The Centre for Civic Engagement

Stone Soup: An Action Plan for Toronto

“We will continue looking for additional savings across governmentwhile providing quality public services for Ontario families.

“And we welcome good ideas — from people, business owners,economists and the Opposition — on how to best find thosesavings.

- Dwight Duncan, Ontario Minister of Finance

“We can perhaps shoot for a grander goal – a province thatprovides the best public services, delivered in the mostefficient manner in the world.

If this sounds impossibly ambitious, put the question anotherway: Why not?

- The Drummond Report

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Stone Soup: A Story

Some travelers come to a village, carrying nothing more than an empty cooking pot.Upon their arrival, the villagers are unwilling to share any of their food stores with thehungry travelers. Then the travelers go to a stream and fill the pot with water, drop alarge stone in it, and place it over a fire. One of the villagers becomes curious and askswhat they are doing.

The travellers answer that they are making "stone soup”, which tastes wonderful,although it still needs a little bit of garnish to improve the flavour, which they aremissing. The villager does not mind parting with a few carrots to help them out, sothat gets added to the soup.

Another villager walks by, inquiring about the pot, and the travellers again mentiontheir stone soup which has not reached its full potential yet. The villager hands them alittle bit of seasoning to help them out. More and more villagers walk by, each addinganother ingredient.

Finally, a delicious and nourishing pot of soup is enjoyed by all.

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Two Emerging Trends

• Endings

– Existing service delivery model under significant strain– Society is increasingly polarized– Voter disengagement resulting in decreasing electoral turnout– Increasingly ideological policy development and implementation– Politics is becoming increasingly secretive– A dearth of high-level creative solutions for our social problems– An emerging riot culture (Occupy, Quebec, G20)

• … and Beginnings

– The emergence of Social Entrepreneurship and Conscious Capitalism as forces of social good– Concerned citizens starting grassroots democracy renewal/civic engagement initiatives– Social media fostering increased transparency and promoting collaboration– Aggregates/networks gaining traction as tools of efficiency and innovation

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The Big Picture

• Governments and Businessesbuilt on 20th (or in some cases,17th) Century models are at aloss on how to build andsucceed in the 21st Century

• The public is increasinglydisenfranchised with businessas usual

• A new class of socially-mindedleaders is developingopportunities to respond totoday’s challenges

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Centre for Civic

Engagement

The Opportunity – and the Need

• The different threads of social activity are all partof an emerging picture of social transformation

• What is needed now is a tool that aggregates andconnects these initiatives into a cohesive wholethat allows for cross-pollination and advocacy

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What the Centre of Civic Engagement Would Look Like:

• Providing the Stone in the Stone Soup that issociety, the Centre for Civic Engagement (CCE)would serve as an online aggregate for socialengagement initiatives:

– List websites– List upcoming events– Provide bios, blogs, histories– Podcasts– Have an “e-library” of papers and studies relevant to

the topics and trends emerging

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Value-Add

• More than just a hub, the CCE would proactivelyconnect partners (WSIC, CSI, Democracy Renewal,New Sabbath Project, Canadian Club, etc.) witheach other, seeking opportunities forcollaboration and breaking down systematic silos.

– Advocacy (to government, but equally betweenpartners)

– Discussion forums and action plans– Foster project-based partnerships between partners– Constantly seek new partners to grow the network

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DISCUSSION

Notes

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