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December 5 – International Volunteer Day
December 5 marked International Volunteer Day, a global celebration of volunteers first mandated by the United Nations in 1985 to shine a light on the impact of volunteer efforts everywhere. "The power of collective action: if everyone did" was this year’s theme. At CPF, we are very grateful every day for all our volunteers across the Network.
Call for Interest for Openings on CPF National Board of Directors 2024-2025
Canadian Parents for French is calling for individuals to serve on its National Board of Directors. Candidates should value lifelong learning and the importance of the French language in Canadian society. Applicants who have led organizational or institutional change efforts are particularly welcome. The National Board is committed to encouraging more diverse and inclusive leadership within the board and across the Network. Candidates should possess a strong leadership and teamwork ethic, experience in change and risk management, along with effective communication skills, ideally in both English and French. Candidates are encouraged to highlight dimensions of diversity as appropriate. Consideration will also be made with respect to geographical region. Candidates must be (or become) CPF members and are invited to send a CV and cover letter/email indicating why they are interested in serving to Wendy Carr, Nominations Committee Chair at cpf@cpf.ca with the subject line “CPF Nominations”. Deadline for receipt of nominations is midnight on February 15, 2024.
Board positions are voluntary and include some travel. The time commitment will vary based on the Board’s needs; a few days per month is likely, in addition to attendance of multi-day board meetings (approximately three times per year) for which all reasonable travel, meals, and accommodation expenses are reimbursed, plus shorter, online meetings. The Board is committed to accommodating the needs of board members to ensure that all members can fully participate.
RESULTS of CPF Network Giving Tuesday 2023 Campaign
2023 marks the fifth year the CPF Network has participated in Giving Tuesday, an international day of giving. Our campaign kicked off on November 1st and wrapped up on December 1st, 2023. While our goal is to ultimately raise $10,000 to top up the MJB Fund each year, 2023 campaign was, thanks to the increased participation from all CPF Branches, the most successful one yet! The success of the campaign this year is focused on three indicators:
a) increased social media engagement – Giving Tuesday was consistently promoted, with Branches sharing and personalizing posts. We saw an increase of people liking, commenting and sharing posts thanks to the variety of content across social media channels.
b) increased number of donors - We reached 63 donors beating 53 donors in 2022.
c) increased overall donations total – We raised $6,740, a substantial increase over 2022 ($2,105).
Prizes for performance results will be announced along with the final Giving Tuesday report before the end of the year.
Special shout-outs to CPF British Columbia & Yukon for getting a $1000 donation from a local business and to CPF Nova Scotia and National Board Director Diane Tijman for sharing an UNSELFIE.
A detailed Branch by Branch report is being circulated to ensure that donors are thanked promptly. If you have any suggestions related to helping improve next year’s campaign, please contact Members, Chapters and Donor Relations Network Coordinator, Marin Hawley at mhawley@cpf.ca.
PCH Program Audit Report
PCH may conduct a Program Audit or Review with community organizations that it financially supports. This is usually prompted by a noted change or issue that has been brought to their attention. In spring 2022, CPF was informed that PCH, as our major funder, would conduct a Review of CPF Governance, Communication, and Accountability processes with the CPF National office and a sampling of 3 CPF Branch offices (NWT, MB, NB). The last Program Review undertaken with CPF was the Impact Study in 2009. Despite it being a lot of work, can be considered as an opportunity for the whole organization to focus on continuous improvement measures.
The auditor collated the information received from completed questionnaires and interviews. The final Report was received in mid-September and lists 25 recommendations and 8 opportunities for further improvement. The responsibility of the implementation of the recommendations falls to all entities within the CPF Network. And so, all CPF Branches and offices should anticipate prioritizing the required effort and budget resources over the next two years.
ACTION: We are sharing the full report with Network leaders. A series of meetings to discuss the recommendations and opportunities will be scheduled in January with both CoED and CoP. We encourage Branch Boards to review the Report and be prepared to bring forward their questions and considerations based on capacity to help us develop the implementation and response plan to 2026.
Looking Forward to CPF 2.0
Part of Yves Savoie’s governance guidance work has been to propose a new CPF membership structure with a goal of increasing direct member engagement, transforming membership through the use of a digital member/donor fundraising strategy and expanded voting rights. His report was shared in May 2023 for discussion in July 2023. Phase II of his work has been to consult and then propose an updated structure for CPF Chapters taking into consideration past struggles in various regions and the advent of CPF Teams in some jurisdictions. His ‘Discussion Paper’ is intended to spark robust discussion internally, allowing CPF leaders to embrace aspects of the new approach to develop priorities and strategic directions as we plan to allocate both human time and financial resources over the next two years.
ACTION: This new Discussion Paper, December 2023, is available for Network leaders to read here. Meetings will be scheduled in January with CoED and CoP to begin discussion of the recommendations and consider requirements for implementation in the coming years.
French as a Second Language Student Enrolment Statistics 2021-2022
On December 4, Canadian Parents for French released the French as a Second Language Enrolment Statistics for the 2021-2022 school year. This yearly publication provides a quick analysis of national trends of enrolment in FSL programs by presenting the data by province and territory and by type of program.
Highlights from the 2021-2022 edition:
- At the national level, total enrolment in FSL programs continues to remain stable albeit stagnant.
- Regarding the overall percentage of students in an FSL program, Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, Northwest Territories and Ontario keeps growing steadily.
- French immersion enrolment in British Columbia, Newfoundland and Labrador, Northwest Territories, Ontario and the Yukon either grew modestly or remained stable.
- Core French keeps steadily growing in Manitoba, Northwest Territories, Ontario and in Canada overall.
ACTION: We encourage Branches to review the data and utilize this annual tool as part of CPF Branch advocacy efforts for equitable access to quality French programs in their jurisdictions
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