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Innovation Comes in all Sizes: Reflections from Three Days on the Lower North Shore of Quebec

It was early spring 2017 when a collective impact and community engagement capacity building gathering was held in La Tabatiere, Quebec. This tiny, isolated community of 499 residents hosted more than 100 colleagues from across the Lower North Shore region over three days, many arriving by snowmobiles and air as there are few roads that lead to the community in the winter.

The participants experienced a deep dive into four curriculum content areas including collaborative leadership, community engagement, community development and collective impact. The curriculum was designed to create a common language for all participants and to have them discover the great work that was already happening in the Region. In addition, the participants also learned about education and community-based success stories which were already driving innovation into the region.

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A Framework to Learn to ‘Play Society’ Together

Can we learn to play society together the same way we learn to play hockey? To answer this question, let’s look at how young children learn to play hockey.

First, before young children can even begin to play hockey, they must learn some basic skills: to skate forward, backward, in a straight line or turning while handling the puck with a stick. Although it is hard at the beginning, they eventually learn the basic skills.

Gradually they also start assimilating knowledge and mastering other skills associated with the dynamic of hockey.

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Cultivating the Power of Residents to Build Community: Lessons from Kitchener

Over the past three decades, there has been a shift in how we connect with one another. Today, people report fewer informal social ties, decrease in tolerance and trust, and an eroding political and civic engagement atmosphere in our communities. Robert Putnam’s book Bowling Alone: the Collapse and Revival of American Community suggests that our overall experiences of being in community have been steadily declining since the 1960s. Research by Holt-Lunstad et al. suggests that social isolation has serious negative consequences for our health and well-being – the impact is likened to smoking 15 cigarettes a day. Building communities that bring residents together and help them feel a sense of belonging and connection are more likely to live longer, be healthier, be happier, and act for the common good.

While municipalities have traditionally focused on the built components of a neighbourhood -  paving sidewalks and roads or building houses, parks and arenas - cities across Canada are now realizing that city building also includes the people who live, work and play in each neighbourhood. 

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Investing to Create a Network of Community Change Agents - A Case Study

For more than 100 years, the Lehigh Valley, a metropolitan region in northeastern Pennsylvania, was renown as an industrial powerhouse, and manufacturers like Bethlehem Steel, Mack Truck and Coplay Portland Cement were its heart.  But by the 1980's, these industries had closed, moved out of the region or were downsized due to national and global competition.  The urban areas- Allentown, Bethlehem and Easton- went into a sharp economic decline, which lasted for nearly three decades.

By 2014 however, the city of Allentown was gaining global recognition for its “innovative, forward-looking approach to design and development.” The economic renaissance of Allentown is a testament to the innovative and entrepreneurial spirit of its ancestors.  The establishment of a Neighbourhood Improvement Zone (NIZ) in Allentown’s downtown core was the spark that launched the city’s economic revitalization, which has included: a 10,000-seat multipurpose arena, several office towers, restaurants, green spaces, restored historic buildings as well as residential and retail spaces.  Downtown Allentown is now “a regional centre of excellence for business, culture and metropolitan living."  In 2011 only 9,000 people worked downtown but by 2018, that number had grown to 16,000.

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Towards a Canadian Poverty Reduction Strategy: What We Heard About Poverty So Far

The Honourable Jean‑Yves Duclos, Minister of Families, Children and Social Development, announced the release of the Canadian Poverty Reduction Strategy: What We Heard About Poverty So Far report, on Tuesday February 20th via a Facebook Live broadcast. 

The report captures invaluable feedback contributed by Canadians through a large-scale Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC) nationwide Canadian Poverty Reduction Strategy public engagement process.

The process was started in February 2017 with events led by Minister Duclos, Parliamentary Secretary Adam Vaughan, other Government of Canada ministers and Government officials, and projects led by National Indigenous Organizations, Tamarack’s Vibrant Communities (VC), and the consulting firm Ference and Company.

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Building Collaborative Readiness:  Mapping Community Resources

A common theme often echoed through the voluntary and community sector is the lack of resources available to do the work.  Most communities have a range of investments, assets and resources, which, if deployed effectively, could prove to be a launching pad for many collaborative community efforts. 

The idea of community asset mapping has been around for several years.  John McKnight and Jody Kretzmann in their book, Building Communities from the Inside Out: A Path Toward Finding and Mobilizing a Community's Assets provided a detailed process for uncovering both explicit and hidden assets that might be found in most neighbourhoods and communities. 

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