Community Development and the Ontario Healthy Community Coalition

I found it really interesting and encouraging to read so many stories of Community Development. It was fascinating to see the diverse approaches and structures all focusing on the same ends - a healthy community. I easily found 5 examples of activities that met one or more of the values of community development.

• Thunder Bay Public Library - social justice and equity
• Christie Lake Stewardship Plan - community ownership
• Durham's Child Nutrition Project - upstream
• MovingON (Perth) - enhancement of natural capacities & networks
• Community Capacity Building (Chatham-Kent) - service integration

What struck me when I was reading about these and other examples on the Ontario Healthy Community Coalition website was the large numbers of individuals, groups and organizations that were involved in each project. None of the projects that I read about were accomplished by one or two individuals or even one group on its own. This leads me to believe that inclusivity is the most important characteristic of community development. When all (or at least as many people/groups as possible) are included in the planning and execution of an activity then it is more successful. It seems that this value drives other things likes service integration - if you include everyone in the planning and execution of activities then existing services and networks will naturally be included and not ignored. It seems likely that you would also make community ownership and community self-determination a priority with an inclusive approach.

This is why I chose inclusive as the most important value in Community Development. I also found the value "upstream" quite interesting. Though the concept is not hard to grasp it was an idea that I hadn't really grappled with before in this context. I think it is a good addition to the list because activities that are aimed at the symptoms rather than the problem will inevitably need to be sustained or increased to continue to deal with the symptoms of an issue. If you can design an activity to deal with the root issue then your community will benefit much more.