When you’re blazing trails in neighbourhood initiatives, it’s sometimes hard to envision the path ahead. However, there are people and organizations pioneering this work across the country, and beyond. Action for Neighbourhood Change (ANC) engaged several of these key individuals in dialogue about their practice, their accumulated wisdom, and the challenges they face in doing this work.

In the spirit of sharing and learning together, ANC hosted a series of tele-learning seminars, inviting participation from Vibrant Communities and from United Ways across Canada, as well as involving the five ANC neighbourhoods. The result was a dynamic conversation which we captured and animated online, with speakers and participants alike sharing their rich depth of experience in neighbourhood revitalization.

We hope that this section will encourage you to think deeply about your own neighbourhood initiatives. It will guide you in thinking strategically and acting collaboratively, and, most of all, it will connect you with some of the pioneers on this challenging but rewarding path!

In this section you'll find:

Making an Impact – Over two sessions, Paul Born (Tamarack) spoke with Ira Barbell of the Annie E. Casey Foundation about impact in neighbourhood revitalization work. Ira is a Senior Associate with the Foundation, and is a key player in their Making Connections initiative.

Community Change – Anne Kubisch and Patricia Auspos of the Aspen Institute’s Roundtable for Community Change engaged in a conversation with Mark Cabaj of Tamarack about vertical collaboration and collaboration across neighbourhoods.

Policy and Place – Neil Bradford, of the University of Western Ontario and the Canadian Policy Research Network, engaged in a conversation with Paul Born of Tamarack. They discussed the current state of research and learning about place-based community building initiatives.

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Action for Neighbourhood Change was in operation from 2005-2007. This site exists to capture and share the learnings that emerged from this initiative, but new material is no longer being added on a regular basis. ANC is not responsible for the content of external links, which may change; however, if you find a broken link, please let us know.