Old Strathcona Neighbours Project
The Context
The Old Strathcona Neighbours Project is community led, and is being done in partnership with The Neighbour Centre. It formed in 2019, after learning that there are people on the southside/Strathcona area who are looking for work on a regular basis, and there are businesses and neighbours in the area willing to support them. We have been exploring ways to bridge the divide between housed and unhoused neighbours through opportunities for casual work. After several months of prototyping in 2019-2020, we quickly learned that our challenge was not about providing jobs to create community, but about creating community through a variety of means (which could include jobs).
Our plans for 2020 included community dinners, presentations at community leagues and business associations, and more time spent at the Neighbours Centre. We wanted to meet with unhoused community members, community groups, and business associations to better understand what stakeholders were looking for in building a community. Of course, everything changed. While public health restrictions limit our ability to work on our prototype in the way we had hoped, we are determined to continue exploring the question at the core of our social innovation mission: how do we build a community where everyone has the opportunity to contribute to their community, build relationships with their neighbours, and be valued for their presence?
Relation to RECOVER’s Wellbeing Framework
Targeted Outcomes: connection to community and the human project
Tools/Levers We Are Using: roles & resources, and routines & repertoires
What We Did
We prototyped early concepts in 2019.
The COVID public health restrictions put a pause on all of our work in 2020. However, we continued to virtually meet on a weekly basis to work on our social innovation journey.
We secured a Social Innovation Canada grant to tell our story. We spent weeks recording our experience since the very beginning of our prototyping journey up to this moment. Not only did this allow for us to pause and reflect on the past, but it made us recognize some interesting “aha!” moments we had overlooked.
When we were able, we connected with community members at the Neighbour Centre, maintaining connections through arts and activities.
What We Learned
Through planning and running the prototype, our thinking about the true meaning of the project evolved. We realized that the question was not about how to connect community members through jobs, but about how community can be built through a variety of means, including through odd jobs.
Planning a prototype is a valuable exercise, but executing it is an entirely different, and extremely beneficial, activity. We found the holes in our concept, made appropriate changes, and developed a more robust approach that considers the needs of everyone taking part.
Establishing trust between the participant, businesses, and The Neighbours Project is going to be the linchpin for success.
Where to From Here
We plan to focus on what community building really means, and how we can bridge divides between neighbours of different socio-economic statuses through a variety of means.