Letter from the Chair
We are pleased to present LearnSphere’s Annual Report, outlining accomplishments and progress in 2023 – 2024.
In this, my first year as Board Chair at LearnSphere, I’m proud to be following in the very capable shoes of outgoing chair, Martin Haynes. During his tenure as Chair, Martin turned LearnSphere into a model of good governance, instilling practices that will continue to serve us well in the future.
I am excited to be leading LearnSphere as we continue to work on our three-year strategic plan (covering 2022 – 2025), with a focus on diversifying our funders and geography. In this second year of the plan, we expanded our programming to all 10 provinces and added new funding partners.
LearnSphere exists to help organizations prosper through learning and development solutions, and our satisfaction ratings continue to be very high, averaging 96 per cent across all learning programs in 2023 – 2024.
Beyond simply focusing on the learning, though, I’m also proud to be able to talk about one of LearnSphere’s differentiators, which is value innovation: proactively identifying gaps and filling them with unique solutions that significantly exceed existing alternatives. This year, for example, we developed a new series of leadership retreats for women who work in the defence sector supply chain. Our innovative retreats have been highly successful at connecting and empowering many talented women from across Canada working in a traditionally male-dominated field.
We continuously strive to enhance access to all our programs among under-represented groups. We are actively working to build collaborative relationships with Indigenous entrepreneurs and the organizations that support them.
Our focus on equity, diversity, inclusion and accessibility means we strive to make our programs accessible to organizations run by women, newcomers, minority language groups and others. We are proud to commit ourselves to continuing this work, as we know that it strengthens businesses and communities, and we know there is more to be done!
I’d like to thank our Associates, partners and funders, without whom our success would not be possible. We deeply appreciate their dedication to helping organizations thrive.
Thank you to our volunteer members of the Board for their counsel, advice and guidance in helping LearnSphere achieve and surpass our objectives.
Finally, on behalf of the Board, I would like to thank CEO Annette Comeau and her team for the excellent work they do every day. LearnSphere succeeds because of the quality of its people. The team manages complex projects, delivers top-quality learning solutions, and responds completely and competently to client needs. Their attention to the values, strategic direction and desired outcomes set for the organization each year is a major factor in the strength of the organization.
Rachelle Gagnon
Chair of the Board
Our Impact 2023 - 2024
Projects & Programs 2023 - 2024
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LearnSphere Cares
Measuring Social Responsibility Through ESG
Organizations around the world are becoming increasingly aware of the need for, and benefits of, socially responsible behaviour. At LearnSphere, we believe it’s critical that we incorporate social responsibility and contributions to sustainable development in all aspects of our work.
We are therefore following the best practice recommendations provided by the International Organization for Standardization’s standard: ISO 26000.
ISO 26000 outlines seven key areas of ESG for organizations to pay attention to in order to support the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). LearnSphere has grouped the seven ISO categories into three priorities: People, Prosperity and Footprint.
By tracking our progress and implementing new goals over time, we aim to hold LearnSphere responsible for continuous improvement around our impacts on society and the environment.
Our accomplishments to date and new initiatives planned for 2024 – 2025 are outlined below.
Our Funding Partners
We would like to thank the many funders and partners we have worked with this year:
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Our Team
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Annette Comeau Chief Executive Officer -
Janet White Controller
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Hannah Westner Senior Project Manager
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Carolyne Mongrain Project Manager
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Mylène Roy Project Coordinator
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Sally Marchand Project Manager
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Vanessa Court Communications and Administrative Assistant
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Laura Maynard Senior Project Manager
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Amy Boudreau Chief Operating Officer
Our Financials
The accompanying summarized financial statements of LearnSphere Canada Inc./SavoirSphère Canada Inc are the responsibility of management. They have been derived from the organization’s complete financial statements which have been audited and prepared in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles for non-profit organizations.
The Board of Directors discharges its duties relating to the financial statements primarily through the activities of its Audit and Risk Management Committee. The Committee meets at least annually with management and the external auditors to review both the financial statements and the results of the audit examination with respect to the adequacy of internal accounting controls. The external auditors have unrestricted access to the Audit and Risk Management Committee.
The summarized financial statements are based on the audited statements prepared by Curry & Betts on behalf of the membership. The Board of Directors met June 13 – 14, 2024, and approved the financial statements.