Publications and Resources
Are you interested in sharing your own SL learning?
We are building a community of SL practice and encourage you to share any tools, resources and/or reports that you are developing.
Reach out to us at info@slcanada.org .
SL Toolkit
Resources and tools to build an understanding of the Sustainable Livelihood framework. Downloadable as PDFs.
SLC Backgrounder
An explanation of who we are, and the basics of the Sustainable Livelihoods Framework
The Asset Map
A visual representation of the assets areas, and detailed descriptions of what we include in each area.
Livelihoods Continuum
Our visualization of the stages people may experience as they move towards a sustainable livelihood.
Asset Mapping Tool
This foundational tool helps individuals, organizations, and communities identify their assets and build resilience.
My Plan Tool
Building on the foundation of the Asset Mapping tool, My Plan helps participants plan for the future.
Community Capacity Asset Guide
Prepared by Momentum, this Asset Map has been adapted to review assets in a community context.
How Women Build Sustainable Livelihoods
Prepared by the Canadian Women’s Foundation, to share a summary of the Sustainable Livelihoods concepts.
SLC Projects
Reports from SLC’s programs and evaluation
- Barely Keeping It Together: Final Evaluation Report Rebuilding Lives Grant Stream 2020-2023. Prepared by SLC for the Canadian Women’s Foundation after a four-year evaluation of funded programming. 2024
- Barely Keeping It Together Graphic Novella. Prepared by SLC for the Canadian Women’s Foundation to illustrate the systemic barriers women can encounter. 2024
- Steps toward a Sustainable Livelihood: External Evaluation of the Sustainable Livelihoods Coaching Pilot Project (2018–20). Prepared by Cathexis Consultant for ONESTEP and SLC by Cathexis Consultants. 2021
- In Good Company blog post about how their partnership with SLC aimed at creating a sustainable, feminist pandemic recovery. Prepary by In Good Company. 2021
Partners’ SL Reports
Our partners are doing some amazing work too. Here are some links to their work.
Indigenous Consumer Assistance Network
Australia
The Indigenous Consumer Assistance Network (ICAN) provides consumer education, advocacy and financial counselling services to Indigenous consumers across the nation. ICAN uses the Sustainable Livelihoods framework in its financial counselling and capability services. While ICAN has traditionally taken a holistic approach to its work and with the people it works with, the organisation did not have a structured framework to support staff in working holistically with people, and did not have tools to be able to move people beyond a surviving or stabilised state. Through adopting and adapting the Sustainable Livelihoods Framework to ICAN’s financial counselling services, ICAN has now embedded a strengths-based well-being framework that supports people to move from crisis (‘surviving’) towards a ‘thriving’ position.
Momentum
Calgary, AB
Momentum is a leader in Sustainable Livelihoods, and has been embedding SL practice into its programming and evaluation for over twenty years. Over the years, the momentum team has developed its own flavour of SL, creating customized evaluation tools and practices.
- Read Sustainable Livelihoods: Surviving to Thriving, Momentum’s customized 2023 SL framework/theory of change
- Take Momentum’s 45-minute asset mapping self-assessment on-line
Resources for Results
Toronto, ON
Learnings from the evaluation of the Community Harm Reduction Response Teams (CHRRT) project of Street Health in Toronto, Canada
Harm Reduction Reports:
- Pathways to Inclusion Findings. An executive summary of the learnings of CHRRTs research into low-threshold community HR and the main approaches to HR pursued in CHRRT project. 2021
- Harm Reduction: A Checklist of Capacities. An HR capacity checklist compiled from workshop and interview findinings. 2021
- CHRRT Model Evaluation Findings. This executive summary provides a brief overview of the findings of the evaluation of the CHRRT model, assessing its effectiveness as a strategy for promoting the broader engagement of marginalized communities in HR programming. 2021
Tools:
YWCA Toronto
Toronto, ON
This YWCA Building Sustainable Futures Compendium shares learning from a five-year national participatory research initiative, the YWCA Building Sustainable Futures (BSF) project, funded by the Adult Learning, Literacy and Essential Skills Program (ALLESP), Government of Canada. The model draws on an adaptation of the Sustainable Livelihoods approach developed through YWCA Toronto’s participation in a 2004-2009 Canadian Women’s Foundation project (Canadian Women’s Foundation and Eko Nomos Program Development Consultants—Beyond Survival report)
SL Classics
Reports from foundational Sustainable Livelihoods learning and evaluation projects done by the SLC team:
- Beyond Survival: Helping women transition out of poverty: a five-year study of the results and effective practices from 10 women self-employment training and social purpose enterprise development programs. Canadian Women’s Foundation Collaborative Fund for Economic Development, 2008. Janet Murray, Mary Ferguson and Claire Letemendia
- Women in Transition Out of Poverty, CWF Women and Economic Development Consortium, 2001-2. Janet Murray and Mary Ferguson
- An Asset-Based Approach to Building Sustainable Livelihoods examines the idea of Sustainable Livelihoods from the perspective of low-income women. It introduces the concept of livelihood assets, explores the context that makes women vulnerable to poverty, identifies the strategies that women use to build assets, and sketches the general stages that women go through as they move towards a sustainable livelihood. 2001
- A Guide to Effective Practice in Promoting Sustainable Livelihoods through Enterprise Development (2002) is a companion to the original piece and completes the narrative overview of the Sustainable Livelihoods framework. It investigates the connections between women’s stages of transformation and the design of economic development programs. Some practical strategies, techniques and tools are offered to support organizations in strengthening or implementing a Sustainable Livelihood approach in their work. It concludes with a discussion of the policy and funding implications of this approach. 2002
- Engaging Users, Reducing Harm: Collaborative Research Exploring the Practice and Results of Harm Reduction, United Way of Greater Toronto, 2005. Janet Murray and Mary Ferguson
- The Business of Inclusion. Report on the evaluation of the Toronto Enterprise, 2004. Janet Murray and Mary Ferguson
- Sustainable Livelihoods Guidance Sheets. As a whole, this set of Guidance Sheets attempts to summarize and share emerging thinking on the sustainable livelihoods approach. It does not offer definitive answers and guidelines. Instead, it is intended to stimulate readers to reflect on the approach and make their own contributions to its further development. Institute for Development Studies, University of Sussex. No longer available online