COVID-19 has forced many organizations that focus on community well-being to reimagine how they provide essential services. Strengthening community resilience and well-being using innovative social R&D methods is how social service organizations are moving forward post pandemic.
It’s estimated that, even before COVID-19 struck, 700,000 small businesses in Canada were already at risk of closure in the next ten years, because they don’t have viable succession plans. And the pandemic made local business and community self-sufficiency even more urgent. Social acquisitions could be a big part of the solution.
Testing out new approaches to family services can be very difficult. Few organizations and grantmakers support this type of design and development, and fewer still act as conduits for local communities to reimagine their own colonial-era social service programs.
During the pandemic many non-profits have shifted their programming online, but without considering accessibility and accommodations, some of these programs have excluded some individuals from participating in virtual programming.
While economic development of suburban communities can decrease poverty, it may also come at the expense of local residents through an increased cost of living, pushing them out of their own neighbourhoods due to unaffordability. This is our eighth piece in a series in partnership with the United Way Centraide of Canada.
A project in Montreal is flipping the philanthropic model on its head, by enabling community members to be the ultimate decision makers. The Collective Impact Project is helping 17 neighbourhoods in Montreal fight against poverty and social exclusion through a unique model. This article, our seventh in a series with United Way Centraide Canada, highlights the journey and learnings of this collaborative project.
