Attending the Meech International Symposium and presenting a paper: IMPLEMENTATION OF THE ENTREPRENEURIAL DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF SUSTAINABLE SMALL BUSINESSES IN MINING AFFECTED COMMUNITIES- CERRO DE SAN PEDRO, MEXICO

Attending the Meech International Symposium and presenting a paper: IMPLEMENTATION OF THE ENTREPRENEURIAL DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF SUSTAINABLE SMALL BUSINESSES IN MINING AFFECTED COMMUNITIES- CERRO DE SAN PEDRO, MEXICO

In honour of Prof. Meech who was the recipient of the last year 2014 Fray International Sustainability Award that SEF was proud to be part of.

The symposium is organized to celebrate his achievements during an entire life that was cut short in his peak of scientific and community activities.

Prof. Dan Shechtman, 2011 Nobel Laureate in Chemistry, will present and interact on the topic "Technological Entrepreneurship - Key to Sustainable World Peace and Prosperity".

 

Next Monday July 13, 2015: Join Us at The SDIMI2015 Conference - Mitigating Boom and Bust: Creating a Sustainable Economy Paper

ABSTRACT: In an attempt to break the boom and bust cycle historically associated with the mining industry, Eagle Mine, a subsidiary of Lundin Mining located in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, is working with the community to bolster the local economy outside of extractive industries through programs like Accelerate UP.

 

Click here to read through our paper which was presented at the SDIMI2015 Conference.

RABC taps community for economic development

Grassroot entrepreneurs
BY LAURA BUTTON
EDITOR

 

The Rural Alberta Business Centre (RABC) in Rocky is expanding their reach with a new community project to support economic development. 

“It’s creating an environment for entrepreneurs to come forth,” said Suzette McFaul, owner of SEF Canada, an economic development firm from Vancouver.

She and SEF Canada project coordinator Hannah Grimson were in Rocky Mountain House earlier this month to bring the new community capacity-building initiative to the RABC.

“It’s about people and human behaviour rather than checklists,” said McFaul. “It’s inspiration and empowerment.” 

With McFaul’s guidance, Small Business Advisor Michelle Andrishak has enlisted a group of local residents together to foster the entrepreneurial spirit in west central Alberta.

Retired professionals, homemakers, youth, new business owners, professionals and entrepreneurs all have something to offer a budding businessperson. McFaul says the community support helps people overcome their fears.

“There’s an internal fear factor stopping a certain amount of entrepreneurs from coming forward,” said McFaul, fearful thoughts that their idea is no good, or somebody will steal it, or they have no money, no support or believe they are too old to launch a new career. New businesses require manufacturing, selling, financing, managing and accounting skills. 

“Nobody in the world can do all of these and love all of them,” said McFaul, describing how the community network will help a new businessperson build a team and a plan to move forward.

Andrishak says people get on board for the love of the community – and good business sense.

“They believe in and love the community, and they believe entrepreneur development leads to sustainability of the community,” said Andrishak. “It’s a full-blown community project.” 

“The experts are already in every community,” added McFaul, “it’s just a matter of bringing them together.”

McFaul says community support is essential for long-term sustainability.

“We know following that methodology that 80 to 90 per cent will still be here in fi ve years,” she said.

The RABC serves all of west central Alberta, from Sylvan Lake to Rimbey, Sundre, Alder Flats, Buck Lake, and all parts west.

For Andrishak, the new method is just a subtle change in the way she does business.

“I still do one-on-one and networking, but it’s how it’s delivered,” said Andrishak. “It’s more about client empowerment, and helping them find tools in their own circle of knowledge.”

News about our facilitator Alexander Kofsky in Michigan!

'Accelerate U.P' looks to help young entrepreneurs 

It's being compared to an old fashioned barn-raising: a way to strengthen the community by helping new businesses.

Accelerate U.P. is a non-profit organization offering free and confidential business coaching in Marquette county. The organization's mission is to help entrepreneurs in creating, expanding, and maintaining their business ventures.

Alexander Kofsky, Enterprise Facilitator at Accelerate U.P said, " Not everybody knows what resources are available to them. Not everybody has a network of people that they can talk to about the issues their facing, or they've been sitting, thinking about a dream their entire life and they just have never had that support to go out and launch their idea. So that's why for us it's really important to be accessible to be casual and just be available to anybody that's looking to start a venture or to expand."

If you are interested in working alongside 'Accelerate U.P' in a entrepreneurial venture you can call Alexander Kofsky, Enterprise Facilitator at Accelerate U.P. at 906-250-9182 or by e-mail at alex@accelerateup.com

Source: http://www.upmatters.com/…/news/19801/dhm84rvXtEeJsEPtPeYGsA

Once again, Guest of UBC Society and Mining Class

Suzette has been invited to discuss the new CSR strategy of Economic Development with a class at UBC for Society and Mining, March 20.

Economic Development VS Economic Diversification
Economic Development provided by the mining company is not sustainable. Firstly the resource is exhausted and thereafter the economic activity then stops. It can be a catalyst. Conversation will evolve around the different strategies.

Tere Ledezma (IIS) will collaborate as an intern with the Canadian company SEF

 

Tere Ledezma, 8th semester Industrial and Systems Engineering student, will be collaborating with SEF Canada this year, as an intern in an Entrepreneurial Development project in "Cerro de San Pedro".

Tere learned about the opportunity of this internship with SEF Canada, through the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Division on campus; therefor she entered in the selection process for the job, in which students from different faculties were involved. As a result, she was the selected student.

SEF Canada consults and trains in the field of Local Economic Development and Corporate Social Responsibility, to ensure prosperous futures. The project in which Tere is already participating, is about the development and growth of "Cerro de San Pedro", since San Xavier Mine is close to finish its operations.

Tere will support with translations and with English-Spanish communication when the consulting company visits "Cerro de San Pedro", to impart the entrepreneurial courses, which will be leaded by Suzette McFaul (SEF Managing Director)

Tere, who had already made an internship in the Direction of Economic Development of the Local Government, commented that she is really interested in the topics related to sustainable development, and she is now seeking to follow up in this ambit, but now changing the perspective from public service to a private initiative. She is excited about the opportunity, since she will have a chance to be in touch with other cultures and other ways to encourage economic development through internationalization.

For more information about SEF Canada: www.sefcanada.com

Source: http://conocetec.slp.itesm.mx/index.php/academicas/137-tere-ledezma-iis-colaborara-como-practicante-con-la-empresa-canadiense-sef

In Memory of John Meech

At FLOGEN’s Shechtman International Symposium held in Cancun, Mexico from June 29 to July 4, Professor John Meech was presented with the Fray International Sustainability Award in recognition of his leadership of UBC-CERM3′s research into Sustainable Mining. Dr. Meech attended the conference with 10 members of the CERM3 team who presented 12 papers on recent work done at UBC


A list of papers presented by the CERM3 team is shown below:

4. Development of Sustainable Small Businesses in Mining-Affected Communities
- Suzette McFaul, Andre Xavier, and John Meech

UBC-CERM3 Team at the Shechtman Conference L to R: Dottie and Jim Higgins (Guelph University), Emma and Chris Anderson (Massey University, NZ), Claudia and Andre Xavier (UBC-Mining), John and Elaine Meech, Ricky Gu and Peipei Shi (UBC), Suzette McFaul (SEF-Canada), and Sixto Aguero (UBC)

 

http://mining.ubc.ca/professor-john-meech-received-the-fray-international-sustainability-award/

Congratulations Dr. Andre Xavier.

As an industry supervisor and sponsor of Mitacs,  we are proud to be part of The Final Oral Examination for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy(Mining Engineering) for Andre Xavier PhD.  

His thesis “Socio- Economic Mine Closure (SEMC)Framework: A Comprehensive Approach for Addressing the Socio-Economic Challenges of Mine Closure” was presented on Monday, November 25 at UBC.

We look forward to working very closely with Andre in assisting our Resource companies to address their needs.