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OVERVIEW
Action for Healthy Communities' (AHC)
'Voices From our Neighborhoods' project helps people connect to
their neighbors and to people of other cultures. It started in 2006
and will finish in 2009; but we intend to continue hosting dialogues
thereafter; as of July 08, 16 Dialogues have been done.
As of July 08 the project has provided
direct opportunities for over 440 people from over 7 major
ethno-cultural heritages to meet, discuss and get to know each other.
Through the Community Initiatives that have resulted from this
discussion and getting to know each other, the Dialogues have
provided indirect opportunities for well over 1,00 people to be
involved in programming developed by their peers for their greater
health and well-being.
Because of the Dialogues about 60
people have started and run projects they otherwise would not have
and they have accessed over $20,000 to do so and over $30,000 worth
of in-kind and other resource contributions.
An
AHC Meeting, 2008
HOW CAN I JOIN THE VOICES PROJECT?
The project is completely free to all
participants (and we'll feed you, too!). Your commitment is one of
time and of intention; we have found all participants have had the
intention to grow, to meet new people, to respect the World Cafe
process (www.theworldcafe.com). Time commitments vary, as
follows:
A. Pre-project and Early Project
Engagement
Culturally Skilled Community Animator
(CSCA) and Community Engagement Training (CET) Participant.
Culturally Skilled Community Animators are people who can support
members of their communities to connect to each other, to resources
and to ideas to create Community Initiatives that address health and
wellness-related issues. AHC is always looking for CSCA from
marginalized populations and offers training and related support to
them as necessary and available.
Community Engagement Training CET
sessions for the project are now over (July 08) but ad hoc training
to those who show a certain commitment is always possible.
CET Participants, 2008
B. Project Participation Engagement
1. Community Dialogue participant
3~5 hours for the world cafe
dialogue, an hour of follow-up, strengthening connections made at the
dialogue, should you wish.
2. Table Hosts
3~5 hours, during a cafe, logging and
synthesizing conversation
3. Community Initiative
Representative
1~6 months (@ about 1 hr/ week) to
create and implement a Community Initiative (CI).
Through the Dialogue you may develop
an idea or a group that develops an idea for a project that will
improve health and well-being in your neighborhood. These we can
often support with a seed grant of up to $1,000 (See the page
Questions
for more on applying for Seed Grants). See
Community Initiatives page for present and some past Community Initiatives.
4. Community Dialogue Team
12~16 hours over 1~2 months to host a
World Cafe Community Dialogue with AHC support as part of this
project (a few spots are available as of July 08) in your community
or neighborhood.
5. Community Dialogue Steering
Committee
12~24 hours over 2~6 months to
support the development of new CI / other Community Dialogues. To be
on the steering committee one would normally have first joined a
dialogue and a CD Team, but there have been some exceptions and more
could be made. The exception is easier when people bring cultural
expertise to the group.
To join any of the above or for more
information about the Community Dialogue process or project call us
at 780-944-4687 or email
actioncf4@shawbiz.ca
or drop in to our new office at #101 10554-110 Street, Edmonton,
Alberta.
WHAT CAN I DO NOW?
As of July 2008 we are preparing for 5
Community Dialogues for autumn 2008 and winter 2009. Thus, we have 5
Community Dialogue teams working to mobilize people, define issues,
source venues, seek-out resource providers and other activities. We
are also doing 1 or 2 more CET-like training sessions for new groups
of 100+ people who would like to do dialogues with us. Other
participants could join us in these sessions.
People who want to mobilize their
Communities or join the dialogue process so they can better work with
their own communities in future should contact us as above as we are
working on all 5 dialogues from now. The sooner you join us the
sooner you'll be a contributing member of the team.
LEARN MORE (then come to a dialogue)
VOICES FROM OUR
NEIGHBOURHOODS is funded by the following
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Edmonton Community Foundation
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Family & Community Support Services
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Anonymous Donor
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Copyright © 2008, Action for Healthy Communities. All rights reserved
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