Canoe.Portage

Mosaic, earthen tiles. Compass. Canoe points north. Two paddles embrace east, south and west.

  • Helping people, communities & the world reach more peace, fulfillment & principled living.
  • We work and design in disabled space and time.

Gathering

Canoe.Portage is expanding! We are gathering new people!

See below for details, but basically we are looking for new people who are underemployed or enduring discrimination or aren’t able to work in their ideal field. You are welcome if you live in southwestern BC, the Pacific Northwest, or anywhere with an internet connection!

We want to build business activities that pay far above a living wage, encourage your capacity, allow you to expand your skills and get training, and build value to your communities to meet your economic, social and political goals.

There’s room in the canoe for you. Grab a paddle!

Are you a good fit? Ask yourself the questions down at the bottom. But first, what are we up to:

  1. Purpose:
    1. Canoe.Portage is all about helping people, communities & the world reach more peace, fulfillment & principled living. This is who we’ve been. These are work projects we’ve done.
    2. Right now, that includes a huge focus of gathering more people who need better access to better work.
  2. Right now, we are a consulting company, a corporation, with a plan to change our legal structure:
    1. Convert into a worker co-op?
    2. Spawn a new worker co-op, or 2 or more?
  3. The people:
    1. The focus is primarily on people, with a solid intersectionality lens:
      1. Underemployed people
      2. 2slgbtqia+ people
      3. IBPOC people
      4. People who aren’t working in their field
      5. People who have been economically, socially and politically oppressed and marginalized by society, and mostly the colonial imperial white patriarchy
      6. Activists, revolutionaries, anti-capitalists
      7. Disabled people
      8. Neurospicy people
      9. Others are welcome too
    2. The company works in disabled space, ensuring clients know who is part of our group, and what it means to be working with people in disabled space.
  4. The geographic areas of work:
    1. Squamish, right now, is a particular focus of colleagues and clients, and growing community needs and space
    2. Southwestern BC generally
    3. Other provinces
    4. The Pacific Northwest
    5. Other countries
  5. The scope of our work:
    1. Change management consulting
      1. Strategic planning for businesses, non-profits, co-ops, alliances and coalitions
      2. Let’s incorporate your business or non-profit
    2. Co-op incorporation and development including the Principle 6 Tune-Up
    3.  Engagement!
      1. Member, community engagement and power mapping, and coalition- and alliance-building
    4. Events!
      1. Workshop and seminar planning
      2. Community meetings, panels for artists, activists and community organizers
    5. BEYOND Health and Wellness for Teachers and Professors
    6. BEYOND Equity, Diversity and Inclusion
    7. Disability space, accommodation and awareness training and workshops
    8. We want to move into other things people want to do, beyond these topics!
      1. This is based on who you are, what you can do, what you want to do and what can serve your communities
      2. Tutoring?
      3. Childcare?
      4. Consulting?
  6. Clients:
    1. Co-ops
    2. Credit unions [which are also co-ops]
    3. Non-profits
    4. Businesses
    5. Unions and professional associations of teachers and professors
  7.  Training:
    1. We access 80% subsidized BC training grants to help you level up in skills you are lacking.
  8. Pay, benefits, compensation:
    1. In pursuing a worker co-op model, there is a place for you as an equal owner and director of the business. In worker co-ops, everyone has exactly one share, unlike a company or corporation.
    2. We will ensure everyone makes a living wage, but we create business activities that pay much more.
    3. We access BC and Small Business BC disability/accessibility grants to empower you in how to do your work
    4. We have extended healthcare benefits for members and we are looking for pension/RRSP options

Are you a good fit? Let’s do some mapping of YOU:

  1. Who are you?
  2. What do you enjoy?
  3. What are you good at?
  4. What skills and training have you had?
  5. What paid and volunteer jobs have you had?
  6. What kind of work would you like to do?
  7. What Canoe.Portage projects would you like to work on, what new projects would you suggest?
  8. What kind of ways can you contribute to your communities, either as a volunteer or through business services/products we create?
  9. What kind of training and experience would you need to get there?
  10. What can we do together to make these happen?

Please get in touch! Whoever sent you this page knows how to reach us, or you could use the contact form below.

Stephen Elliott~Buckley, member
Canoe.Portage

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