Michael Shapcott

{{Short description|Canadian academic}}

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{{Infobox person

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| name = Michael Shapcott

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| nationality = Canadian

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| education = Faculty of Divinity, Trinity College, University of Toronto (current); London School of Economics and Political Science, Political economy of public policy (2008); University of Toronto, Law (1983–1986 attr); The University of Calgary, General studies - political science (1980–1982)

| alma_mater = University of Toronto

| occupation = Executive Director (2018–present)

| employer = Sorrento Centre

| organization = Retreat and conference centre

| known_for = Housing + homeless advocacy; diaconal ministry; management

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| movement = affordable housing, homelessness, social initiatives, health and housing

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| website = www.sorrentocentre.ca

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Michael Shapcott is Executive Director of the Sorrento Centre,{{Cite web|title=Sorrento Centre Conference and Retreat Centre|url=https://www.sorrentocentre.ca/|access-date=2021-04-10|website=Sorrento Centre Conference and Retreat Centre|language=en}} a retreat and conference centre in the Shuswap region of British Columbia, Canada, that offers in-person and on-line events and activities. Previously, he served as Director of National Business and Community Strategy for Prince's Charities Canada.

He is a Canadian academic, advocate and activist whose public policy work focuses on housing, homelessness, and the relationships between health, poverty and housing, as well as human rights. He has worked on housing and homelessness initiatives at all levels of government including international levels.{{citation|url=http://www.urbancentre.utoronto.ca/pdfs/researchassociates/shortcvs/SHAPCOTTcucs-CV12-02.pdf |title= Michael Shapcott CV |publisher= Centre for Urban and Community Studies, University of Toronto |location=Toronto, Ontario |access-date= 29 May 2013 |date= December 2002 }} He has served as Director of the Affordable Housing and Social Innovation at the Wellesley Institute (WI), a non-profit and non-partisan research and policy think tank in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.{{cite news |title=A protest with fixings |url=https://www.thestar.com/News/article/162834 |work=Toronto Star |date=December 19, 2006 |access-date=2008-12-13 | first=Jim | last=Byers}} He was manager of the Community/University Research Partnerships (CURP) program at University of Toronto's Centre for Urban and Community Studies,{{cite news |title=Activists Push One Per Cent Solution for Canada's Rental Housing "Crisis" |url=http://realtytimes.com/rtpages/20021010_carentalhsing.htm |work=Realty Times |date=October 10, 2002 |access-date=2008-12-13 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080403043645/http://realtytimes.com/rtpages/20021010_carentalhsing.htm |archive-date=April 3, 2008 |url-status=dead }} where he promoted links between academic research and social justice. Shapcott is a founding member of the National Housing and Homelessness Network{{cite news |title=Protesters demand Martin create affordable housing |url=http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/protesters-demand-martin-create-affordable-housing-1.369770 |work=CBC News |date=November 14, 2003 |access-date=2014-06-15 }} and the Toronto Disaster Relief Committee.{{cite news |title=Counting the homeless |url=http://www.canadafreepress.com/2005/toronto062905.htm |work=Canada Free Press |date=June 29, 2005 |access-date=2008-12-13 }} He served on the board and as president of the Toronto Environmental Alliance.{{cite news |title=City gets low marks for failing to clear air |url=http://moreresults.factiva.com/results/index/index.aspx?ref=TOR0000020061011e2ab0000r |work=Toronto Star |date=October 11, 2006 |access-date=2008-12-13 |format=fee required}} He also served on the global Board of the Habitat International Coalition. Shapcott was a founder of the Multifaith Alliance to End Homelessness in Toronto (2007). Prior to that, he was manager of government relations and communications at the Co-operative Housing Federation of Canada (Ontario Region).{{cite news |title=Unfamiliar to Canada - lack of roofs |url=http://www.csmonitor.com/2002/0114/p1s3-woam.html |work=The Christian Science Monitor |date=January 14, 2002 |access-date=2008-12-13 }}

Shapcott is a founding member and served as a board member of the Canadian Alliance to End Homelessness,{{Cite web|title=CAEH - Home|url=https://caeh.ca/|access-date=2021-04-10|website=caeh.ca}} which has emerged as a leading Canadian advocacy organization.

For the first decade of his working life, Shapcott was a print journalist, working as a reporter, columnist and editor at several Canadian newspapers - including the North Bay Nugget, the Oakville Journal Record and the Calgary Albertan.

Michael Shapcott went to Alexander Galt Regional High School (1970–1972) and took courses including political science at the University of Calgary (1980–1982) and then studied law at the University of Toronto (1983–1986). He did not go before the bar but instead began to work at the Christian Resource Centre{{cite book |title=Street People Speak |last=Morris |first=Ruth |author2=Colleen Heffren |year=1988 |publisher=Mosaic Press |isbn=978-0-88962-364-4 |page=8 }} as a homeless outreach worker and community and housing developer. He attended summer programming at the London School of Economics in 2008. Shapcott is completing a Master of Theological Studies at the Faculty of Divinity, Trinity College, University of Toronto (2016–current).

In 1989, Shapcott, Bart Poesiat and future Toronto mayor Barbara Hall created the Rupert Pilot Project{{cite news |title=Paul Rodgers, 68: Social activist fought psychiatric system |url=https://www.thestar.com/printArticle/107906 |work=Toronto Star |date=August 10, 2004 |access-date=2008-12-13 }} to fund affordable housing initiatives which received substantial funding in the early 1990s from the Ontario government.

Shapcott came to public attention in the late 1980s and early 1990s for his work in BASIC Poverty Action Group which was the genesis for the Breads Not Circuses coalition which argued that the money being spent on Toronto's bid for the 1996 Summer Olympics could be better spent on housing.{{cite news |title=Group urges help for homeless, not a home for Games |url=http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=AT&p_theme=at&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&p_topdoc=1&p_text_direct-0=0EB7C47EB148A3D7&p_field_direct-0=document_id&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D&s_trackval=GooglePM |work=The Atlanta Journal-Constitution |date=June 24, 1990 |access-date=2008-12-13 }} His detractors vilified him for helping compromise the city's bid for the 1996 Olympic Games.{{cite news |title=MAN WHO BACKED TORONTO FOR 1996 OLYMPICS EXPRESSES DISMAY |url=http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=BN&p_theme=bn&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&p_topdoc=1&p_text_direct-0=0EB195A9E83743B1&p_field_direct-0=document_id&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D&s_trackval=GooglePM |work=The Buffalo News |date=September 23, 1990 |access-date=2008-12-13 }}

In 2004 Shapcott entered electoral politics by running as the New Democratic Party's candidate in Toronto Centre in the 2004 federal election{{cite news |title=NDP in celebratory mood as campaign kicks off |url=http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20040523/elxn_ndp_party040523?s_name=&no_ads= |work=CTV |date=May 23, 2004 |access-date=2008-12-13 }}{{dead link|date=July 2021|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}} placing second to Liberal incumbent Bill Graham. He made his second attempt in the same riding in the 2006 federal election,{{cite news |title=St. James Town's political awakening |url=https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/st-james-towns-political-awakening/article700898/ |work=The Globe and Mail |date=January 6, 2006 |access-date=2014-06-15 }} increasing the NDP vote to its highest level ever in the riding.

Shapcott was ordained as a Deacon in the Anglican Church of Canada in the Diocese of Toronto in 2016. He is licensed to serve as a Deacon in the Diocese of Kootenay, in the Ecclesiastical Province of British Columbia and Yukon, Anglican Church of Canada.

Over the years, Shapcott has been appointed to and has served on governmental bodies at the federal, provincial and local level, including the Downtown Community Health Board, Toronto Board of Health (1990), the Corporate Minimum Tax Working Group of the Ontario Fair Tax Commission (1991) and numerous others, He continues to be active in governmental issues, most recently serving as an appointed member of the Columbia-Shuswap Regional District's Sorrento-Blind Bay Incorporation Advisory Committee (2019 - current).{{Cite web|title=Electoral Area C - Incorporation Study {{!}} Columbia Shuswap Regional District|url=https://www.csrd.bc.ca/areas/electoral-area-c-incorporation-study|access-date=2021-04-10|website=www.csrd.bc.ca}}

Shapcott was awarded the first Terence and Alice Jean Finlay Bursary for studies that celebrate and advance diversity in Anglican Church, Diocese of Toronto (2017); and awarded Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal for outstanding community service (2012).