The Latest

It takes a mindshift to put citizens at the center of your work

Have you ever thought about whose role is it to build community? Whose role is it to fix the problems? Is it government, maybe social service programs? Is it groups and associations? Sometimes, I think that communities are looking for a superhero to swoop in and fix all their problems. But this superhero does not exist. What we need is a group of superheroes such as Marvel's Avengers, with each hero bringing their own gift and knowledge, and when its used as a group big changes can happen.

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Prototyping Community Change through Youth Engagement

What does meaningful youth engagement look like? How can we engage youth in community change? What are common youth engagement challenges and how do you overcome them? These are a few of the questions that we asked as we launched Communities Building Youth Futures (CBYF), Tamarack’s strategy to enable youth engagement and community change in 13 communities across Canada. Youth leadership and engagement are crucial components of this collective impact strategy and so, CBYF launched a Commitment to Youth Engagement.

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New Study Shows COVID Impact on Isolation and Loneliness

As we have all pivoted and learned to live in a COVID-19 era, the associated need for physical distancing and other monumental behavioural shifts have taken a toll on Canadians’ mental health.

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The Importance of Connecting Older Persons to Community

Humans are social beings and are hardwired to want to be with people. When we are born, we thrive on connections but as we age those connections become harder and harder to keep leading us to be lonely. Loneliness can affect anyone but is more common amongst older persons 65 and older. The 2013 StatsCan study indicates that 1 in 3 individuals over the age of 65 are lonely. Additionally, a 2019 Angus Reid report indicated that those who are 55+ with incomes of less than $50,000 were twice as likely to be both lonely and isolated, and were more than twice as likely to be single and living alone.

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Guelph's Community Plan Wins IAP2 Canada's Project of the Year

The International Association for Public Participation (IAP2) Canada Core Values Awards help to raise the bar in the field of public engagement through friendly competition to encourage new approaches and innovative uses of existing ones.

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What's Love Got To Do With It?

Tina Turner is well known for delivering the powerful song What’s Love Got to Do With it? That song was rolling around in my head after a recent webinar call with John Kania about the launch of the Collective Change Lab.

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