About CDLI
CDLI is a network for community-minded people, including residents of communities, community leaders, practitioners, funders, and educators. CDLI embraces diverse participation across communities of place, communities of identity, such as ethno-cultural and faith-based communities, and communities of interest. We invite you to participate in CDLI according to your interests, availability, and capacity.
CDLI is responding to a desire for ongoing community development learning opportunities and mutual support expressed by those working to strengthen Calgary’s communities. In November of 2023 a re-imagined Vision and Mission were launched. Click here to learn more about the process of re-imagining and see the historical Vision and Mission of CDLI.
Our Vision: CDLI envisions a world where people from diverse backgrounds feel they can inspire change in their local communities.
Our Mission: CDLI gathers community-minded people to explore new possibilities, to innovate and take tangible actions now for a socially equitable future.
Shared Understanding of Community Development: A process that surfaces shared visions to engage, organize, build relationships, and collective capacity of community members to take actions that address their common economic, social, cultural, and/or environmental interests.
Shared Understanding of Community Development (short version): A way of welcoming people and working together to take collective action for common good.
CDLI Co-Leads: Lee-Ann Baines & Tyson Bankert
E: CDLI@caryacalgary.ca P: (403) 906-0941
CDLI is a proud Champion of Enough for All
Who we are
ABCD BUILDING CONNECTED COMMUNITIES PROJECT
The Building Connected Communities project is an initiative designed to strengthen Calgary’s neighborhoods by focusing on their unique strengths and resources. Announced in May 2024, this City of Calgary funded project emphasizes the principles of Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD) to empower communities from within.
The project is structured around two core pillars: ABCD Capacity Building and Community Connectors. Together, these pillars aim to equip communities with the knowledge and tools needed to harness their own strengths while fostering meaningful connections among residents.
CDLI will spearhead efforts through the dedicated ABCD Project Team, which will collaborate with CDLI’s Core Staff to deliver capacity-building opportunities, facilitate meaningful community connections, and expand the reach of ABCD practices across Calgary’s neighborhoods.
This initiative offers CDLI’s network a unique chance to actively shape Calgary’s neighborhoods while deepening their own ABCD practices.
The Learning and ACtion Teams
CDLI’s Learning and Action Teams are collaborative spaces where together we host learning and deepen practice for those who participate and the wider network. These groups help to guide and inform the wider work of CDLI, including what kinds of conversations we host at our monthly community conversations. The LATs use the consensus-based decision making model of Sociocracy to make decisions together on how and what we do together. Our current LATs are:
Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD) LAT
The ABCD LAT is a group of residents and community development practitioners who are seeking to use asset-based community development approaches in our community efforts. From asset mapping, to block connectors, to the core of a strengths-based approach, this group meets monthly to deepen our learning together and build our connections with others.
Anti-Racism & Decolonization LAT
The Anti-Racism and Decolonization LAT emerged in the summer of 2020 in response to an interest in holding space for community members to deepen learning and action around anti-racism and decolonization efforts in our communities. It is made up of a combination of community development practitioners and community members, and together this group undertakes work to host conversations and develop resources relating to anti-racism and decolonization.
Our History
A feasibility report (2013) by the United Way Calgary and area, City of Calgary Community and Neighborhood Services, Family and Community Support Services (FCSS) and the Calgary Foundation found that the most effective way to become a successful community builder is through learning in action. Building on this interest, a number of engaged community partners have been working to create opportunities to learn together through an action/reflection approach and build on what is already working in supporting Calgary communities. CDLI was launched with the efforts and resources from these original supporters along with the commitment of a number of engaged partner organizations:
City of Calgary – Community Strategies
CDLI is made possible through the continued support of the United Way Calgary and area, The City of Calgary - Community Strategies, The Calgary Foundation, and through the contributions of a growing number of partner organizations.