| 1986 |
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SEDI is born and, along with the YMCA Canada, begins to introduce
the concept of self-employment training for low-income people to Canada.
|
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| 1990 |
|
Employment and Immigration
Canada responds to SEDI's advocacy by establishing the Minister's
Advisory Group on Self-Employment, the catalyst for the national
Self-Employment Employment Benefits (SEB) program. |
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| 1992 |
|
SEDI partners with the City of Toronto, Government of Canada and
the Ontario Ministry of Labour to develop and launch the first and
largest urban Self-Employment Employment Benefits (SEB) program. |
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| 1994 |
|
SEDI succeeds in convincing the province of Ontario to reform welfare
regulations pertaining to self-employment. |
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| 1995 |
|
The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)
acknowledges SEDI's expertise in self-employment. |
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| 1995 |
|
SEDI is the first Canadian group to provide capacity building in
self-employment for women through the unique Developing Enterprising
Women's Initiatives (DEWI) project. |
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| 1997 |
|
SEDI introduces the concept of asset building for the poor to Canada.
|
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| 1999 |
|
SEDI contributes recommendations to the Prime Minister's Task Force
on Youth Entrepreneurship. |
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| 2000 |
|
In partnership with Human Resources Development Canada
(HRDC), 10 communities from across the country, RBC, and the Social
Research and Demonstration Corporation (SRDC), SEDI launches learn
$ave, the largest demonstration of Individual Development Accounts
(IDAs) in the world. |
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| 2001 |
|
SEDI's youth initiatives are short-listed for an innovation award
by the Peter F. Drucker Foundation. |
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| 2002 |
|
SEDI participates in a Russian-Canadian
Women and Labour Market Reform initiative which produces breakthrough
results. |
| |
|
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| 2002 |
|
SEDI is commissioned by Canada Mortgage and Housing (CMHC) and
the National Secretariat on Homelessness (NSH) to undertake a national
consultation on the feasibility of Individual Development Accounts
(IDAs) concerning people living in transitional housing and access
to affordable housing. |
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| 2002 |
|
Corporation for Enterprise Development (CFED), the Center for Social
Development (CSD) and SEDI co-sponsor the first international IDA
Learning Conference. |
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| 2003 |
|
SEDI develops a national
model to foster economic self-sufficiency among youth at-risk to
be tested by the government of Canada. |
| |
|
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| 2003 |
|
CMHC publishes SEDI's positive findings derived from the national
consultation about using Individual Development Accounts to offer
greater access to affordable housing. |
| |
|
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| 2004 |
|
SEDI launches the Independent Living Account (ILA) demonstration
project in Edmonton, Toronto and Fredericton. The project has
community-based administrators and private and public sector funders.
The NSH provided financial support for research and evaluation, which
was undertaken by Ryerson University. |
| |
|
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| 2005 |
|
SEDI creates a financial capability education curriculum for youth
and people in shelters. |
| |
|
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| 2005 |
|
SEDI is commissioned by
CMHC to design a national demonstration project that includes 8
to 10 sites and 2000 accounts for low-income Canadians in order
to help them save to buy a home. |
| |
|
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| 2008 |
|
SEDI's Independent Living
Account (ILA) program receives the Vital Ideas Award from the Toronto
Community Foundation for its lasting impact on the community. |
| |
|
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| 2008 |
|
The Financial Consumer
Agency, the Joint Forum of Financial Market Regulators and SEDI
co-host Reaching Higher:
Canadian Conference on Financial Literacy in Montreal. At the sold-out,
international conference, SEDI calls upon the federal government
to establish an independent, multi-sector task force to develop
a national strategy on financial literacy for Canada. |
| |
|
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| 2008 |
|
SEDI launches the Canadian
Centre for Financial Literacy. A division of SEDI, the CCFL is dedicated
to helping build and develop financial literacy among low-income
Canadians. It is the only Canadian centre created to deliver easy-to-use
money management training for low-income groups through nonprofit
community organizations. |
| |
|
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| 2009 |
|
The federal government establishes the Task Force on Financial
Literacy recommended by SEDI in 2008. SEDI becomes a strategic advisor
to the task force, supporting its work to create a national strategy
on financial literacy for Canada. |
| |
|
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| 2010 |
|
TD Bank Financial Group
announces unprecedented funding of $14.5 million to SEDI for financial
literacy. Funds go to SEDI's Canadian Centre for Financial Literacy
and to the new TD Financial Literacy Grant Fund. A joint initiative
with SEDI, the grant fund is the first of its kind in Canada and
distributes millions in grants to community groups for financial
literacy training. |