A National Strategy
for Belonging
Strengthening Communities
with their Voices and Gifts
at the Centre

What if we had a National Plan for Belonging that centred residents and community groups to design and deliver local approaches in the voice of their own communities and that was sustained with dedicated resources committed to providing care for our community caretakers?

A plan that:

1. Brings together cross-sector collaboration to build alliances of individuals, associations, and organizations to come together to share resources and expertise

2. Centres Indigenous Peoples, Black Canadians, and other racialized peoples; people with low incomes; people with disabilities; members of the 2SLGBTQ+ community; official language minority communities; recent newcomers; youth; and people with multiple of these identities

3. Shifts power, funds, and other resources to residents, informational associations, and the community

4. Results in population-level change. Ultimately, it would increase the sense of contribution, power, belonging, equity, and sense of possibility reported by all people engaged in sustaining our democracy by way of community-led involvement

Belonging is simultaneously an individual’s feeling in relation to their community and relationship with the systems that influence communities. Belonging to a community is to be an active co-owner of the community and to foster a sense of emotional and communal ownership.  A sense of community belonging describes the degree to which individuals are connected to their community and their place with in it.  

We would like to acknowledge that the purpose of this definition is to act as a starting point for the upcoming conversations with our members, partners and learning network. 

We have an open invitation to learners in our network and beyond, to share their stories, their wisdom and their thoughts on what a National Strategy for Belonging needs to have and who needs to be a part of it.