On Thursday, March 24 The congregation at Knox Presbyterian Church in Stratford announced a partnership with Urbanistyc, a BMI Group company, that will preserve one of Stratford’s most historic churches. The agreement signed by both the church and developer will allow for continued use of the church by the congregation and future development of the full church site.
Bolder, faster, together poses the question: How can we all take responsibility for the past, navigate a turbulent present and co-operate to protect future generations? Follow along as this series, co-ordinated by the Transition Innovation Group at Community Foundations of Canada, explores the deep societal transformation already underway and accelerating in Canada and around the world.
Our Executive Director, Graham Singh was featured on the 41st episode of the Impact Investing Podcast hosted by David O’Leary!
Graham talks about the crisis facing churches across the country, and our approach to using impact investing as a vehicle for transforming idle church properties into thriving community hubs.
Across Canada, church congregations are dwindling and costs to maintain their buildings continue to rise. As a result, many of Canada's 27,000 faith spaces and buildings across Canada are in danger of closing. But potentially, many of those spaces could be reborn and repurposed as community hubs that everyone could use.
That's where Kendra Fry comes in. Fry has a long background in arts and theatre, including her latest role as the general manager of Stratford Summer Music. But her other job is to help communities of faith reimagine their spaces.
Many churches have inherited valuable real estate from previous generations. Our facilities have served admirably, hosting wedding and funerals, baptism, worship services, and music concerts. They have also served the community through Scouts, AA, day care, fundraising dinners, and so much more. Unfortunately, these buildings often become millstones around the neck of congregations as energy is diverted from mission into roof repairs, work parties for painting, with declining, precious funds sent off for ever-increasing utility bills. As churches struggle with these new realities, accelerated in many cases by COVID-19, they invariably turn to the possibility of sale. In my context alone, we are expected to lose 30% of our church buildings over the next five years.
Today’s crisis around the church, residential schools and so many of Canada’s historic institutions presents both a challenge and opportunity for Canada’s granting foundations and charities.
For many Canadians, the church feels dangerous these days — even, toxic. A much needed conversation including Black Lives Matter, Me Too and the horrors of Residential Schools has been set on fire by the shocking discovery of the unmarked graves of beautiful, precious souls. Souls that deserve recognition in this life — and the next.
There are those that fall into ruin, those that are sold to the highest bidder, those few that still welcome their faithful, and then those that are burning these days. For every church that is reinvented, a dozen are demolished. Yet, in addition to being an important part of our heritage, our churches are above all a vast network of infrastructures at the service of their communities, located in the heart of each Quebec village. What if, in order to reshape Quebec, we made them an engine of economic and social development for our communities?
There are seemingly not enough social impact investment opportunities to quench investor appetite in Canada.
If we remove the opportunities to invest in green energy, and instead analyze opportunities to invest in communities, we see very little by way of investment. Considering this state of the social impact investment landscape, how can investors intent on having an impact, fund opportunities that create lasting social change while generating a fair return?
