Cities Deepening Community

Cities across Canada are recognizing the need to invest in the social well-being of citizens who live, work, and play in their communities in order to strengthen a sense of belonging, connection and citizenship leading to happier, healthier, safer and more engaged neighbourhoods.

Vibrant Communities – Cities Deepening Community is a collective impact movement and network aimed at deepening a sense of community in our cities. Through place-based efforts of multi sector roundtables and the alignment of strategies at the municipal, provincial/territorial, and federal levels we are creating a movement that creates the conditions that make deepening community a priority. Cities are joining this growing movement, thereby strengthening our ability to collectively learn from one another and effectively build healthier, safer more vibrant communities.

Become a Member

Local Deepening Community Initiatives have been shown to galvanize untapped community resources; create opportunities to nurture relationships across communities; and, strengthen the social connections that are essential to sustain dynamic neighbourhoods and reslient communities. - See more at: http://deepeningcommunity.ca/blogs/sylvia-cheuy/local-deepening-community-initiatives-tamarack-partnership-opportunity#sthash.qNAWQMrN.dpuf

We are working with communities and organizations across Canada and the United States since 2016 and have built a momentum connecting communities and supporting learning by bringing leaders together who are deepening community resilience and creating the necessary foundation for positive community change.

A Collection of Neighbourhood Strategies

This collection of neighbourhood strategies provides a glimpse into the work of seven cities involved in solutions to enhance community well-being. Cities Deepening Community is a network of people who are partnering with Tamarack Institute to explore the unique role that neighbours, neighbourhoods and communities play in creating positive futures.

Building A Case For Developing a Neighbourhood Strategy

Cities are now developing neighbourhood strategies that help guide the departments, organizations and residents to work together to build healthy vibrant neighbourhoods. This guide is for municipal staff or community groups interested in building the case for the development of a neighbourhood strategy.

Creating Transformational (not Transactional) Experiences When Engaging Residents

Community engagement practices can often feel transactional: the community is a source of information and the goal is to retrieve that information to design the ideal solution. We say thank you and then move on.

Get to Know Your Neighbours, They Might Just Save Your Life

If there was an emergency what would we do? How would our neighbourhoods survive? What would you do to help your neighbours? This is a conversation that is growing in popularity. What is the citizens role in emergency preparedness?

Changing How I Think About Community Change

Many traditional approaches for addressing a complex issue like poverty, health & climate action have, until recently, emphasized siloed, single-sector approaches that focus on a specific set of achievable strategies. Yet through the success of Collective Impact we can see that it is difficult for a single actor to adequately respond to complex community issues.

Vibrant Communities