ICCC Communique #3

Members’ Communique # 3 (July 2017)

Grants received and applied for: 

1. NHSP 2017 Grant Application Submission: ICCC submitted NHSP 2017 grant application for Seniors activities for the year 2018-19. We received support letters from eight organizations including Jewish Family Services. The funding decision will be known in February 2018. ICCC has also provided support letters to ICA, Deshantari and Barrhaven Seniors Associations for their application for the NHSP grant.
2. Grant received to hire Summer Students: Three summer students have been at work since June 2017. Directed by the Director of Virtual Hub, these students are engaged in technology, information gathering and communications to populate the virtual hub with community information.
3. $15,000 Grant received for ICCC-Festival of India (FIO)’s Canada 150/150 project: This project, managed by an ICCC-FIO coordination committee, is to enable mingling and cultural exchange between 150 Indo-Canadian families and 150 families of other cultures. So far 30 families have participated in this program.
4. Applied for a Government of India Grant in-Aid for 2017-18:  We have furnished an application to High Commission of India for funds from Govt of India for community development and promotion of Indian heritage activities. Our focus was the Spiritual Hub – building up of a Meditation and Peace Garden for the benefit of the Ottawa community at large.

1. Virtual Hub – Community Portal: With the help of the summer students, we have scoured the websites of most of the Indo-Canadian and India-Friendly organizations for the past and future events, and populated a Community Calendar on our Virtual Hub (the ICCC Website: https://icccottawa.org). All those organizations have been informed about it. We have also requested them to post their upcoming events directly into our community calendar. We are also populating the website with community news.
2. Spiritual HUB Project – Meditation and Peace Gardens: We are awaiting a response from the City of Ottawa for their agreement of the Parks Department to maintain the Gardens. The ICCC Board is proceeding with the preparatory steps to get an MOU with the land donor, get the drawings and cost estimates to build out the Gardens in phases, have fund-raising plans in place, and make a business case to the City of Ottawa. A formal “ICCC Spiritual Hub Committee” will take further steps in the coming weeks.
3. Physical Hub – Community Centre Property exploration:  The committee headed by Nitya Varma has made some progress. Talks are under way with the City for a provisional agreement to seek approvals on both sides. The committee will likely have the report within the stipulated six-month period to present to the Special General Meeting (SGM) of the General Body of the ICCC.

1. ICCC constitution & By-Laws Committee: The ICCC Board has constituted a committee comprised of Dr. Shiv Chopra, Dr. Prabir Neogi and Mr. Anish Mehra to examine and recommend changes to membership and other bylaws.
2. ICCC venturing into Sports – exploring collaboration with Nepean Field Hockey Club: Talks are underway with a Nepean Nighthawks Field Hockey club for collaboration.  The ICCC’s sports initiative will raise its profile in the sports arena and in the mainstream society.
3. Educational Scholarships for Youth (Leaders of Tomorrow): ICCC is launching scholarships for the youth.  A couple of Board Members have offered to provide initial funding for the scholarships. Further work is required to put this in place and a committee has been formed for this.

• July 29, 2017 – Soaicl Media training for women, organized by Social Network of Women (S.N.O.W.)
• Aug 9, 26, 23 and 30 – Seniors computer training classes.
• Aug 22, 2017 – ICCC Seniors day-trip to Voyageur Provincial Park.
• Sept, 2017 (date not confirmed) – Music performance. ICCC is exploring the venue and other deatils of this event.

• June 21, 2017 – Barrhaven Seniors Associations’ Canada 150 and Father’s Day celebrations: ICCC board members joined the event for networking.
• June 23, 2017 – The Mahatma Gandhi Peace Council of Ottawa (MGPC) Panel discussion on the 23^rd of June 2017: The topic was “Mahatma Gandhi Today.” ICCC board members joined the event for networking.
• June 23, 2017 – Air India Memorial Service:  This poignant event took place at Dow’s Lake pavilion. ICCC Board members attended the memorial service.
• June 24, 2017 – MSMF picnic: This picnic was held in the Andrew Hayden Park, and attracted > 400 people. ICCC members participated in it for networking.
• June 25, 2017 – International Day of Yoga: High Commission of India organized and held this function in cooperation and collaboration with ICA, ICCC and several other community organizations. ICCC was also one of the sponsors of the IDY T-Shirts distributed to over 600 participants.
• July 8, 2017 – ICA’s Unity Picnic: ICCC partnered with ICA in planning and organizing the event, advertising and selling tickets.
• Aug 11-13, 2017 – Festival of India Ottawa (FIO): ICCC will be partnering with the FIO. We’ll have two booths to display ICCC’s vision & initiatives (Seniors and Social Network of Women). ICCC is also launching the new book “A History of Indo-Canadians in Ottawa… Journey Across Generations.” A FREE PDF version is to be given away to all Ottawa residents.
• Aug 11 – 20, 2017 – South Asian Festival Ottawa (SouthAsianFest 2017): ICCC is exploring an active collaboration with it.
• Aug 18, 2017 – ICA’s India’s Independence Day celebrations/India Day Parade.

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