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CELEBRATING COMMUNITY FUTURES WEEK - SMALL BUSINESS IS BOOMING ACROSS THE WEST AND IT'S TIME TO CELEBRATE!
Join the Prince Albert and District Community Futures Development Corporation (CFDC) in toasting the success of local small businesses at this year's 'Chili for Charity' on October 19th. This event and others like it across Saskatchewan and Western Canada are planned to mark the second annual Celebrating Community Futures Week this October 8-13.
Events in all 90 CFDC locations across the four western provinces, such as Prince Albert's 'Chilli for Charity' or Humboldt's 'Discover the Possibility' workshop, will give local business owners a chance to discuss and learn about business or simply mingle with CFDC staff and Board members.
Celebrating Community Futures Week is designed to promote the many programs and services offered by CFDCs and to highlight the achievements of small business entrepreneurs.
The Honourable Ron J. Duhamel, Minister of Veterans Affairs, Secretary of State (Western Economic Diversification) (Francophonie), praised the non-profit CFDCs for their ongoing role in strengthening community economies across the West.
"In the new knowledge-based economy, CFDCs are becoming vital to their regional economies," said Minister Duhamel. "Through the direction of local businesses and business experts, these offices provide a hub where talent, experience and wisdom gather together in a community to build that community's economic future. CFDCs enable future business owners to work toward their dreams, and can help local entrepreneurs make those dreams a fiscally successful reality."
CFDCs provide a range of services to westerners - from training programs in accounting and marketing, to advice on navigating the complexities of a business plan or product development cycle. They also provide loans for entrepreneurs who may have trouble accessing funds from traditional sources. The ability of CFDCs to provide these loans is key in successfully fostering entrepreneurship in rural Western Canada.
For Celebrating Community Futures Week, there will be a wide range of events taking place across Saskatchewan. Check your local paper or contact your local CFDC to find out how your region will be celebrating local entrepreneurship.
Community Futures Development Corporations are partners with Western Economic Diversification Canada in the Western Canada Business Service Network, and receive core-operating funding from the Government of Canada. CFDC offices are administered by local volunteer boards.
FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT:
Joanne Mysak
Manager, Consultations, Marketing and Communications
Western Economic Diversification Canada
Saskatoon, Saskatchewan
(306) 975-5942
Carla Martyniuk
Executive Director
Community Futures Partners of Saskatchewan Inc.
Regina, Saskatchewan
(306) 751-1922
WD Toll-Free Number:1-888-338-WEST (9378)
Teletypewriter (TTY): 1-877-303-3388
WD Website: www.wd-deo.gc.ca.
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Backgrounder
WD AND SASKATCHEWAN'S COMMUNITY FUTURES DEVELOPMENT CORPORATIONS (CFDCs)
Between April 1995 and March 2001, Saskatchewan CFDCs provided 1,281 loans to small businesses totalling nearly $34 million, helping to create or maintain 4,018 jobs in rural areas of the province.
Entrepreneurs who are unable to obtain financing from traditional lending institutions may access capital on friendly and flexible terms from their local CFDC. These offices also provide a wide range of business services to the small business community - they attribute their success in the field of small-business lending to their unique approach which focuses on loan after-care, mentoring and sound business advice.
Saskatchewan's CFDCs operate as non-profit entities and are governed by a local volunteer board comprised of directors who represent a broad base of community interests. CFDC boards operate on the philosophy that local decision-making and local development are the most effective means for communities to shape their future, and that building entrepreneurial capacity is one of the keys to thriving, healthy communities. This is a process that WD supports: building local capacity facilitates bottom-up solutions to challenges and gives communities the ability to respond to circumstances that affect them.
The 13 CFDCs in Saskatchewan, in partnership with Western Economic Diversification Canada, provide services to all of rural Saskatchewan. These services include:
coordination of community-based strategic planning
guidance to entrepreneurs starting a business or preparing a business plan
investment in business ventures through loans to small businesses and entrepreneurs
pathfinding and delivery of government programs and services to individuals.
Through the offices of Western Economic Diversification Canada, Government of Canada provides core operating funding, investment capital and special funds to Community Futures Development Corporations.
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