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Why We Need to Start the Conversation with What’s Strong, Not What’s Wrong

I am fortunate to have had the opportunity to attend Tamarack’s Asset-Based Community Development for Healthy Neighbourhoods event this week. We gathered at Kitchener’s beautiful Victoria Park Pavilion in decidedly unspring-like weather conditions for this three-day gathering of community builders from across the country. The program featured two of the world’s top trainers in Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD), John McKnight and Cormac Russell, among others.

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Unity and Resilience Never Mattered More

It's weeks before Christmas. Uptown Manhattan, NYC. I'm in a room full of frighteningly extraordinary people: religious leaders who practise the art of disaster chaplaincy.

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Making Progress on Poverty Reduction in British Columbia

So far, 2018 is turning out to be an important year for poverty reduction in BC. Currently, 557,000 people are living below the poverty line in Canada’s most western province – the second highest provincial poverty rate in the country. Against this sobering backdrop, the BC government has just completed a broad range of consultations with a variety of citizens, including people with lived experience. In June 2018, the government will release a “What We Heard” report summarizing feedback from the consultations, with plans to introduce poverty reduction legislation this fall. The intended result is the development and implementation of a poverty reduction strategy.

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Caring is About More than "Care"

“Ask any Canadian what “care” means and you will get rapid-fire answers that include words like kindness, love, concern, compassion and attentiveness. We know with inner certainty what it feels like to be cared for. But ask if these qualities come to mind when thinking about experiences in the health care system and you might get a blank stare or even a smirk”. - Vickie Cammack and Donna Thomson.

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8 Steps to Set the Stage for Effective Youth Engagement Work

The world of youth engagement is entangled with false assumptions, presumptuous understandings, and little follow through.  However, if it is done right professionals are given the rare opportunity to work meaningfully with youth to achieve a beautifully co-created outcome that can radically change a community.

Recently I had the privilege of hearing an individual who has experienced great success in their engagement work.  But they were quick to point out the negative perceptions that can often surround engagement work due to good intentions gone bad, and lack of follow through.

 

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It’s a Block Party and You’re Invited: Celebrate National Volunteer Week

What better time to thank the volunteers that give their time and skills to neighbourhood projects than National Volunteer Week April 15-21, 2018? This year’s theme, “Celebrating the Value of Volunteering – building confidence, competence, connections and community”, is fitting as volunteers are integral to the work of Cities Deepening Community members as they utilize the the power of citizens to strengthen communities and neighbourhoods and develop strategies.

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