What is community well-being and how is it improved? Those curious about this question will find much to engage them 
in the newly-published Handbook of Community Well-Being Research. It is the first publication of its kind to bring together foundational and leading-edge research to offer a compendium of knowledge, approaches and insights for improving quality of life in communities of place.
The Handbook features examples and thinking from around the world and a good number of contributions profiling work being done here in Canada including: a chapter by Derek Cook on the work of the Calgary Poverty Reduction Initiative; a chapter by Brian Smale and Margo Hillbrecht about the ground-breaking work of the Canadian Index of Wellbeing; and, a chapter that I co-authored with with L. Fawcett, K. Hutchinson and T. Robertson entitled, A Citizen-Led Approach to Enhancing Community Well-Being which outlines the journey of a diverse group of citizen leaders to create the first Headwaters Community Well-Being Report and then assess its subsequent impact.
I was the founding director of Headwaters Communities in Action (HCIA) – the citizen group responsible for creating the Headwaters Community Well-Being Report and Tamarack played a catalyst role in facilitating the initial meetings that led to its creation. Co-authoring the chapter gave me the opportunity to reflect on work I played a key role in. However, it was Tracey Robertson’s contribution to our chapter – outlining the funders’ perspective – that I learned the most from. Tracey was HCIA’s program manager with the Ontario Trillium Foundation (OTF), which was the anchor funder of the Headwaters Community Well-Being Report.
Reading more about the funders’ role as a strategic investor gave me a deeper appreciation of OTF’s willingness to take risks and innovate: choosing to invest in a citizen-led collaborative, though historically their investments were made only to organizations and municipalities. For more, read Tracey’s blog: Reflections on the Funders’ Role as a Strategic Investor in Community Change. OTF’s willingness to move beyond the role of a “traditional funder” in favour of a strategic investor role was something new for them and it was inspiring to discover that the learning and insights that OTF gleaned from its involvement with such innovative investments in comprehensive community-based initiatives, like the work of HCIA, contributed to its recognition of the need for a new investment stream: its recently debuted a Collective Impact Investment stream – which enables OTF to continue to be a catalyst and investor in system-wide community change.
Learn More:
- Learn more and order your own copy of The Handbook on Community Well-Being
- Read A Citizen-Led Approach to Enhancing Community Well-Being
- Check out Tracey Robertson’s blog: Reflections on the Funders’ Role as a Strategic Investor in Community Change
- Visit the Headwaters Communities in Action website
- Discover the Canadian Index of Wellbeing and its 2016 Ontario Regional Reports developed for the Ontario Trillium Foundation
