10: A Guide for Deepening Community

We Want Your Input!

We are writing a guide designed to inspire communities to develop strategies and plans to deepen community. Deepening community strategies help to combat social isolation and loneliness, foster community safety, strengthen a sense of inclusion and belonging, and harness the power of citizen engagement. We want the guide to be relevant to municipalities, organizations and community members.

We are seeking your input to help us feature 10 really good ideas and 10 stories that inspire. Please take a few minutes to answer the following questions and you will be entered into a raffle to win a copy of one of Paul Born’s books (Deepening Community or Community Conversations).

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* 1. Here are a variety of ideas for how community members, organizations and municipalities can deepen community. Pick the top 10 ideas you think we should feature.

Focus on what is strong rather than what is wrong. Harness community assets.

Build social capital through creative placemaking projects.

Develop a plan to work at the neighbourhood level.

Celebrate and scale up local initiatives that foster community health and well-being.

Engage community members in local emergency preparedness efforts.

Advance community economic development and local food production.

Foster social cohesion by building equity and inclusion into your community programs.

Put citizens at the centre and create space for solutions to emerge from ground up.

Develop robust community networks that connect households, neighbourhoods, associations and local government.

Commit to ending loneliness and social isolation in your community.

Work together to make your community safer.

Collaborate and develop a collect impact movement for change.

Engage everyone ensuring a multi-sectoral and multi-generational approach.

Take the time to really listen to people at the community level.

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* 2. What other ideas should we highlight?

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* 3. We want to feature 10 inspiring stories of communities across Canada that are deepening community and strengthening social connection. Here are the kinds of stories we want to feature in the guide:

Life.School.House is a Nova Scotia based network of folk schools building a non-traditional learning community that highlights the gifts of individuals as a way of building connections in community.

The City of St. Albert adopted a Social Master Plan that is serving as a road map for building a caring, connected, inclusive and safe community.

Montreal’s Collective Impact Project (CIP) is an innovative and inspiring example of Collective Impact in action in seventeen Montreal neighbourhoods.

What other stories should we feature? Is your community doing something innovative to deepen community? Please share your community's story below.

Name and location of your community

Describe how you are deepening community locally

A website or social media link where we can learn more

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* 4. If the title of this guide were one of the following options, which would most engage you to read this guide? Please rank the options below.

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* 5. Do you have another idea for an engaging title?

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* 6. Do you have any other ideas you want to share with us as we put together this guide?

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* 7. Thank you for taking the time to complete this survey! If you want to enter into the raffle to win a copy of one of Paul Born’s books, please enter your contact information below.