Didsbury, if it so chooses, can follow the lead of forward-thinking communities – referring to themselves as a Resilient/Sustainable/Strong Community – and rethink the relationship of residents to each other, and to the physical space and place of their community as means to improve its social and economic well-being.
These communities have found ways to “turn that frown upside down," whether it be by tapping into a better understanding of their community, or by specific place-based initiatives.
The Cape Breton Regional Municipality (CBRM) is a good example of a forward-thinking community that recognized continuing with the same type of social-economic strategies was unlikely to give any different results. They decided to embark on a journey to become a Resilient/Sustainable/Strong Community.
Here’s what they did: they devoted time and energy to paint a community picture through gathering of statistics and participation in lots of conversations with stakeholders/communities of interest. The result was creation of a Strategic Plan and Community Economic Development (CED) Plan supporting an environment of learning, innovation and transformation.
Most of the information needed for the community portrait was readily available: statistics on residents, organizations, existing amenities, social service delivery resources, quality of life, trust, social cohesion and social capital; and CED assets such as planning, research and advocacy, access to credit, human capacity, access to equity, infrastructure.
In respect to CED, Resilient/Sustainable/Strong Communities discover it is the process in creating a strong and vibrant economic climate in the community; not the narrow objective of creating employment. Note to reader: Didsbury does not have a CED plan, nor is it clear if there is a plan to create one, or who would create it.
CBRM created the positive environment that allowed New Dawn Enterprises (a volunteer organization in Sydney, N.S.) to leverage a place-based initiative founded on human relationships and understanding of their community into a social and economic success.
This is their story.
New Dawn Enterprises grew out of a housing co-op development group whose members were mostly college faculty members; continuing to develop affordable housing, now over $20 million in assets, and assisted living facilities.
In 1978 it received $125,000 in seed funding from the federal government, and has been financially self-sufficient since then. Funded by local dollars it founded the first Community Equity Investment Fund in Canada to supply equity investment and access to credit for local businesses. It also launched a number of dental clinics to address the need in the community, plus initiated a number of community development projects.
New Dawn Enterprises’ story touches on the many strategies used by Resilient/Sustainable/Strong Communities to achieve positive results: the use of statistical information regarding their community; as a volunteer organization it created and continues to support a sense of belonging, ability to organize and advocate for their cause (social cohesion) and levels of trust in the community (social capital); creation of a leaderful community, one where leadership is defined as being ‘door openers, not gate keepers’; an enlightened view of CED and its role in the social-economic life of the community.
How does Didsbury get from here to there if it wants to become a Resilient/Sustainable/Strong community?
Albert Einstein has some wise advice, “You can’t use the same type of thinking that you used to create the problem.” Words that we should heed.
Kevin Bentley
Didsbury
