Hi everyone!  Hope you’ve all been savouring the fall weather, wherever you may be.  This is what Montreal has granted us with these past few months:

Anyway, here’s what’s new at EPN!

New Vision, Mission, and Slogan

This season, with the help of all of our members, we revised our mission statement, and added a vision statement as well as a slogan.  We feel that this has helped clarify our desired long-term goals.  Check out our new vision and mission statements here!  As for our slogan, it will be making an appearance on our new printed materials and website soon:  Give, Grow, Sustain. 

New Director of Education, Shatyra!

We’d like to give a warm welcome to our new Director of Education, Shatyra Williams!  Shatyra has a background in adult education and women’s advocacy, and is full of great energy!  She has already begun discussing wonderful educational initiative ideas with us.  You can read more about Shatyra here.

Shatyra Williams, our new Director of Education

Indiegogo Campaign Results

Once again, we’d like to thank everyone who donated to our recent Indiegogo Campaign.  We were able to surpass our goal and raise $1,170(CAD) which has allowed us to pay off our government fees, pay for our mailbox for two years, order new banners for our chapters’ fundraising events, and sign on a new Grassroots Project in India.  We are so grateful of all of your support.

New Grassroots Project: Soap- and Candle-Making in India

End Poverty Now is excited to have partnered once again with the Garhwal Organization for Uplifting the Needy (GOUN) / Garhwal English Medium School (GEMS) for a new Grassroots Project joint venture: goats milk soap- and candle-making in Sainji, India.  Lori and Kunwar of GEMS established small local industries in soap- and candle-making to help empower local citizens while creating sustainable models of income.  We will be giving more information and updates on the project here.  Learn more about GEMS at www.gems-school.org and show your support by “Liking” their Facebook page!

Kids of GEMS with soaps!
(photo from www.gems-school.org)

New Chapter Banners!

We’ve ordered new banners for our chapters to use at their fundraising events!  The funds for these came from your kind donations toward our Indiegogo Campaign.  The banner was designed by our talented Graphic Design Officer, Laura Czornobaj, and will exhibit EPN’s new image and slogan.  We’ll be sure to show them in use in our future updates!

Thanks for checking up on us!  ‘Til next time,
Cindy

We’ve got good news for all organizations interested in starting a joint venture with End Poverty Now!  Our updated Grassroots Projects Guide (PDF) is now up on our Submit a Proposal page, along with the downloadable Project Proposal Forms.  The guide contains everything you need to know about what EPN looks for in a project/organization.  Got questions about the document? Email me at [email protected].

Please note that currently, we are ONLY accepting proposals of projects located in Canada, and small-scale projects that are $1500 or less funded over a span of at least one year.

Hey everyone! From today until September 8, EPN will be fundraising online (via Indiegogo) for our head office! Check out our animated video and the great perks we’ve come up with for our donors – please visit our campaign page for details! – http://igg.me/at/epn

We can also provide income tax receipts. Please help us spread the word – any support is truly appreciated!

This past month, End Poverty Now had the opportunity to attend Mile End Mission‘s Open House, where we spoke to their Executive Director, Linda, about potential future collaborations for our community. It was a pleasure for us to witness the wonderful community spirit that the mission has fostered throughout the years!

EPN Directors Amr, Cindy, and Andreas, with Linda at the Mile End Mission

We were also able to see some fantastic Inuit throat singing by Nina Segalowitzat and Taqralik Partridge at Montreal Urban Aboriginal Community Strategy NETWORK‘s Spring Gathering on June 12th. You can learn more about Nina, Taqralik, and the art of throat singing here. We went home with the NETWORK’s most recent Gathering Report, which highlighted their recent successes and future plans. We hope that somewhere down the road, EPN will be able to work with them in addressing local socio-economic issues such as homelessness and unemployment.

Inuit throat singing by Nina and Taqralik at the NETWORK’s Spring Gathering

On June 13th, EPN held its first staff social of the year at Boul Noir, where our staff/volunteers had some bonding time. We had fun hanging out, playing pool, and watching the NBA playoffs!

Some of our staff and chapter members at the last EPN Social

End Poverty Now is excited about the improvements we’ve seen in our HR operations, networking, and social media strategy, thanks to the help of our recently recruited staff! We’ve also been re-establishing a Board of Advisor team to help us continuously improve our organization in the long-run. As well, over the past couple of weeks we’ve been working on a little video for our upcoming online fundraising campaign (via Indiegogo), which will be launching in a week! Here is a sneak peek!

Sneak peek of the video for our upcoming online fundraising campaign

For the rest of the summer, we’ll be looking for local (in Canada) community initiatives to fund as part of our Grassroots Projects. Do you have suggestions of organizations or initiatives in Canada that EPN should check out and support? Let us know in the comments below!

Thank you for reading and check back soon for more updates!
Cindy

We’d like to give a warm welcome to our new head office staff! We’re very excited about the future of EPN, and we’ll be working with our new members to strengthen our HQ operations this summer.

Dina Ashry, Director of Marketing
Fatoumata Diane, Finance Officer
Stephanie Hawkins, Human Resources Officer
Beryl Wang, PR & Sponsorship Officer
Yasaman Zarbafian, PR & Sponsorship Officer
Earleen Dover, Social Media Officer
Samayi Campbell, Social Media Officer