Resilient Communities & Neighbourhoods
Thriving together in strong, connected neighbourhoods.
What is “resiliency”?
Resilience is all about strengthening our community’s ability to respond and adapt to big changes and deep challenges. It’s about all of us working together to build a stronger, more connected neighbourhood where everyone’s basic needs are met and everyone belongs.
Why is it important?
As we face complex challenges—ranging from climate change and resource depletion to growing financial disparities and declining public health—we can address these by building greater social connectedness, connection to place, and sense of community many of us yearn for.
Why Neighbourhoods?
By focusing on what we can actually do and control in our own neighbourhoods, resilient communities create new ways to support each other as neighbours, live in harmony with our natural environments, and strengthen our local economies. We start where we are, creating a ripple effect.
Building Resilient Neighbourhoods brings together residents, community organizations, local businesses and government. Here’s how we create more resilient communities together…
We work with communities and neighbourhoods to strengthen four core aspects of resilience
1. Shifting attitudes and values towards greater social cohesion and positive, solutions-focused outlooks.
2. Identifying and addressing gaps in human, natural and built infrastructure and resources.
3. Strengthening local ownership and local control of economies.
4. Engaging leaders, groups and citizens in neighbourhood-based planning and action to ensure local needs are met.
Principles for Neighbourhood Resilience Building
Working at multiple-scales and across sectors, encouraging comprehensive, community-wide solutions to common concerns and getting to the roots of problems for lasting change.
Encouraging both the short and long-term view: Quick-action projects at the street or block level, with neighbourhood-wide, comprehensive planning and action.
Providing inspiring examples of change to create hope and motivate action: Creating resilience in neighbourhoods and communities locally and abroad.
Assessing local resilience to optimize limited resources: Targeting where community energy and resource investment will have the most impact creates strength from the bottom up.
Going beyond conventional planning: Resilience can help communities consider a broader range of important issues often not included in traditional planning.
Providing opportunities for people to engage in different ways: Engaging all segments of the community, meeting people where they’re at, engaging the “head, hands and heart”
Our work started way back in 2013 with a two year pilot in the Victoria West neighbourhood. We learned a lot through a community assessment of neighbourhood resilience strengths and vulnerabilities, cross-sector action to strengthen local resilience, arts-based community engagement through neighbourhood theatre, and our first-ever Resilient Streets pilots.