The Latest

Pivoting Towards Authentic Virtual Engagement: A Greenway-Chaplin Community Centre Story

In May 2020, the Cities Deepening Community network welcomed Greenway-Chaplin Community Centre as a member. For over 30 years this organization, based in Cambridge Ontario, has been connecting community members to recreational, educational, supportive programs and volunteer opportunities. With the disruption of regularly scheduled programs due to COVID-19, they have responded by joining a collective of learners from across the country to reimagine their purpose.

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Deepening Learning and Connection in a Virtual World

In June 2020, Tamarack pivoted from our in-person workshop offerings to moving workshops into the virtual space. We knew it was going to be a challenge. As our team reflected on this opportunity, we noted that we wanted to create a virtual learning experience which was unique.

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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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CBYF National Collaborative First Meeting

The National Collaborative is a committee that provides a national network for accessing evidence-informed practices, leveraging resources and capacity, and identifying national opportunities for shifting policies and systems with a goal of supporting improved outcomes for under-represented youth as they navigate transitions from high school to post-secondary education, training and careers.

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Taking Matters to A Small Hand

As part of Communities Building Youth Future’s commitment to youth engagement, we aim to build meaningful opportunities to engage young people - we believe that we can learn a lot from youth. We believe that youth perspectives, beliefs, and visions for the future should shape our work and we want to share these with changemakers across the country. The following blog showcases the voice of youth with lived/living experience. 

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How Safe Is It to Participate?

Something we don’t discuss much is the importance of the ‘do no harm’ principle when engaging the community (especially relevant now with the COVID-19 pandemic). Anthony Boxshall and I identified ‘people feeling unsafe’ as one of the key challenges to co-design. We rely on bringing together a diverse community of interest, but what do you do if alternative views are not welcome, or indeed people fear the consequences of participating and expressing unpopular or inconvenient points of view? This can be even more challenging than just ensuring physical distancing at this time

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