Éthel Côté has been involved in the economic, social, cooperative and cultural fields for 30 years. As general manager for the Cooperation Council of Ontario (CCO) from 1994 to 2000, she revived this movement and fostered the implementation of some thirty work, service and production cooperatives in addition to supporting agricultural, agri-food, housing and child care cooperatives. She holds a Canadian university level certificate in Agricultural Leadership and obtained her Masters Degree in Community Economic Development from Concordia University. She took part in several fact finding missions in Europe and Latin America to investigate the cooperative movements, the mobilization and socio-economic consensus-building processes, and the impact of globalization on the socio-economic development of rural communities in these countries. Through Uniterra, she participated in skills strengthening missions in Mali, Niger and Senegal for the social and solidarity economy networks of these countries and was also part of the organizing committee for the 3rd World Conference on Globalization and Solidarity held in Dakar in 2005. She is now the Canadian representative on the Board of the International Network for Promotion of Social Solidarity Economy (Réseau intercontinental de promotion d’économie sociale et solidaire (RIPESS)). In addition to teaching Community Economic Development at Boreal College and Concordia University since the year 2000, she has mentored hundreds of communities and promoters of social enterprises. She was part of funder groups which started viable social enterprises that still exist after more than 10 years. During the last three years, she has been actively involved with the Center for Community Enterprise, training the trainers in social enterprise development. She is also mentoring many development officers throughout Ontario to be technical assistance providers. She has been involved with the Canadian Community Economic Development Network for several years and sits on both its National Policy Council and the International Committee. She currently chairs the Ontario Solidarity Economy Network. She is the owner of L’Art du développement, a small business involved in Social Enterprise, CED & coop development.
Éthel Côté's presentation, Technical assistance & Models (PDF)
