Communauté Québec Moves to Higher Grounds

The English blog of Communauté Québec moves to WordPress some time this week. We will keep this blog open at Blogger because we have regular readers there that we appreciate. All archives will be imported on the new site.

Some construction is still undergone at www.communautequebec.org and may take some more days - we all are volunteers with jobs and families.

What is Communauté Québec? It is a programme administered by "Waska, autonomie et services techniques communautaires", a Québec City-based non-profit organization. It gathers business people from Québec City (and from outside), motivated by:

• CONCRETE actions, HERE and NOW that improve the socioeconomic situation of the community, by consolidating the grounds for sustainable development of empowerment,
  


• quitting throwing money on the problem: with a responsible, economically viable plan, it is possible to help individuals and organizations become pillars of their community and active, autonomous participants in the collectivity,


• taking weight off the socioeconomic burden by reducing taxes to people and businesses,


• favouring and maintaining autonomy (empowerment),


• consult one another, share and perform mutual help in order to improve clientele traffic in businesses, thus consolidating the grounds for a sustainable autonomy and keeping the economic lung healthy!

I know it repeats itself... The mission - officially is:

• Consolidate the grounds for sustainable autonomy (empowerment).
• Create autonomy with concrete actions, immediately implementable.
• Maintain the mutual help network dynamic and well alive.
• Broadcast the mission to gain allies among business people, sensible to the cause.
• Broadcast the mission to inform individuals and organizations who wish to acquire their autonomy (empowerment) that the programme is available to them.
• Broadcast the mission to let Québec citizens know that, by these CONCRETE actions, a sustainable autonomy (empowerment) will take weight off the socioeconomic burden, HERE and NOW.

What we actually do is:

• Participate in the elaboration of the Action Plan (on Internet).
• Attend meet-ups once a month.
• Help drafting the Action Plan (commenting, sharing my expertise in order for the secretary to produce the document).
• Broadcast our endeavours among my clients, business contacts and people of influence.
• Help my peers at Communauté Québec get more business traffic through broadcasting, consultation and mutual help, in order to consolidate grounds for sustainable autonomy.
• As in any non-profit organization, attend general assemblies.

Join us on twitter at http://twitter.com/comquebec and on Facebook, at:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Communaute-Quebec/116162295079679?

Waska celebrates its 27th anniversary!

Waska was founded on April 26, 1982, when students in a St. Foy, Quebec, technical institute join a "human relationships class" group in order to unite forces under one organization called "Club 3E". This non-profit entity has given itself a mission: to help people overcome problems with work exeperience and related training issues. Also, the club becomes a mutual help network. Then follows a great evolution over nearly three decades!

Right from the beginning, the organization takes a modular-shaped form of operation, where each of the elements pursue a specific goal, intended to a specific clientèle. Claudette Lemieux implements the "Aide-Amitié" section (help & friendship) taking care of the social needs of the members. Marc Dubé sets the "sports, activities and environmental awareness group". Jean-François Néron manages the learning workshops and experiential groups.

In 1983, the NPO is then renamed "Waska" and offers its workshops in a basement classroom of the St. Ursule Church in St. Foy, Quebec. To fund its humanitarian endeavours, the organization sells "English learning workshops" and "French as a second language workshops" at a fair tariff. To other associations in the neighbourhood, it is a strange mode of operation. Not used to social economy in those years, they make fun of Waska and dub it "insidious commercial entity". Today, social economy is the modern way (in Canada) to operate a non-profit organization. It is the way of the future since associations learn to be cost-effective and autonomous, which lightens the socio-economic burden of the community. Waska still offers the linguistic workshops and compiles 26 years of exeprience doing so!

1988 is a year marked by the entry of office automation in the widespread world of management. Waska launches its "computer learning workshops". Business is rolling and the NPO moves into its very own office, at 955 de Bourgogne Avenue in St. Foy, Quebec. Neighbouring offices shelter professionals such as doctors, insurance companies and lawyers. In 1991, the association moves its operations to the more prestigious Galeries Duplessis, flanking engineers and equally highly-regarded professionals. Waska adds one element to its modular structure: technical services intended to NPOs as well as individuals.

In 1999, Waska joins in with other NPOs in Quebec City and studies the phenomenon of poverty. It launches its programme "Exit poverty through autonomy/empowerment!", while promoting community discussion and solidarity (Connexion Ouest).

Today, the Quebec City-based organization operates in the cosy Loretteville quarter of the Old Capital City. Its mission is to help individuals and organizations gain empowerment; to implement a community network of solidarity, to promote environmental awareness.

Take part in Waska's 27th birthday

For its 27th anniversary, Waska is inviting you to join its various groups and causes on Facebook:

• become a fan of Waska's Official Facebook Page;
• join the group "Waska 1982-aujourd'hui/today"
• support the cause "Empowered individuals and organizations"

Autonomy and empowerment constitute the key to human justice and dignity because it allows everyone to actively take part in collective success and live a comfortable, happy life.

Waska currently in boosting process and looking for new board members

Waska, autonomie et services techniques communautaires, a Quebec City non-profit organization, is currently in a vigorous boosting process! The board of directors is working hard on a new business plan in order to widen the organization's action spectrum and boost its operation strength.

Basically, Waska helps individuals and non-profit organizations gain empowerment, i.e. bring them to set themselves free from the dependency to public funding and charity, to generate their own revenues. Also, Waska implements a system of community dialogue, exchange and solidarity in order to link up NPOs, various public social workers, small businesses and the population in a way to promote social and commercial relations that help the community live.

Waska has given itself this mandate right from the beginning in 1982, when it was founded in a classroom of the formerly called Technical Pavilion in St. Foy, Quebec, now the Marie-Rollet Professional Training Centre.

In April of 2008, Waska opened a workshop room at 125 Racine Street in Quebec City, in the heart of the Loretteville Quarter (Borough of the Haute-Saint-Charles). Last March 1st, the organization decided to close the location to allow itself more room to manoeuvre, a leeway to carry out its revival plan and establish connections with new business contacts.

The new projects undertaken by Waska will soon be published right here and will allow the organization to reinforce its humanitarian endeavours towards the community, making people happy already for the past 27 years.

Waska president by interim, Christian Tanguay (photo above), invites all persons involved in humanitarian endeavours to join our board of directors in the upcoming election. To be part of Waska means building pillars of the community, reducing its social/economic burden, and help goodwill individuals regain their dignity. You may contact Mr. Tanguay at waskatechnicien@gmail.com or call him at (418) 407-1425.

Whether you are in Québec City or elsewhere, our membership network is awaiting you! We are inviting any person interested in contributing with concrete gestures, ideas, or contacts to the pursuit of Waska's mission. Annual membership fee is $10 for individuals and $20 for non-profit organizations. It allows you to benefit from high-quality services and to partake in social activities related to the organization's mission. You can register directly with Mr. Tanguay or by contacting the Executive Secretary, Mr. Jean-François Néron at (418) 847-4784 or waskaquebec@gmail.com.

Welcome to all!

What does chess have to do with imagination anyway? - by Laura Sherman

Artists, leaders, educators and pretty much anyone in any field can enhance our world through creativity and imagination. So what does this have to do with chess? Everything!

Chess helps a child develop his or her imagination. After all we’re just looking at a board with 64 squares and a bunch of pieces that can move around in different ways until the players breathe life into their games. As the pieces take their place on the battlefield, positions form and opportunities open up, but only if you can see them in your mind’s eye.

As a person improves, each position communicates more and more to him or her. One starts recognizing patterns and becomes able to plan future attacks. The way to win a game of chess is to plan out a strategy and follow through with it. You must be able to imagine your goal and then take the necessary steps to carry it out.

Apply this to any aspect of your life and you will do well. Decide what you want to accomplish, set the goal and then do what is needed to make that happen. Maybe you have a new business idea. Maybe you want a buy a home or you want to write a novel. The possibilities are endless and are under your control.

If we can teach our children early that it is okay to dream and that those dreams can come true, we might just be looking at an unstoppable next generation!

Laura Sherman co-owns Your Chess Coach (www.YourChessCoach.com) with her husband, Dan Sherman. Together they teach children to play chess through various schools in Pinellas County, Florida, as well as privately in students’ homes and online. Mrs. Sherman has nicely accepted that this article be translated for the fortunate benefit of our French-speaking readers of Communauté Québec.