She is passionate about community and in her spare time is volunteering on many community projects and currently working in her small town to build a sense of belonging and connection. Heather loves guiding groups to put people at the centre of the community development process of planning, engagement, implementation, and sustainability of local community plans.

Speakers:

Gordon MacDonald
Director of Economic Development
Municipality of the District of Guysborough

Gordon MacDonald is the Director of Economic Development for the Municipality of the District of Guysborough. He is Founding Executive Director of the Guysborough County Regional Development Authority in 1995 and has 28 years working in the Economic Development Field.Ìý Gordon is Past Chairman / Director of Strait of Canso Superport Corporation and a frequent Ìýparticipant in Nova Scotia Foreign Investment Trade Missions.Ìý He is currently working with developers advancing significant investments in Nova Scotia’s Energy transition to Renewables and is Manager of the Municipality of the District of Guysborough (MODG) $27 M Sable Wind Farm development – the first Municipality in NS to be the majority owner of a large-scale Wind Farm – operational in 2014.Ìý Gordon is driven by passion for improving quality-of-life for future generations and is married to Carmel Avery-MacDonald and proud father to Hilary, Olivia, Alexandra and Lowell and grandfather to Wes and Arlo.

Sue Holdsworth
Project Manager
RECOVER Urban Wellbeing, City of Edmonton

Sue Holdsworth has worked for 3 local governments and an NGO as an urban planner, a social planner and a project manager. She has 2 interdisciplinary degrees, one from McMaster’s Arts and Science Program and the other from York’s Master in Environmental Studies Program. She is drawn to complexity, systems change and transformative projects. Currently, Sue is the project manager for RECOVER Urban Wellbeing at the City of Edmonton which is about using social R&D to improve wellbeing. This work focuses on people who are often referred to as ‘vulnerable’, but Sue rejects this framing as vulnerability is really a shared human condition. RECOVER has done multiple rounds of research and testing of prototypes, and a wellbeing framework has emerged that focuses on connection and is now their north star.

Rosslyn Bentley
Executive Director
Woolwich Community Health Centre

Rosslyn Bentley (she/her), Executive Director at the Woolwich Community Health Centre is a seasoned healthcare leader working on both sides of the Atlantic for nearly 40 years and across the full continuum of care from acute, to community and primary care in the not for profit sector. Experienced in governance, generative leadership, and fundraising she is also a surveyor for the Hospice Palliative Care Ontario. She has been responsible for establishing a successful residential Hospice in Guelph, completing the establishment of new medical clinics in Mississauga and Centre Wellington and mobile in-home services for seniors in the City of Toronto as well as dozens of partnerships to improve the quality and quantity of services to communities rurally and in urban settings. Rosslyn lives rurally and has a passion for building strong communities through encouraging the arts, medical, faith and community services to work together for healthy, vibrant and engaged citizens.

This event is hosted by the Department of Equity, Ethics and Policy and the Canadian Wellbeing Knowledges Network.