Celebrating our Successes: CD Practitioner Mini Summit, June 2021
On June 16, 2021 more than sixty Community Development Practitioners gathered on Zoom for our first ever Mini Summit. Over the course of three hours everyone had the opportunity to participate in three sessions out of nine offerings, and we spent some time making sense of our collective learning before signing off.
To compliment the learning, we created this miro board to capture the key learnings people shared in the chat following each session. Many of the links are clickable in the Miro board, or you can view a pdf version here.
Due to the nature of the Mini Summit and its sessions, we did not collect recordings. However, we are able to share presentations or resources from most of the sessions, which are accessible below.
Our Collective Sensemaking followed the ‘What, So What, Now What’ reflective process, and there were so many great contributions! Be sure to check out the miro or pdf to see what stood out for everyone. Here are three that stood out to us:
“It’s really helpful to see what other organizations are doing and to get creative ideas that can be applied to other communities”
“This has been really refreshing in understanding that we are all on similar journeys as individuals and communities & how we can support each other and do more collectively”
“Sharing ideas and challenges with each other is essential for growth and innovation”
It wouldn’t be a CDLI gathering if it didn’t wrap up with a round of gratitude, which we’ve captured on a mural:
Session One
Adapting Community Development Through COVID hosted by Pat Shier, Shalini Handa, and Suzanne Pointer with Trellis
You can access the presentation shared by the Trellis team here!Here is one of the key takeaways shared from this session:
“I thought the way Trellis supported the online connection through access to internet, devices and offering so many supports for social connections was great!”
The Power of Community Processing: Grief & Resilience hosted by Paulina Gornicki, Community Health Promotion, AHS and Jodi Lammiman, Calgary Alliance for the Common Good
You can access the A Toolkit for Grief and additional resources here. Here is one of the key takeaways shared from this session:
“Resiliency is much more about the systems around us and the community supports a person has than about individual/personal resilience.”
Unconscious Bias & Mental Health Project hosted by Humaira Falak with ActionDignity
Here is one of the key takeaways shared from this session:
“1) great reminders of all the different ways bias can come into play in our work. 2) Beautiful to see the key learnings of the Mental Health project that were produced when communities were asked how they would like to be engaged around mental health.”
Session Two
Community Hubs: Creating Places Where Everyone Belongs hosted by Daniela Galindo with United Way of Calgary & Area
You can see the presentation Daniela shared here. Part of the presentation also involved this video:
“Hubs presentation was both affirming and inspiring. Thank you.”
Find out more about the Community Hubs Initiative here.
A Neighbourly Guide to Asset Mapping hosted by Tyson Bankert with CDLI
You can find out more and access the Neighbourhood Asset Map here.
Tyson also shared instructions from Crescent Heights Community Association for how to make your own Google Maps Asset Map which can be found here.
Broker Strategy and Social Inclusion hosted by Linh Bui and Social Inclusion Brokers with ActionDignity
“Brokers lead within ActionDignity by offering peer learning opportunities on cultural awareness and how to connect. Thank you Linh, Tina and Mario for sharing in this session, really appreciate the learnings.”
Session Three
Alberta Healthy Communities Approach: Sharing Stories hosted by Beverly Milroy & Molly Hanson-Nagel with AHS
“I went into it thinking of literally physical health only but during and after the session, my idea of health broadened into what community care can look like. I’m leaving the session feeling inspired to bring it into my own communities.”
How do we have meaningful conversations about what might be? hosted by Amanda Palmer with CDLI
You can see the questions pondered and share your perspective by filling in this form.
“We could have talked about facilitating good conversations all day!!!”
Inspiring Kindness While We Are Apart hosted by Lee-Ann Baines with carya
“So many great, inexpensive, interactive (distanced) ideas to spread cheer and to connect folks”
A note on Acknowledging the Land
As part of our welcome we shared a land acknowledgement. We also spoke to a number of resources and tangible actions people can access and take as part of their responsibilities as a treaty partner. The links shared in the Zoom chat included:
TRC Calls to Action: http://trc.ca/assets/pdf/Calls_to_Action_English2.pdf
White Goose Flying Report: https://www.calgary.ca/csps/cns/first-nations-metis-and-inuit-peoples/calgary-aboriginal-urban-affairs-committee/calgary-aboriginal-urban-affairs-committee.html
MMIWG Report: https://www.mmiwg-ffada.ca/final-report/
Niitsitapi Water Protectors: https://niitsitapiwaterprotectors.com
Reconciliation Action Group: https://twitter.com/ReconciliACTgr
Ways Non-Indigenous Can Support in light of unmarked graves: https://indiginews.com/okanagan/non-indigenous-people-heres-what-you-can-do-in-wake-of-kirs-news
The Honorable Mumilaaq Qaqqaq’s final speech in the House of Commons: https://youtu.be/7mqJGG7yUGw