The Latest

Building 21st Century Communities

At the turn of this century, Robert Putnam wrote the most depressing book for those of us who believe that there is no substitute for community. Putnam cited all sorts of indicators of the breakdown of social capital over the previous fifty years – closed pubs, fewer voters, less families eating together, and declining membership in Rotary, League of Women Voters, NAACP and other associations. The book was titled Bowling Alone because Putnam documented a dramatic loss in the number of bowling leagues.

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Reflecting on the Collective Impact 3.0 Conference

I began my collective impact path a month after the 3.0 article was released last summer and it has taken a while to examine and understand the journey of the pre 3.0 era. My learning experience has been dynamic: I found collective impact to be a necessary alternative to the current collaborative processes, but still continued to seek concrete methods and tools for success. This is where the conference was very helpful with walking through and discussing the different tools for measurement and evaluation, and also connecting with others involved in community change. We became an extended community at this conference and though we were at different stages in our work, we were willing and open to share our struggles and highlight the little victories.

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Linking Community to System Change

I had expected the Tamarack Conference would offer me specific actionable items to further Synapcity’s work in neighbourhoods. What I hadn’t expected was the provocative challenges put forward to me as a person and as a professional. I imagined my takeaways to centre around the community level of change, but I was surprised to leave with a deeply personal reflection: if I intend to act as a meaningful contributor to my community, both the system and my role within the system require reimagining.

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Collective Impact 3.0: A Response

I have a copy of the Collective Impact 3.0 paper by Liz Weaver and Mark Cabaj in my permanent reference file.

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Why Citizens Should Prepare for Emergencies and How to Do It

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.

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A Simple Community Engagement Dashboard

It is helpful to have a visual representation of your activity and progress with respect to your community engagement strategy. This is a simple dashboard tool that has been set up to allow you to track your goals and your activity over a 12-month period (by month) and then see bar charts auto populate so you can see progress.

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