What Makes a Community Healthy? 

Check out this Word Cloud made from survey responses from a survey I administered in the Alberni Clayoquot Regional District. 

Top five responses include:

• Community

• Opportunities

• Services

• Health

• Access

Now, let's compare that to an info graphic published by Sparc BC about the top priorities and concerns for this region in 2015:

Top five include:

• Income
• Childcare
• Employment
• Housing
• Education 

Conclusion: healthy communities at minimum provide opportunities for people to:

1. work and receive living wages
2. live in affordable and safe housing
3. have access to basic services like childcare and health
4. take education seriously.

Collective Creativity Through the Art of Hosting

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I sometimes feel overwhelmed by the magnitude of challenges and need for change and my seeming lack of ability to affect the world in a positive way. When I think how to contribute to some of the local and global issues of our time, I often think about the words of Albert Einstein who said that we can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking that created them. He also said that the challenges of these times call for 'collective intelligence'. In other words - we need groups of people to work together to come up with innovative solutions.

So, if what's needed today is 'collective intelligence', then we also need to ensure that there are deliberate opportunities for folks to come together to build trust and to listen to one another in order to co-create strategies for positive change. Because we not only need to be working across cultures, disciplines and silos, but we also need to be working across generations and even sometimes, just across the hall.

A great way of bringing folks together is through social technologies such as the 'Art of Hosting': a broad scope of gathering methodologies such as Open Space, World Café, Circle Practice and Appreciative Inquiry. 

The 'Art of Hosting' is a practice that accesses and cultivates the power of collective intelligence to move a group toward meaningful conversation and wise action. It is a way of not only bringing people together but also of 'being together' so that individuals, organizations and communities can discover purposeful strategies and innovations that encourage change.

The idea of 'hosting' is based on values of inviting, welcoming and holding space for authenticity, intention and attention. Taken to an artful level it encompasses a way of being with others and situations as they unfold - of not only welcoming but actively and appreciatively inquiring into whatever seems to be important to the group at the time.

Perhaps Rumi's poem The Guest House best captures the spirit of the Art of Hosting when he tells us to "welcome and entertain them all!" (who-ever shows up), to "meet them at the door laughing and invite them in", to "treat each guest honorably" and to be "grateful for whoever comes, because each has been sent as a guide from beyond."

Some of the essential principles associated with 'Art of Hosting' practices are that:

* Whoever comes is the right people

* Whatever happens is the only thing that could have happened

* When it starts is the right time

* When it's over it's over

As well, it espouses the 'Law of Two Feet' whereby “if you find yourself in a situation where you are neither learning or contributing, go somewhere where you can.”

According to Chris Corrigan, author of an open source book called The Tao of Holding Space, as hosts our role is "to facilitate the flow of collaboration, to care for the small intangibles, the space, the quality of the invitation, the integrity of the offering." "All the potential for change," he says, is "in the room" and that holding space is an act of courage and leadership.

If nothing else, coming together for meaningful conversation helps me feel more connected to others, less overwhelmed, less alone, in short more hopeful that I can make a difference as part of a collective. We can all explore the practice of hosting and holding inspired and meaningful conversations that matter to us whether it be in our work, communities or personal life.

Guidelines for hosting Quality Conversations:

Conversation comes from the Latin con versare: turn or to dance together.

• Stay present & suspend judgment … as best you can
• Listen closely...with the intent to learn something; use silence to allow reflection and learning
• Ask powerful questions … What do you envision? What would that mean to you? Tell me more
• Propose rather than oppose … say what you want rather than what you do not want
• Invite options & respect diverse opinions … What alternatives are there?
• Speak what has personal importance and meaning … "I think/want/like"
• Pursue honesty and depth … without going on and on
• Allow all voices to be heard so the collective intelligence can surface
• Focus on the present (what could we do now?) or the future (how might that look?) … rather than the past
• Do not fear chaos - it is creative space where the innovation can be born

Resources:

www.conversationcafe.org

www.theartofhosting.org

www.openspaceworld.org/news/join-us/

www.archive.org/details/TheTaoOfHoldingSpace

Building Strong Communities

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“It’s the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine”, REM

According to Jim Diers, Community Development guru from Seattle, there’s a difference between ‘community’ and ‘neighborhood’. Neighborhood refers to a geographical place and community refers to our social connections. In some cases we have ‘community’ in our neighborhoods, but not always. More often than not our most vibrant community connections are through our work, sports activities, common interests, religion etc.

So how do we build community connections in our neighborhoods? Jim Diers says that there are several keys to creating community. For one thing, gathering places are essential, providing folks with opportunities to bump into one another. We also need to make community life fun and more engaging than television.

As community developers, it’s vital that we start where people are at and empower them to develop and work on dreams for their community rather than imposing what we think is best. After all, communities are ripe with talented and passionate people to tap into.

We also need to take a ‘cup is half full’ approach by building on the assets in communities versus the typical institutional approach of focusing on what’s wrong or missing and then looking to the outside for answers and to quick ‘fix’ the deficiencies. Too often we are defining people by their disabilities (at-risk, homeless, isolated, low-income) instead of on their gifts. Jim says that every individual has gifts of the head, heart and hands.

Community asset mapping is a great process for taking stock of what already exists in community to build on.

According to Diers, every place has a plethora of assets to tap into and build on including:

• Gifts of individuals
• Voluntary associations
• Built and natural environment
• Local economy
• Local heritage and identity
• Local agencies.

As well, Diers says that local agencies in particular are underutilized because they aren’t democratic. Schools for example have incredible resources that community could tap into after hours yet very few schools are able to function as true ‘community schools’. There is a disconnect between ‘community’ and ‘school’ even though learning is life long and occurs in the context of community itself.

Finally Diers identifies steps toward effective agency/ community partnerships including:

1) Do no harm. In other words don’t distract or undermine community, don’t waste their time and don’t create dependency. The iron rule he says is to “never do for people what they can do for themselves”.

2) Remove Agency Barriers including: centralized decision making, cookie cutter programs and regulations that don’t serve, rigid silos and departments, bureaucratic red tape and the know it all attitudes.

3) Build Community Capacity: including focus on leadership development, out reach, networking, matching funds.