“Killele. Killele. Oye, oye, killele”. The african song taught to us last night by Fule Badoe rang through the beautiful atrium and energized the early morning crowd. Lou Hammond-Ketilson of the University of Saskatchewan’s Centre for the Study of Co-operatives then took the stage.  She outlined the commitment of the organisations behind the conference. Among all partners, a staggering 9,000 hours of work were logged for planning and implementing the conference. While all partners have web-site with a wealth of sustainability information, conference partners also added these specific offers for Impact! participants.

Wendy Carruthers of The Co-operators Group was the first partner to outline opportunities for the students. She pointed out how the co-operative has been more than a fundor for Impact! The Co-operators Youth Conference for Sustainability Leadership. The organisation’s deep committed to sustainability extends beyond its own operations and led The Co-operators to  join with conference partners not only to fund, but to imagine from concept to execution. In addition to its own sustainability initiatives and the leadership on this conference, Wendy announced that The Co-operators Board of Directors approved a $50,000 Impact ! fund to implement some of the ideas generated at the conference. Not surprisingly, this was very warmly received.

Chad Park and Anouk Bertner encouraged the students to find case studies on their web-site, continue to use their on-line learning course, review job & internship postings and partner with them to develop an Emerging Leaders program where students learn about  The Natural Step framework and apply them with local businesses.

The Network for Business Sustainability also had much to offer the participants post-conference. In addition to creating a report on the students’ ideas to share with organizations, they also encouraged the students to join the Network to connect with experts, job opportunities and the latest business sustainability research. The Network’s web-site is a one-stop-shop for emerging sustainability research in a user-friendly format.

AIESEC, the youth voice on the Steering Committee, was ably described by Brett Harding.  He outlined the many leadership & international internship opportunities available through the organisation.

“Nancy Neamtan and David Suzuki both alluded to the need to change how we engage with the economy…the current model is broken and the co-operative model answers many of those needs” said Roger Herman of the  Centre for the Study of Co-operatives. He encouraged students to consider post-graduate studies on co-operatives at the centre where funding is available for research projects and internships; to think about co-opeartives as an organisational model for achieving the ojectives they have in mind; and to take advantage of funding programs to support co-op development such as the federal governments Co-operative Development Initiative.

Akua Schatz of the David Suzuki Foundation underscored the Foundation’s focus on ”motivating the motivated to motivate others.” She invited youth from all disciplines – from graphic arts to science  – to volunteer. She invited participants to watch for DSF training opportunities and opened the door for participants to use the David Suzuki Foundation as an amplifier to publicise and showcase their community initiatives and leadership.

Laurie Schnarr of the University of Guelph thanked the participants for inspiring her to enahnce some of the sustainability inititatives on the already extremely progressive U of G campus. She invited any participants undertaking student-life related intiatives to contact her for assistance.

The pre-conference research, the conference itself and now the opportunities extending beyond our time together will serve to assist the particpants to be catalysts for change.