The non-profit corporation Impact ON, known until last year as the Ontario Cooperation Council (OCC), celebrated its 60th anniversary this Thursday, October 10, with a gala in downtown Toronto, in the presence of around a hundred guests.
The organization presents itself as “the oldest French-speaking economic development organization still active within the province.”
Its objectives, according to its general director Julien Geremie, are to “support, advise, and propel entrepreneurs, organizations and communities, not only so that they can carry out their projects, but also so that these people can leave a lasting imprint and improve their conditions and the state of the society in which they find themselves, in this case, Ontario society.
Empower French speakers
“Sixty years is a duration that testifies to the strength of a shared vision and the resilience of an organization which, for six decades, has been able to grow, evolve and innovate, while remaining faithful to its mission,” declared President Élodie Grunerud.
The CCO was created in 1964 by several credit unions, mutuals and agricultural cooperatives across Ontario, at a time when French was “fairly largely banned from the public mind,” she recalled.
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