|
A Guide to Building
Community in Vancouver.
Vancouver
As far
as we know, this is the most complete grassroots organizing guide available
on the Internet. The Vancouver information has been separated out so
most of what is here will be useful to people living in other places.
SAFE PLACES likes to link to the citizens-handbook.
Why
we need more active citizens
The Citizens Handbook is meant to encourage the emergence of more active
citizens - people motivated by an interest in public issues, and a desire
to make a difference beyond their own private lives. Active citizens
are a great untapped resource, and citizenship is a quality to be nurtured.
Here's why.
A way
of tackling large public issues
In British Columbia, no less than eight recent task force reports have
identified more active citizens as the key to responding more effectively
to large scale public issues. The reports include When the Bough Breaks
(on child protection); the Ready Or Not! Final Report (on aging); Making
Changes (on family services); Closer to Home (on health care); Greenways/Publicways
(on the urban landscape); Clouds of Change (on atmospheric change);
Report of the Round-table on the Environment and the Economy; and the
Safer City Task Force Report.
A way
of solving local problems
When people become involved in their neighbourhoods they can become
a potent force for dealing with local problems. Through co-ordinated
planning, research and action, they can accomplish what individuals
working alone could not.
When people decide they are going to be part of the solution, local
problems start getting solved. When they actually begin to work with
other individuals, schools, associations, businesses, and government
service providers, there is no limit to what they can accomplish.
A way
of improving liveability
Citizens can make cities work better because they understand their own
neighbourhoods better than anyone else. Giving them some responsibility
for looking after their part of town is a way of effectively addressing
local preferences and priorities. Understandably, boosting citizen participation
improves liveability. It is no coincidence that Portland, Oregon - a
city with a tradition of working in partnership with neighbourhoods
- regularly receives the highest score for liveability of any U.S. city.
Cities are sources of potential conflict, between government and citizens,
between different citizens groups, and between citizens and special
interests such as real estate developers. Recent studies have shown
that greater citizen participation in civic affairs can reduce all of
these sources of conflict. In particular it can prevent the firestorms
associated with changes brought about by growth and renewal.
A bridge
to strong democracy
When citizens get together at the neighbourhood level, they generate
a number of remarkable side effects. One of these is strengthened democracy.
In simple terms, democracy means that the people decide. Political scientists
describe our system of voting every few years but otherwise leaving
everything up to government as weak democracy. In weak democracy, citizens
have no role, no real part in decision-making between elections. Experts
assume responsibility for deciding how to deal with important public
issues.
The great movement of the last decades of the twentieth century has
been a drive toward stronger democracy in corporations, institutions
and governments. In many cities this has resulted in the formal recognition
of neighbourhood groups as a link between people and municipal government,
and a venue for citizen participation in decision-making between elections.
A little
recognized route to better health
In the late 1980s, following Canada's lead, the World Health Organization
broadened its definition of health to account for the fact that health
is much more than the absence of disease. The new definition recognizes
that only 25% of our health status comes from health care, the rest
comes from the effects of an adequate education and income, a clean
environment, secure housing and employment, the ability to control stress,
and a social support network.
Understandably, public health professionals have become some of the
strongest advocates for more active citizens. Health Canada has provided
many resources to nurture the grassroots including the recent Community
Action Pack, a full crate of material on community organizing.
A way
of rekindling community
Active citizens can help to create a sense of community connected to
place. We all live somewhere. As such we share a unique collection of
problems and prospects in common with our neighbours. Participation
in neighbourhood affairs builds on a recognition of here-we-are-together,
and a yearning to recapture something of the tight-knit communities
of the past. Neighbourhood groups can act as vehicles for making connections
between people, forums for resolving local differences, and a means
of looking after one another. Most important, they can create a positive
social environment that can become one of the best features of a place.
Source:
Charles Dobson, Editor; Vancouver Citizens Committee, September 5, 2002
LINKS
www.vcn.bc.ca/citizens-handbook/
Example
of Neighbourhood Watch
To OVERVIEW of sheets...
Home
|
