Celebrating our Successes: 2022 Mini Summit!
On June 8, 2022 more than ninety Community Development Practitioners gathered on Zoom for our second annual Mini Summit. Over the course of three hours everyone had the opportunity to participate in three sessions out of twelve 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.
Recordings of all sessions at this years Mini Summit are accessible below to support continued learning in community.
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:
“Meet folks in their discomfort, and we can hold space for each other to try new things.”
“Building a connected community doesn’t have to be difficult. Ideas freely flow when you get a group together. ”
“Take time to connect and learn about peoples gifts, interests and talents. ”
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
Sharing community action through storytelling
Hosted by Beverly Milroy & Cheryl Stetsko-Mayne with AlbertA Healthy Communities Approach, AHS
You can view the recording of the session below, and one of the key takeaways shared from this session:
“Storytelling can be a great tool for building empathy and understanding. People are often more open to stories than they are to facts and figures about issues.”
You can access the resource mentioned in the session here.
A Facilitators Guide to Finding Excuses to Connect
Hosted by Richard Lee-Thai with Excuses to Connect
You can find out more about Excuses to Connect, including the podcast, here. Access the slides from the presentation here. Here is one of the key takeaways shared from this session:
“Perceived distances between us and strangers are bridged by an excuse to connect. ”
Equity, Diversity and Inclusion in Non-Profit Board Governance Training
Hosted by Justin Solamillo & Phil Cheung with Community Development, Alberta Culture and Status of Women
See the great offerings from the Alberta Community Development team here. One of the key takeaways shared from this session:
“Why EDI (equity, diversity & inclusion)? Belonging, innovation, collaboration, recruitment and productivity. ”
Welcoming Newcomers into Rural Communities
Hosted by Natacha P. Gougeon, Marie Schooten, & Gabriela Gati with Foothills Community Immigrant Services
Learn more about services available to newcomers in Southern Alberta by FCIS.. Marie shared this article after the event that relates to their session.
“It’s not about asking deep questions of a person, but starting off with basics that can lead to amazing conversation and connection. ”
Session Two
Calgary Dollars: A Tool for Building Community
Hosted by Sierra Love with Arusha Centre Society
Find out more about Calgary Dollars!
“Calgary dollars stay in Calgary. Circulating many times and creating a stronger local economy. ”
Building connected community
hosted by AD FARSHORI, SHALINI HANDA, SHELINA BATA, SUZANNE POINTER, ODETTE MURARA with TRELLIS SOCIETY
Trellis has multiple club and hub locations in Calgary and Strathmore!
“Provide tools to empower community to have control over their own programming.”
Using drama games and activities to build community
duncan johnson with carya
Duncan shared an interesting type of theatre called theatre of the oppressed during the session.
“The importance of play doesn’t go away as we age.”
Did you know that carya has been serving the Calgary community for over 100 years!?
organizing to drive accountability at municipal levels
hosted by khulud baig
“Alternative budgets can be a powerful advocacy tool for citizens to go and talk to municipal government.”
session three
hailstorm impact study
hosted by susan gwynn & laura nauta with the Canadian poverty institute
You can find more details about the study here.
“The 2020 hailstorm was the 4th costliest disaster in Canadian history, yet it received little support in comparison to the 2013 floods. ”
project hope: remembering whats good when things get difficult
hosted by leslie jerry with the city of medicine hat community development
Project Hope is part of the City of Medicine Hat’s Connecting Community Initiative.
“Conversation projects allow for a safe space to share the importance the sense of community has for people.”
building collaborative community-based solutions
Hosted by stacey perlin with the Perlin Foundation for wellbeing
The mission of the Perlin Foundation for Wellbeing is “We understand that there are gaps in mental health, mental wellness, and mental illness representation. Educating through arts & culture with a clear message of betterment for our mental health literacy, including a focus on building a sense of belonging within the ecosystem will help to address this. Addressing these gaps means the potential for improvement in how we identify and measure success in social work and medical sciences.”
“Place-making can exist in material or abstract spaces.”
how do practitioners know when it’s time to leave a community?
Hosted by Twyla Moon with the City of Calgary and Amanda Palmer with CDLI
You can visit the google slides from this session to view all of the ideas and submissions from this session.
“How awesome are resident leaders in keeping the amazing work in community going!?”
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:
Know & Support the Calls to Action
City of Calgary’s White Goose Flying Report
Take Action