Feature Story

Why Citizens Should Prepare for Emergencies and How to Do It

By: Sylvia Cheuy

Most Canadian Municipalities have emergency preparedness plans in place that detail how various departments and staff will work together to respond in the event of a natural disaster or extreme weather event.

Citizens and neighbours can always be relied on to help one another during these times as well, however, this capacity could be significantly enhanced if neighbours -- like municipalities -- created opportunities to know one another and proactively develop plans. Knowing who in the neighbourhood has mobility issues, who lives alone, who has a generator and/or who has medical training and/or first aid skills can enable neighbours to more effectively mobilize and support one another.

Tamarack's Cities Deepening Community Practice Area has launched a new Community of Practice (CoP) that is focused on Citizens and Emergency Preparedness, which is free and open to all who are interested.

Read the full post

What's New?

Montréal: A Leader in Neighbourhood Innovation

By: Sylvia Cheuy

Learn More

Do You See What I See?

By: Vickie Cammack

Learn more

Big Changes at Tamarack

By: Paul Born

Learn more

What Counts?

By: John McKnight

Learn more

Community + Conversation

Community Foundations and Belonging

By: Paul Born

Deepening Community is all about creating a deeper sense of belonging. This just in from Community Foundations of Canada - follow the links and be inspired.

Belonging and inclusion are still a work in progress for Canadian communities. Belonging: Exploring Connection to Community looks at the many ways that community-level systems influence Canadians’ sense of belonging. More specifically, the report unpacks how rising housing costs, wage gaps, wealth inequality, and a lack of faith in public institutions are creating systemic barriers to belonging, most notably for newcomers, visible minorities and Indigenous Peoples.

Drawing on national data and community knowledge, the publication dives deep on six themes: where we live, public spaces, economic inclusion, migration & citizenship, safety & security, and families.

Read the Community Foundations Canada Report

Sample Edmonton's Vital Signs - A great example of a local report

How Belonging Strengthens Community Connectedness

By: Hailey Hechtman

The ideas are quickly flowing from the jumble in my mind to the neat lined pages of the notebook sitting on the table in front of me while I listen to the day’s overview at the Community Change Institute (CCI). As I take in the list of different tools, topics and learning modalities available to attendees, I recognize this is not just any run of the mill conference...

The first speaker to set the tone was Dr. John Helliwell who was heavily involved in the content collected and presented within the World Happiness Report. A gander through statistics and a glance at the perception of the numbers, brought forward by researchers trying to determine why certain countries have people that are more content than others, brought me to think about my own experience and my current community. When he began to articulate that belonging and social supports are a considerable factor in promoting a healthy environment, it clicked with me, why there are challenges in the area that I live in, even though incomes are comparatively high and unemployment quite low.

Read the full post

Working Together for a Better World

Reflections from the Promising Young People Webinar

By: Arti Freeman

An insightful look into the power of the youth voice and the importance of engaging people with lived experience. As the article suggests, change can be hard. Moving away from the familiar, the tested, and into the new can be unsettling and it takes work. But does that mean we keep with the status quo? No, we push to create changes that are necessary to facilitate an environment for success. This requires including the voice of people with lived experience and partnering with them to initiate change in the community and systems in which we live. This article provides valuable insight from a webinar on supporting the positive development of children and youth.

On June 26, the Ontario Trillium Foundation hosted a collective impact webinar with Tamarack to learn from initiatives that are supporting the positive development of children and youth. We heard from two initiatives that openly shared stories of their journey - both the successes and challenges they faced in supporting and facilitating collective impact. Many thanks to Graduation Matters Montana and The Child and Youth Health Network in Vancouver Island.

Read the full piece

Upcoming Events

Community Engagement | The Next Generation

November 6-8 | Kitchener, ON

The next generation of community engagement is here! We’ve gone from an age of public consultation to the age of online engagement, and we’re now seeing a powerful blending of the two. Be a part of the resurgence of creative community engagement that is aided by technology and paired with a drive to empower communities through techniques like digital storytelling, participatory budgeting, and the use of a collective impact approach to truly partner with the community. Join this three-day workshop where we will convene community change practitioners to explore the next generation of community engagement principles and practices. Learn more and register

Evaluating Community Impact

November 14-16 | Saskatoon, SK

If you manage programs or projects, are part of a collaborative that needs to be evaluated, or are a professional in community development and want to explore the connection between learning and creating change, this workshop is for you. In the updated curriculum, presented by Mark Cabaj and Liz Weaver, you will work through theories, tools, and resources that will help you develop concrete elements of an evaluation strategy for your work in your own home community.

This is the final time the Evaluating Community Impact workshop will be offered. Make sure not to miss out! Learn more and register

Cultivating the Power & Possibility of Citizen Leadership: Creating Caring & Resilient Communities

November 27, 2017 | Burlington, ON

Deepening the experience of community in our neighbourhoods and cities is THE opportunity of our time. Learn why and how engaging and reconnecting residents to one another is the foundation of co-creating a positive future amongst citizens, organizations and municipalities.

When local connections and relationships are nurtured, the community’s capacity to care for one another – its resilience – is restored.

Explore how hosting conversations between diverse groups builds consensus on community-wide visions, understand the importance of identifying opportunities for shared action, build an inventory of resident skills and assets, and more. Learn more and Register

WEBINAR

Measuring Up to Poverty Reduction in Rural B.C.
November 2, 2017 | ONLINE 1:00 - 2:00 p.m. EDT

Learn how four local collaborative poverty reduction tables - Greater Trail, Nelson, Cranbrook and Revelstoke – came together with the Columbia Basin Rural Development Institute to identify indicators to help measure poverty, and impacts of poverty reduction efforts over time.

This webinar will explore effective uses of poverty indicators and highlight the collaborative efforts of rural and remote communities acting on one of the most complex challenges, and opportunities, of our time.  Learn more and register