Exchange 2022

Watch the Livestream Recording

This year’s theme, “Below the Surface: Celebrating the Depth of Impact” recognizes the influence of our work which reaches every corner of Nova Scotia. Our goal is to surface the essential role that impact organizations play in innovating this province, pushing for change, and improving collective quality of life.

What if the Community Impact (Nonprofit) Sector didn’t exist? Programs and services are just the tip of the iceberg. The sector’s role includes trust-building and strengthening social ties, important advocacy efforts, therapeutic and wellness supports through arts and recreation, and giving people the connections and experiences to be able to tap into their whole selves.

Hosted by Portia Clark

Journalist, Radio Host
CBC Radio One Information Morning

Portia Clark is the host of Information Morning for Mainland Nova Scotia on CBC Radio One. Portia is an established journalist with a solid reputation as a trusted interviewer who has covered some of the country’s biggest stories throughout her 20-year career with CBC. Her first introduction to the airwaves was working as a reporter, producer and newsreader in Halifax in 1998.

In 2000, she moved west to CBC Edmonton for a news-reading job, which was followed by a year co-hosting the morning show, Edmonton AM, then making the switch to television to host Edmonton’s supper-hour newscast, CBC News Edmonton. In 2012, she went back to radio to host the Edmonton afternoon current affairs show, Radio Active. She returned home to Nova Scotia with her family in April 2018 to take on the role of host for Information Morning.

Portia has strong roots in rural Nova Scotia, having grown up in Sandy Cove on Digby Neck and in Bear River. She graduated from Annapolis West Education Centre, holds a BA in Philosophy from Dalhousie University and is a graduate of the Broadcast Journalism program at the British Columbia Institute of Technology. She is actively involved in her community and enjoys participating and supporting a variety of local community events.

Morning Workshops

The community impact sector expertly navigates systems of harm and oppression — supporting communities, building systems of care, play, education and more. This session asks ‘what would happen if we made space to imagine the future together?’ How can we meet the urgent, critical needs of our communities while imagining the possible, visionary futures that we all want and need? This talk will explore ways that we can come together to explore our sector ecology and what’s possible within it. It will include table discussion prompts, interactive questions, and cultural inspiration/thought starters.

Sarah Joynt-Bowe (she/they)

Sarah is a communications and narrative change strategist with over 15 years of experience developing dynamic, effective strategies for organizations in three countries and countless sectors. Over the course of her career, she has worked across strategic functions from in-house corporate communications to consulting and agency planning.

She has proven skills in campaign development, brand strategy, qualitative research, and workshop facilitation with an emphasis on building radical narrative power. Sarah is also a community organizer working within transnational anti-racist, abolitionist, and feminist social movements.

In this 75-minute session, we’ll take you behind the news desk, and look at what makes a great news story, how to pitch one and to whom. The session will also cover how to prepare an effective game plan for an interview, from messaging to delivery and what it means to be on the record. We’ll also discuss social media, and how to use it effectively to share your stories. There’s no spin in this session – just practical and useful tips for storytelling!

Jane Taber

Vice President, NATIONAL Public Relations

Jane Taber is a former Globe and Mail political journalist who spent more than 25 years covering Parliament Hill, Queen’s Park and the Nova Scotia legislature.

During her tenure on Parliament Hill with the Globe, Jane was also co-host of CTV’s Question Period. She’s spent a lot of time on campaign buses and planes during federal and provincial election campaigns and interviewed the country’s main political players. She also worked as the communications director to the former Premier of Nova Scotia.

Jane joined NATIONAL Public Relations in 2016, and specializes in media training, media relations, crisis management, speech writing and labour issues.

Jane is a graduate of Carleton University’s journalism program and was appointed to the Carleton University Board of Governors in June 2019 and to the Carleton University Senate in 2020. Jane served as a mentor to the Public Policy Forum’s Action Canada leadership fellows.

Featuring performances by

Circle in the Square Drum Ensemble

Our West African Inspired Drum Ensemble, “Circle in the Square”, is made up of a diverse group of people and is located in Uniacke Square, in the North End of Halifax. Some of our members have been drumming for years, some for months, and some for mere days. So, we are an eclectic group of drummers. What we share is the fact that we drum because we love to drum. We started to drum as a part of our regular programming at the iMOVe Arts Association, INSpiRe Program, and have grown to include members of our community, friends of participants and have become one large family with one common interest, the love of drumming.

El Jones

El Jones is a poet, journalist, professor, community advocate, and activist. Her work focuses on social justice issues such as feminism, prison abolition, anti-racism, and decolonization. Jones advocates for the use of spoken word as a tool for liberation and activism. She is dedicated to using poetry to engage youth and as a resource for prison outreach, finding her inspiration in the Black community of Nova Scotia. El Jones was born in Cardiff, Wales, but raised in Winnipeg, Manitoba. She now calls Halifax, Nova Scotia her home. Jones studied English at Dalhousie University and served as Halifax’s Poet Laureate since 2013. 

Agenda

Contact

Please contact hello@ions.ca with any questions you may have.