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Author: Noah Richler Editor: Heather Sangster Additional text is reproduced from Additional text is reproduced from Masters of their own destiny: The Coady story in Canada and across the world <http://coadyextension.stfx.ca/> and is used with permission
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Coady international institute
at
St. Francis Xavier University 50 years of leadership
Please center the tile and not have the St. Francis …. Leadership so small and keep same color blue as Coady title above
By Noah Richler
Dr. Riley would like to see the pictures of Michael Jean, Dr. Riley and Mary Coyle all the same size.
I am delighted to mark the 50th anniversary of the Coady International Institute.
Throughout my travels and encounters, I have noted that young people see the world as one big community that needs to be cared for collectively, and that the only reasonable and sustainable solution for humanity is the globalization and the sharing of solidarities, knowledge and effort.
For 50 years, Coady’s graduates, staff and partners have been advocating such communal action and civic engagement. They have the strong conviction that they can change the world, and I can attest to the results of this commitment, because I have seen them in action in the countries of Africa. Practising what they preach, they give the best of themselves to ensure collective well-being, to build strong communities, at home and abroad.
I extend my warmest congratulations for 50 years of initiatives, action, outreach and hope, and for the promise of a better future.
Michaëlle Jean
The Governor General
ADD Dedication
And put in box
This volume is respectfully dedicated to the founders, staff and graduates of the Coady International Institute
Good spot to insert campus aerial photo.
Dr. Riley plans to revise.
As you read these words, someone is waking up in one of the more than 130 countries in which Coady is a word of human dignity and self-reliance.
The Coady International Institute at St. Francis Xavier University grew from a social movement in rural Canada. Its roots are in the struggles of farmers, fishermen, and miners not simply to survive but also to gain a better life and stronger community. A university came to be at the heart of this struggle through the turbulent times of the 1920s and the Great Depression.
Today the unanticipated legacy is a leadership education institute that is a unique and powerful contribution by Canada to the success of community- based organizations in developing countries.
This volume contains only fragments of the human story of the Coady International Institute. It is nonetheless a tribute to three generations of leaders in the cause of human dignity and self-reliance who united the beliefs and aspirations of communities to become, in the words of Moses Coady, “masters of their own destiny.”
For the first decade and a half of its existence, I knew the Coady International Institute as a young observer. The lives of my parents, Norman Riley and Sally Fraser, centered on the Antigonish Movement and the growth of the Coady Institute. For the past decade and a half, I have had the privilege of carrying on the Coady’s mission as a unique feature of St. Francis Xavier University.
Canada is, and must develop further as, a crossroads nation in the broad struggle for human values. The Coady International Institute is a unique leadership education institute supporting that aspiration.
Dr. Sean Riley
President, St. Francis Xavier University
Note Coyle photo same size as Jean & Riley photos. May need to pick different photo of Coyle
Forward
“Human energy must be unleashed by the universal dissemination of ideas.” Moses M. Coady
The Coady International Institute story is a unique story of Canada in the world. It is a story of leadership, compassion, innovation and global impact. It is a story I feel privileged to contribute to as the seventh director of this dynamic forward looking institution.
26 years ago I was conducting research in Upper Egypt for the Canadian International Development Agency. I was looking at how international donors supported the best practices in rural and urban enterprise development. Reputable sources in Cairo suggested I go visit a successful and innovative organization in El Minia called CEOSS. The Cairo sources were right. My CEOSS host in El Minia was a dynamic young leader named Nabil Abadir. When Nabil discovered I was from Canada, he asked me if I was from Antigonish. I have to admit I was taken aback and puzzled by his question. Sometimes people overseas ask if I am from Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal or even Niagara Falls but I had never been asked if I was from the small Canadian maritime town of Antigonish. Within minutes though, the pieces of the puzzle came together. Nabil was a 1975 graduate of the Coady International Institute’s Diploma in Social Leadership. He had spent 6 months living and studying on the campus of St. Francis Xavier University (StFX) in Antigonish. For Nabil, Antigonish and Coady were synonymous with Canada and Canada’s commitment to international development. For me, Nabil and his organization CEOSS, were the embodiment of a respectful and effective development approach which was focussed on building community and institutional capacity for durable, self reliant development.
As Director of the Coady International Institute for the past 13 years I have worked with my talented team of colleagues to further hone that Coady approach to leadership development which recognizes, mobilizes and unleashes human potential for positive results. The Institute’s namesake, Moses Coady, was committed to creating “the Good Society”, a society where all people would participate fully, enjoy a “good and abundant life” and be “Masters of their own destinies”.
There are now more than 5,000 Coady graduates in every region of the world working in thousands of communities with millions of people to achieve that vision of “the Good Society”.
This volume has been created in celebration of these graduates and first 50 years of the dynamic education, innovation and action agenda of the Coady International Institute. It pays tribute to the many people who have forged and nurtured the identity of this unique “made in Canada” international institution. Not meant to be a comprehensive recounting of the history of the Coady International Institute, it is rather a series of portraits illuminating key highlights of the past half century of international outreach as well as the local peoples movement out of which the Institute was born.
It is essentially a book about leadership. It tells the stories of Moses Coady, Jimmy Tompkins and the many women and men who worked for and with the StFX Extension Department, the institutional home of the Antigonish Movement. These leaders were promoting leadership in vision, ideas, action and successful results in the Maritimes and across the continent.
They were followed by Francis Smyth, D. Hugh Gillis, George Topshee, A.A. MacDonald, Eric Amit, and Francois Belisle, my predecessors and the many gifted educators, community developers, researchers and administrators at the Coady International Institute. We, as Coady Institute staff have the daily privilege of working with inspirational, organizational, community and societal leaders.
While every Coady graduate and partner makes an important contribution, we have had to choose a few to illustrate our distinct approach, our reach and our collective impact. These remarkable women and men are the true heroes of the Coady Institute story. They are the ones on the ground making a difference.
We could probably publish a whole separate volume on the people who have invested their money and time in the Coady vision. From Andrew Carnegie and the Sisters of St. Martha, to John F. Kennedy, the Canadian International Development Agency, and our many generous scholarship, program and campaign contributors there is a common belief that an investment in leadership and innovation will lead to the positive change needed in our own society and societies throughout the world.
This book, celebrating 50 years of leadership, comes at a time when the Coady Institute is in a position of strength. Today it is recognized worldwide as Canada’s centre for education of development professionals and innovation in development practice. In 2009, the Coady Institute laid down the foundation for an even more dynamic future with the opening of a vastly expanded home in the historic heart of the St. Francis Xavier University campus. At the grand opening of the new Coady home, on the occasion of the Institute’s 50th anniversary, we promised to honour our past by building an ever more robust future. “Our ambitions, reach and vision” for the Coady International Institute have never been greater and neither have the opportunities to fulfill our promise.”
Publishing this book has been made possible by the contributions of many people. Noah Richler was able to capture so eloquently, in words, the essence of the Coady story. Dr. Sean Riley has provided the essential vision, guidance and financial support. Frank Gagliano of St. Joseph’s Communications provided generous support on the design and publication. Darren Rodenkirchen and Udo Schliemann of Gottschalk + Ash International contributed their creative design talents. Heather Sangster, Eric Amit and Catherine Irving carefully edited and provided fact checking services. Susan Hawkes and Debbie Murphy helped track down photos and facts. Lori Ward deployed her well-honed project management skills in finally bringing this important book to the point of publication. Due to the very nature of this book, there will be omissions. I will accept responsibility for any errors.
Ultimately it is the giants, the Coady leaders on whose shoulders we stand, to whom we owe the greatest thanks. Without them there would be no Coady Institute, no history to celebrate and no future of greater global impact to chart.
Mary Coyle Director,
Coady International Institute
University Vice President
St. Francis Xavier University
1997-2010
1 pg.01 The Coady International Institute
Canada’s Centre of Excellence 50 Years of Leadership
2 pg.11 “We Must Use Force! The Force of Ideas!”
The Genesis of the Coady International Institute
3 pg.43 “Education for Action”
The Coady International Institute’s Distinct Approach
4 pg.75 “Development Is the New Name for Peace”
The Worldwide Reach of the Coady International Institute
5 pg. 109 “It’s the People That Make Good Things Happen”
The Future of the Coady International Institute
1
The Coady International Institute
Canada’s Centre of Excellence 50 Years of Leadership
“Education is the most powerful tool we have for strengthening people’s capacity to lead and act.”
Mary Coyle
Coady Institute Director, Mary Coyle in India with the Self Employed Women Association (SEWA) members, and Coady graduate. SEWA staff member Daxa Sujit Trivedi is a long standing partner of the Coady International Institute.
Unique in the World:
Education for LEadErship action
The Coady International Institute has been promoting community self-reliance since it opened its doors to educate leaders from around the world 50 years ago. Established by St. Francis Xavier University in 1959, the Coady International Institute is world-renowned as a centre of excellence in community-based development and leadership education. The Institute
was named in honour of Rev. Dr. Moses Coady, a prominent founder of the Antigonish Movement - a people’s movement for economic and social justice that began in Nova Scotia during the 1920s.
With its mission to reduce poverty and promote self reliance and prosperity carried out into the wider world, the Coady International Institute is nothing less than a global leader in education and action research for community-driven development.
The Coady Institute is an unparalleled facilitator of leadership building that advances the lives of millions of men, women, and children, many from the world’s poorest communities. With its growing number of partner organizations and an impressive network of more than 5,000 graduates from more than 130 countries, the Coady Institute has become a prominent leader among global organizations in the field.
For five decades, the Coady International Institute has been at the forefront of the multilateral developmental effort to nurture the climate of peace and non-violence essential to improving the lives of economically disadvantaged citizens—not just in “emerging” countries but also in Canada and the rest of the developed world. It has a steadfast commitment to leadership, democracy, self-reliance, and to the political rights of all peoples, with a particular focus on less advantaged groups such as indigenous peoples and women. At the heart of its teachings and its achievements is an approach to development and to personal emancipation that is economic first of all. Said Moses Coady, the institute’s namesake, “We want our men to look into the sun and into the sea. We want them to explore the hearts of flowers and the hearts of fellow men. We desire above all that they
“In a democracy people don’t sit in the social and economic bleachers; they all play the game.”
Moses Coady
PHOTO: Coady participants hail from over 130 countries
will discover and develop their own capacities for creation.” Coady said of the disadvantaged communities that he felt had all the human resources they needed to advance their cause, “They will use what they have to secure what they have not.”
The Coady International Institute is committed to the spirit of this same lofty dream and to the hard work that made Moses Coady a practitioner and not a prophet. For above all, Coady understood that what was necessary to the pursuit of economic improvement and social justice was a cultivation of knowledge and leadership for action, so that even the most seemingly disadvantaged groups could, in his unforgettable phrase, be “masters of their own destiny.”1
Origins
In a small university town in rural Nova Scotia, in the eastern part of Canada, known for its international commitments, is an institute regarded as a jewel in the field of development work. This jewel is the Coady International Institute, offspring of the Antigonish Movement and St. Francis Xavier University. The university, which had been founded in 1853 provided the impetus and the resources to grow and to spread ideas about poverty alleviation, economic improvement, and the importance of leadership education to grassroots leaders, who then communicated their syllabus of determination and hope to the fishing and farming communities of the province.