Exploring Communities is back! We are thrilled to start the second round of Exploring Communities and once again working with the Urban Studies department at the University of Calgary. We recently met with the students who will be part of this round of Exploring Communities and they are excited to work with the three chosen communities as part of this project.
What is Exploring Communities?
In an effort serve our member communities, the Federation of Calgary Communities (the Federation) in collaboration with the Urban Studies class from the University of Calgary is offering a community program, formerly Community Visioning, now known as Exploring Communities. Exploring Communities focuses on creating a community inventory by identifying demographics, services, needs, and/or amenities unique to every community as well as engaging with the board of the community association. In doing so, the community inventory will help community associations better understand and serve their residents. The second portion of this program is a community project (post community inventory) which will focus on “how to use” the community inventory.
This is our second interdisciplinary project at the Federation which will look at community building as a whole. Team leads on this project are: Carrie, Tyson, Ben and Ariam.
What is a Community Inventory?
A community inventory is an opportunity to understand the structure of every community (physically, socially, and economically), assess its needs and assets, and understand how that community compares to the rest of Calgary.
A successful community inventory will:
- Identify the markers that make a community unique (i.e. pathways, parks, social services)
- Identify values important to the community.
- Enable students to understand the role that communities and community associations play in Calgary.
Who are the participating communities?
In our second year of Exploring Communities, the Federation of Calgary Communities will be working with three new communities in South Calgary. The communities for the 2017 Exploring Communities are: Braeside, Midnapore and Sundance (Mid-Sun), and Calgary Evergreen.
What’s next?
Following Exploring Communities, all of the chosen communities will join Carrie, Tyson, Ben and Ariam on a resident-led community project. The community projects will be based on the work done in Exploring Communities and the projects created by the students utilizing the ActivateYYC micro-grants.
