Mike Balkwill Email & Phone Number

I’ve organized communities around grassroots issues for over 40 years. I also equip new and seasoned organizers with useful techniques, terms, and tools through my publishing business, CommonAct Press. -- A Lifelong Community Organizer --At 64 years old, I have no plans for retirement – in fact, I’m still learning. Currently, I’m involved in two active initiatives:- Put Food in the Budget campaign - to raise social assistance rates in Ontario- Wellington Water Watchers’ “Say No To Nestle” campaign - to phase out permits to bottle water in Ontario.Here are some highlights from past campaign work:- With Toronto Community Housing, I led the largest experiment in participatory budgeting in Canada. 5000 tenants decided the allocation of $25 million in capital improvements.- I organized a parent-led campaign to protect the health of children in Peel Region. After a two-year push, we forced two Boards of Education in Peel to tear down portables contaminated with mold and replace them with permanent additions to the schools. - I campaigned in Brampton Ontario to successfully prevent the approval of an incinerator for radio-active waste. -- What Drives Me --A quote I heard as an undergraduate has stuck with me. Attributed to an Aboriginal woman from Australia named Alice, it says, “If you are here to help me, go away. If your liberation is somehow tied up with mine, let’s get to work.”Later, I saw a poster with this quote from Paulo Freire than has been a kind of mantra of mine ever since. “Washing one’s hands of the conflict between the powerful and the powerless means to side with the powerful, not to be neutral.” I try not to be neutral.-- Independent Publishing for Grassroots Changemakers --Please visit CommonAct's website (www.commonact.com) or LinkedIn for more information about my publishing work.

Listed skills include Non Profits, Research, Community Development, Strategic Planning, and 20 others.