Baran & Baran
Dan Baran (BA, MA, PhD) and Phillippa Cranston-Baran (BA, MA) are Baran & Baran, award-winning consultants specializing in education, training, employment-readiness and career development. They have worked nationally and internationally including most recently in Albania and Mexico.
Baran & Baran, have experience with diverse populations including at-risk youth, women, indigenous peoples, and the chronically unemployed who are frequently marginalized and disadvantaged. They have created and facilitated a variety of programs, workshops, and presentations designed to build awareness and understanding of multiple intelligences; grow skills, knowledge, and capacities; and explore options for education, employment, and career.
They have also written and produced hundreds of print pieces and industrial and commercial video and television programs. Much of their work has been done in multiple language versions.
“We see ourselves as change agents who believe that information leads to action for personal and/or social change.”
Baran & Baran is located in Arnprior, Canada.
IGNITE GROUP – FAMILY OF CAREER DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMS
Conditions in today’s world of work are in constant change. Jobs appear and disappear. People are living longer, retiring earlier, and constantly seeking new ways to invent themselves. Career paths are complicated. Baran & Baran understand that people must be equipped to reinvent themselves and adapt to a continually evolving work environment. They created career development programs based on the theory of multiple intelligences—programs that are grounded in the concept of inclusion and the belief in the talents, gifts, and capacities of people.
- Smart Options: focuses on discovering skills, talents and capacities. English and French.
- Smart Options Plus: self-directed or group discovery of skills, talents and capacities, includes resumes and interview tips. English and French.
- Ndrico Veten (Enlighten Yourself): focuses on multiple intelligences, employability, career exploration and job search for youth and adults. Albanian and English.
- Yo Inc Entrepreneurship: focuses on helping participants see themselves in new ways, understand the essential value they possess, and harness and direct these insights and understandings into creating a new business. English and Spanish.
BARAN & BARAN PROJECTS FOR PEOPLE
- Research, design and writing of the New Brunswick Aboriginal Work Force Strategy (NBAWES) curriculum that reconceptualized and adapted existing materials to a holistic, cultural context for Aboriginal adults in New Brunswick. Wrote the communications strategy and created and produced communications materials. Worked cooperatively with NBAWES and JEDI (Joint Economic Development Initiative) to support students, teachers and coaches and liaised with Experts and Steering Committees.
- Travelled across Canada from Yellowknife to Labrador to visit 20 Aboriginal communities with outstanding Early Childhood Development and Head Start programs and made recommendations to the federal Early Childhood Development (ECD) Working Group (INAC, Health Canada, PHAC, HRSDC) on creative ways to grow the success of early childhood programs in Aboriginal communities.
- Commissioned by the Assembly of First Nations (AFN) to create a multi-media Tool Kit consisting of more than 20 pieces that helped Directors of Education and community stakeholders with the concepts of Performance Indicators and Performance Measurement and helped promote and support the education success of children and youth.
- Production of Seekers—32 half hours of national broadcast TV that explored topics relevant to youth, seen from indigenous perspectives and spoken in indigenous voices.
- Creation and production of Roots and Wings, a multimedia kit including video, audio, and print materials as part of the National Aboriginal Public Awareness Campaign for the Stay-in-School Initiative. Produced in three languages and distributed nationally.
- Creation and production of Smart Options and Smart Options Plus a series of innovative career exploration programs for Middle/High School students and Adults. The programs are marketed and distributed throughout North America.
- Writing and design of federally sponsored print materials including Focus on Resumés, Focus on Interviews, High Tech Job Search Tools. More than 500,000 copies of each in French and English distributed across Canada.
- Creation and production of materials to support the national Stay-in-School Initiative, including a Stay-in-School Action Kit. Also creation, writing and design of 19 internet- based interactive activities for high school students on life skills and career development topics for the US Department of Education.
- Production of videos and support materials on social issues including poverty, parenting, abuse and harassment, addictions, teen pregnancy, suicide, mental health, and bullying,
- Conference organization and management including nine Stay-in-School Initiative stakeholder roundtables and The 10/10 Ticket national student conference.
- Curricula & Training Programs including research, design, writing and production of NBAWES, Smart Options; Ignite! A Strategy for Success; Block…Unblock, Ignite!; Ignite: Managing Stress; The Abusive Manager; Team Helix; PALS; as well as training programs for the Department of National Defence, the Canadian Foster Family Association and the Alzheimer’s Society of Canada.
- Combat First Aid, Canada’s first military First Aid text book adapted from St. John Ambulance material, includes original chapters on Combat Stress Reaction, Hypothermia, NBC Defence, Burns, Self-Aid. St. John Ambulance Presents Scripts and production of 6 hours of award-winning First Aid videos. English, French, German, Spanish. Videos train 1.5 million people per year.
- Cadet Abuse and Harassment Awareness Program: 36 short videos employing 150 teenage actors (French and English) to promote awareness of abuse and harassment issues within the Canadian Cadet Movement.
BARAN & BARAN AWARDS
- Gold Apple, Silver Apple & Bronze Apple Awards at 18th Annual National Educational Film and Video Festival
- Multiple awards, 17th Annual National Educational Film and Video Festival
- Four Chris Plaque Awards, 37th Annual Ohio International Film and Video Festival
- Finalist Award, 7th Biennial John Muir Medical Film Festival
- First Aid Category Award, 1990 New York Film and Video Festival
- Priory Vote of Thanks, St. John Ambulance Priory of Canada Award
- Service & Vocational Award, Rotary District 7040 Stay-in-School, Arnprior
- Award of Merit, Rotary Clubs of Canada
BARAN & BARAN SELECTED CLIENTS
AbilityCorp
Agriculture Canada
Allied Domecq Spirits, USA
Aboriginal Peoples Television Network (APTN)
Assembly of First Nations
Bankers Petroleum Ltd., Albania
Blackstone Consulting Group
Boy Scouts of Canada
Brown Shoe Company
Canada WorkinfoNet
Canadian Beijing Committee
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
Canadian Career Development Foundation
Canadian Coast Guard
Canadian Figure Skating Association
Canadian Foster Family Association
Canadian Home & School & Parent Teacher Fed.
Canadian Improv Games
Canadian Lung Association
Canadian Nurses Association
Canadian Airlines
Canada Post Corporation
Carleton School Board
CBC
City of Ottawa
Consulting and Audit Canada
Department of National Defence
Dept. of Regional Industrial Expansion
ECD Working Group
Eddie May Mysteries Inc.
Elections Canada
Energy, Mines & Resources Canada
Fisheries and Oceans Canada
Fundeihoven, Cartagena, Colombia
Harrowsmith Magazine
Health Canada
Human Resources Development Canada
Huyck Canada Ltd.
Indian & Northern Affairs Canada
Kiddie Kobbler Inc.
Library of Parliament
Linda Kobylarz & Associates
Lufthansa Airlines
Métis National Council
Mid-Canada Television Network
Ministry of State for Science & Technology
National Film Board of Canada
National Library of Canada
National Life/Work Centre, Memramcook Institute
Manitoba Department of Agriculture
National Research Council
Natural Resources Canada
NBAWES
Ontario Ministry of Agriculture & Food
Ontario Ministry of Education
Parks Canada
Prosperity Secretariat
Public Service Commission
Queen’s University
Renfrew Co. Human Resource Centres
Right Management Consultants
St. John Ambulance
Sandvik Steel Canada
Secretary of State for Youth
Solicitor General Canada
Special Labour Market Initiatives
Spirit Creative Advertising & Promotion
Statistics Canada
Swiss Chalet Canada
Timex Canada
Toronto Dominion Bank
Town of Arnprior
Treasury Board of Canada
United States Dept. of Education
Volunteer Canada
YMCA/YWCA Canada
Youville Centre
YTV – Toronto