National Gathering 'Community: Programs and Policies'

Date/Time
Date(s) - June 23, 2014 - June 26, 2014
12:00 am - 11:45 pm


Community needs to be central in our thinking – no matter what results we are trying to achieve in the world.

  • Local governments rely on an engaged community for citizen safety and health
  • Not-for-profits who work to end poverty or integrate immigrants depend on communities to be places of belonging and economic vibrancy
  • Teachers educating children and faith community leaders who nurture people in their spiritual journeys cultivate community connection and care for one another to create safe places to learn and grow
  • Businesses rely on their communities to offer great places for their employees to live and on a “business community” to build trust and foster a healthy climate for collaboration

What is needed are programs and inspirational ideas that recognize and integrate the power of community into our practices. Ideas like co-housing as a strategy to integrate seniors; neighbourhood watch and block parent programs to foster community safety; sharing initiatives that strengthen economies; and, neighbourhood associations that confront loneliness and promote recreation. We need to encourage innovations that place community at the center of our thinking rather than an assumed ingredient.

Together, these policies and programs will fuel a social movement that has already begun – a movement of tremendous importance – that offers an alternative to the dominant belief in competition, consumerism, and individualism. Community: Programs and Policies hopes to be a catalyst for this movement.

Join the Tamarack Institute in Kitchener from June 23-26 to think and act together and advance the discipline of community-building that is at the centre of this desired shift in our collective thinking.

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