4 minute read
The Ambition
Every One Every Day Halifax-Kjipuktuk has a big ambition:
To build a new system of neighbourhood participation that is reconciliation focused and inclusive to all—where a new foundation for civic and social infrastructure is built upon relationships between people, nature, and place, and where residents can actively contribute to a more reconciled future for all.
To measure the value that is co-created by the participation ecosystem and to establish its viability as a long-term pathway for building neighbourhoods and cities that are happier, more resilient, and socially connected.
“To rise to the massive global challenges that face us all, we need new models for shifting culture. Participatory Canada is one powerful model for deep, placebased transformation. At the scale of neighbourhoods, it represents the world we need to build, collectively. Simply put, it inspires us to re-imagine how we live and work together in the future.” –Jayne Engle, Co-Director, Participatory Canada
Placing people at the heart of neighbourhood development.
The relationships we build every day matter; And what we do together every day matters too. Every One Every Day Kjipuktuk-Halifax creates infrastructure for weaving the diverse threads of our communities together, through spaces designed for bridging—where neighbours can meet based on shared interests and build new relationships with one another and with place. It puts residents at the heart of decision making, where they have the tools and supports necessary to work together daily on practical and creative projects that help to shape the kind of neighbourhoods they wish to live in, and are about thriving in a more prosperous future for all.
Weaving Truth & Reconciliation into the design of civic and social infrastructure.
The journey of Reconciliation is rooted in relationships and honoring processes of truth and healing. So, we must create systems designed for this very thing—relationships between residents, organizations, and governments—first to build understanding across our ways of being and knowing, and to shift mindsets, systems and structures to not only account for these differences, but also to honor them through the ways we live and learn in society together. Every One Every Day Kjipuktuk-Halifax creates opportunities to bring reconciliation to life across neighbourhoods—through enhancing Indigenous identity and belonging in the urban context, and building new relationships that are about learning, and fostering harmonious interactions with each other and the places we call home.
–Pamela Glode Desrochers, Executive Director, Mi’kmaw Native Friendship Centre
Creating conditions for people and institutions to collaborate.
In partnership with the Participatory City Foundation and Participatory Canada, Every One Every Day is creating robust social infrastructure that has potential to transform people’s lives and the neighbourhoods in which they live. The urgent challenges of our time require new systems and structures that empower local people to contribute local solutions, as they are uniquely positioned to do. And with an ecosystem of local, National and International actors, to nurture new models of stewardship and shared ownership that make way for cities not designed for populations, but for generations- past present and future. This work can’t be done alone; But rather, it will take the minds and hearts of many—there is no other way.
Initiating The Every One Every Day Platform & Participation Ecosystem
In Kjipuktuk-Halifax, the emerging participation platform consists of five inter-connected elements:
1. A neighbourhood team that supports overlapping functions related to platform development and growth including co-design with residents, communications, and developing systems of operation. The co-design process is a field of practice that is of great importance as it places local residents at the heart of a growing network of participation projects. The starting platform team consisted of seven team members—two who had been present during early phases of work and deeply immersed in both participatory approaches and the emerging vision for Halifax. Five new team members were hired between Jan-Feb 2022, with roles that were developed based on insights from the Every One Every Day project in East London, UK.
2. A growing network of neighbourhood infrastruc-
ture that works to increase inclusivity across spaces and projects. Anchored by the Gottingen St. Neighbourhood Shop, this collection of spaces is emerging based on relationships built throughout the pilot, and continues to grow and deepen based on continued surfacing of mutually beneficial activities.
3. A range of open invitations, shared through diverse communication channels including regular cycles of newspapers that get distributed doorto-door. The newspapers play a valuable role in helping to communicate what the platform is across broad audiences, while also sharing stories and opportunities around the growing participation ecosystem. In particular, the content and visuals within the newspaper have become a useful channel for sharing knowledge, and the emerging vision, for weaving Truth and Reconciliation into our work.
Fall Program
• 9000 newspapers printed
• 7627 delivered door-to-door
• 1373 picked up or distributed to local organisations and businesses.
4. An evolving system of operations to enable the team to streamline complex collaborative processes and maintain high levels of organization and communication across team members and with residents.
5. A growing collection of equipment & supplies that develops based on resident needs and interests and can support a growing collection of projects that vary in scale.
Participation Platform
eq u ipment & supplies neighbourhood team
d ecolonized learning & practi c e Circle of Change n e ig hbourhood infrastruct u r e
Spring Program
• 6000 newspapers printed
• 5186 delivered door-to-door
system of open invit operations inclusivity principles ations
• 814 picked up or distributed to local organisations and businesses.
Icons by Made x Made from the Noun Project
