It’s All Here in the North End: Building And Funding An Ecosystem of Change
By Inda Intiar
This is the final part of a story series about Every One Every Day Kjipuktuk/Halifax as a practical example of inclusive social infrastructure that’s rooted in Truth & Reconciliation. You can read or listen to previous parts of the series to learn more about the importance of social infrastructures in city design and community building.
This series is a collaboration between Every One Every Day Kjipuktuk/Halifax, 7GenCities and Community Foundations of Canada.
Listen here.
Transcript:
Heather Wilkinson (HW): “We're in the middle of a construction zone, right now, lots of condos going up around us…”
Inda Intiar: Gentrification is happening fast in the north end of Kjipuktuk, or Halifax as it’s colonially known. It’s a neighbourhood that historically became home to many African Nova Scotian families after the municipal government demolished Africville in the 1960s.
Today the residents of this diverse neighbourhood rely on many community organizations for services.
The Mi’kmaw Native Friendship Centre is one of those organizations. It’s been there for six decades. Through a more recent initiative called Every One Every Day, the Friendship Centre offers an inclusive social infrastructure platform that helps residents build shared lives and take active part in Truth & Reconciliation.
I’m Inda Intiar, a Transformation Storytelling Fellow with Community Foundations of Canada. This is the last part of a series about Every One Every Day Kjipuktuk. In this story, we’ll hear how Every One Every Day and other community organizations envision a vibrant ecosystem to promote collaboration, inclusion, creativity and self-sufficiency in their neighbourhood.
Opening Music
Aimee Gasparetto (AG): There is something about what you feel when organizations across the neighbourhood are working together to create a different kind of support for residents…It shows up in the programming and people do experience that in some emotional way, just in terms of that feeling of abundance.
That’s Every One Every Day Program Director Aimee Gasparetto. Aimee’s an advocate for a better-resourced, and more vibrant ecosystem of organizations that are supporting residents in the North End. She said access to varied resources is one of the key benefits of having a strong ecosystem.
AG: It’s that idea that across a neighbourhood, there are spaces, there are tools, there are resources of different kinds that people can access and that those are connected in some way is very helpful for people.
This web of organizations and social infrastructures can facilitate more interactions between residents from various cultural backgrounds and lived experiences, with a sense of inclusion, belonging and participation.
AG: At any given point in your day, there's multiple ways in which you can socialize with the people who live there, that you can contribute to something meaningful that's being developed in the neighbourhood for you, or that you can have some sort of say around what happens in the neighbourhood…And that's just something that you feel in your life every day.
This is why Every One Every Day uses a participatory approach to create the conditions that invite creativity and collaborations in daily life. The goal is to promote social cohesion, and move towards local economies that are regenerative, are focused on well-being and are inclusive of everyone. At the core of it all is a commitment to Truth and Reconciliation.
As they work towards that vision, Every One Every Day is asking what if. What if the resources and funding can be shared among organizations to support long-term goals? How would the neighbourhood transform if they worked in an ecosystem?
AG: There's something about leveraging one another's staff support and training and capacity building, being there for each other to co-host a session, I think that's both in terms of maximizing our shared resources as people, but also what happens when there's skills building and capacity building between organizations, which I think a lot of the times just happens naturally when you're co-creating things or co-delivering different things.
A shadow theatre made in partnership with Wonder’neath.
Every One Every Day has been collaborating with various community organizations. One of them is Wonder’neath, a charitable artist-led organization founded in 2014. Heather Wilkinson, who co-founded and co-leads Wonder’neath, says art is an important avenue for residents to find a sense of belonging.
HW: The arts are such an important way of exploring so many different approaches, whether it's environment, whether it's health, whether it's just problem solving, and you know self expression is such an important part of creating a sense of citizenship for people, that they belong, and that their voice can be heard.
One of Wonder’neath’s core programs is an all ages, drop-in Open Studio that runs twice a week for most of the year. It fills a need for free creative spaces. A mobile version of this program, called Art Bikers, reaches residents who can’t come to the studio due to various barriers.
HW: We’re focused around exploring the relationship between practicing artists, professional artists, and the community, and how we kind of support each other. And with a real emphasis on looking at barriers to access in the arts and how we can open that up for people to be involved. That's why we do rental space, we rent studio spaces for artists, at affordable rates, and also run programming from our space.
HW: It just creates a place where you're gathering through artmaking…And as we do, conversations, discussions, opportunities to kind of talk about things that are going on within the community sort of arise and it becomes a place where a lot of people just find a home and opportunity to meet people beyond just superficial kind of greetings.
HW: Coming out of COVID it's especially important, you know, people are vulnerable, they need to be able to come in just feel that they're in a space that they have support to do something that's kind of meditative. Just try something new in a gentle environment and just have other people around them.
Wonder’neath’s studio was a host site for Every One Every Day programming when they were just launching. Wonder'neath’s team then shared learnings about studio organization and how to make spaces more welcoming to people with different abilities. They also joined the opening of Every One Every Day’s neighbourhood shop with a hands-on project. As their relationship grew, Heather and another member of her team participated in Every One Every Day’s session on Reconciliation for partners and funders.
This past summer, Every One Every Day’s Community Build Trailer spent a few weeks at Wonder’neath’s parking lot. Here’s Aimee again:
AG: The Community Build Trailer is a mobile unit equipped with all the tools and resources you need to build small to medium sized build projects. And oftentimes those projects are useful and enjoyable things for the neighbourhood like gathering spaces, gardens, library boxes, anything that people can dream up to make the neighbourhood better. And also it's a place for folks to come learn and share new skills around building the fact that it's mobile enables us to show up in multiple places across the neighbourhood.
With condos being built around Wonder’neath’s studio, the team wanted to beautify its outdoor area. So the folks involved with the Community Build Trailer made planters and benches. At the same time, visitors were able to learn about both the trailer and the Open Studio programs.
HW: These are going to be a really, really beautiful addition to just make the space that you have to kind of walk into feel more welcoming. We've just been working with the team [from the EOED] on with the trailer to think about how more people will learn about what's available with the trailer…and how we can use it to kind of support programming.
The collaboration around the Community Build Trailer has also helped attendees of Wonderneath’s program to find Every One Every Day’s other programs.
HW: Especially right now we're closed for a month so it's great to know that people...are able to find other ways to stay engaged.
Through the Art Biker program, this summer Wonder’neath also collaborated with an environmental organization that offered bike repairs.
HW: They went out to the communities together so people could access either one or both, as they came back on a regular basis. And that allowed us to access some funding that we wouldn't have had access to on our own that was around sustainable transportation.
HW: The resources are pretty scarce for arts organizations right now. And so, I think that when we can work together, and not have to duplicate every piece of equipment, and kind of just share, help direct people to the thing that they need, then I think there's real value in that. And I think that it helps that idea of building community. We have to get that sense of, we have support in more than one place and there's this kind of real wealth available to them. That's really, I think, very inspiring for folks.
Making toolboxes in the Neighbourhood Shop with Halifax Tool Library.
The Halifax Tool Library is another organization that Every One Every Day has teamed up with. This non-profit gives residents access to a wide inventory of tools, most of them donated by community members. Danielle Maltais is a Program Coordinator there.
Background sound: tools
Danielle Maltais (DM): We have everything from hammers and screwdrivers to hand drills. We have some portable table saws for lending. But we also have a mishmash of other tools like lawn care items, hedge trimmers, I believe we have a couple of chainsaws.
DM: We're really targeting a community that maybe doesn't have the space to have all of their tools or maybe cannot afford the price tag of brand new tools.
With a membership, neighbourhood residents can also access workshop space that includes larger tools, along with guidance from a staff member.
Aimee says the synergy between the two organizations became clear pretty quickly.
AG: Their volunteers have been supporting our more build focused sessions and then we're able to promote the Halifax Tool Library and greater access to this shared resource through the folks coming into our sessions. It's this emerging, bubbling up relationship that I think will grow and evolve over time.
The Halifax Tool Library and Every One Every Day initially teamed up to build some mobile planters and have continued to collaborate by sharing space. The Tool Library has hosted used tool sales and other events at Every One Every Day’s neighbourhood shop, and is now planning to expand its toolbox program. This program allows families to build their own toolboxes to take home. It currently runs at the Halifax North End Library and has been very well received, Danielle says.
DM: The largest impact that we have in terms of community development and outreach is collaborating with other organizations using the skill sets and the equipment that we have available to us and using that to build and expand on other organizations missions.
Though the north end has many community organizations with resources, skill sets, programs and space that could be shared, not all of them are known to each other or to the residents who might want to use their services. Besides, like many nonprofits, they’re feeling pressures from the constant search for funding just to stay afloat or keep programs running.
Jacqueline Newsome heard about these pressures last year, when she was working as a student researcher for Every One Every Day. Jacqueline was tasked to map out community assets and organizations that overlap with Every One Every Day’s mission.
Jacqueline Newsome (JN): I ended up interviewing 14 community leaders of various organizations and it was really interesting. because once I started interviewing them, the patterns were just so similar in what they were saying. Mostly that there was a severe lack of capacity in the north end, but that also their services were never more needed. And just seeing a heightening of issues that were anticipated to be less heightened after COVID but, in fact, were more so.
Jacqueline says the impacts of the housing crisis, climate change, the opioid crisis and other intersectional issues were heavy on the workloads of these leaders. It quickly became clear that a deeper understanding of organizational values would be helpful to find synergies.
JN: Having partners that share those values is crucial beyond just the assets that can be offered to each other. And even the sharing of assets is in and of itself a value in some nonprofit organizations.
Asset-sharing can include many things, from infrastructure and knowledge to staff and even community reputation. For example, one organization might have gained the trust of certain groups because of their track record and staff with similar lived-experience. A partnership with them can help ensure residents can access the various services available in the neighbourhood. All of this relies on strong formal and less formal relationships among the community organizations. Here’s Aimee again:
AG: Both are important. I think the less formal connections and relationships allow things to happen at a much different pace, and they allow people within organizations to be responsive, to be adaptable, to be reflexive.
AG: The other thing is just trust. I think in the community, we all have to be aware and conscious of the fact that a lot has happened and continues to happen, whether that's around gentrification, whether that's around oppression, racism. And the reality is there is a lot of mistrust, and there should be. And so we, together as practitioners and as people working in organizations, we are building trust all the time. And I think in order to be able to do that with the community, we have to do that with each other.
Building trust and partnership with organizations and residents is necessary but difficult to measure. It also requires time and money. Yet, sustainable, long-term funding is hard to come by for many community organizations, and something an ecosystem approach could help alleviate.
Heather says she’s grateful for funding from all levels of government, as well as foundations, donors, and earned revenue from renting out studio space. But sustaining core programs remains challenging, especially as living costs for staff and artists-facilitators have increased significantly. She said funders often want programs that are new or innovative, which could hinder trust-building with the community.
HW: A lot of the work we’re doing is actually building trust with the community and one of the ways we do that is by having some consistency about our programming, and really being there for people, they get to know us, they get to know the people that are working with us, they know our hours, they come to rely on that. The value of it is by being there over time, and still being responsive, still making sure you're not taking anything for granted, that you're getting feedback, that you're talking to people, that you're making changes but you're providing some consistency. And that's hard to fund. You know, at the beginning of the year, we're not quite sure exactly where that money's gonna come from.
Making candleholders at the Community Build Trailer, parked at the Mi’kmaw Native Friendship Centre, in partnership with the Halifax Tool Library.
For Danielle, challenges also come from the limitations placed by funders regarding what the Halifax Tool Library can cover. For example, the Tool Library hasn’t been able to cover travel costs for volunteers, which could be a big burden in this economic climate.
DM: I am seeing some major challenges with how we distribute the funding to support the volunteers who will volunteer for the programs that we're running, or even purchase the materials in order to provide what's required for the projects…And at the moment, we have no funding for 2024, which means that we will have difficulties to run future programs or plan programming into the new year.
While funding may be available, most are short-term, and siloed to support only one or two elements of an initiative. The time and resources spent looking and applying for funding takes leaders away from their core work of strategizing and building strong programs for the community. The various limitations within the current transactional model also breeds competition and a scarcity mindset, rather than collaboration and abundance.
AG: When we talk about transactional funding models, there's this imbalanced power situation where the recipients of the funds are responsible and accountable to the funder. Ultimately, though, we are accountable to the people we aim to serve. And so if we are truly accountable to residents, community members in our case, then it's also who determines what impact is.
AG: I think that two organizations with similar visions and similar mandates can together be accountable to community members and report on that accountability. But there needs to be a common understanding of that - we are being accountable to residents and this is how we and they define that and sort of articulate the boundaries of that.
Unfortunately, Aimee says, the philanthropy sector is often disconnected from the work on the ground. This results in a lack of understanding about the value of that work, especially intangible things like building trust and embodying Truth & Reconciliation.
AG: If I just take the example of Truth and Reconciliation, if I think about everything that our team has had to think through and go through and experience to come up with a truth and reconciliation framework without having funders part of that experience and like, engaged in the work at some kind of personal experiential level. How can they put a value on that work and its potential for transformation in the system?
AG: Most of the time we're asked to demonstrate what is the potential for scale out or scale up. And for many funders that means how far are you going to reach oftentimes somewhat surface level interventions. Whereas I really feel that some of the most systemic change is happening when organizations are able to work at multiple levels, using a very relational approach, looking at systems and policy change opportunities, doing grassroots community engagement and delivery and the complexity of all of that together is, I don't think well-understood by so many funders who are very compartmentalized.
Aimee says a more seamless sharing of assets, funding and learnings based on strong relationships could alleviate a lot of the pressures community organizations face. This ecosystem would not only include the community organizations, but also funders and residents as well.
AG: I think when we're not thinking about it at an ecosystem level, we're never going to be able to get to that point of systems transformation because the outcomes can only be narrowly defined and they won't be connected to the other broader systems level changes. When implementers are dispersed, disconnected, fragmented, often under-resourced because folks are trying to spread the resources, so is impact. How can we build cohesive, coherent impact when resources are spread so thinly?
Working at the Community Build Trailer at Wonder’neath.
AG: When things are connected and fluid and working in a state of reciprocity and feedback loops and communication, it serves the greater whole. And so when I think about an ecosystem of organizations, I think about connected elements of infrastructure. Whether that's indoor and outdoor spaces, public gathering spaces, that those things are somehow connected through the people that are maintaining them or through shared resources. And then the residents are an essential element of that ecosystem as well. But again, it's the relationship of people with those organizational structures and with each other.
This whole ecosystem approach to funding would support the work of building and nurturing relationships, which needs to happen every day.
The importance of relationships also came up in Jacqueline’s research. When she asked community leaders what they wanted to see in the neighbourhood, some suggested a space for leaders and staff to have freeform collaboration. Kind of like a communal break room that’s not attached to any organization.
But transformational change takes time, and deep shifts in mindsets and the ways that organizations work. Aimee says it would have to start small, with funding for at least a three-to-five-year horizon. She suggests that funders help bring others to the table who are interested in an ecosystem approach.
AG: There would have to be a collection of both funders and practitioners coming together to say what is the thing that we share that could support a common impact that does not define our whole organization but represents the overlap in which we hope to achieve impact in the neighbourhood.
AG: We want more people feeling like they can participate every single day and there are many organizations across the North End that feel that way too.
To boost inclusive participation of residents in the neighbourhood, Aimee suggests identifying and then building shared infrastructure and activities that are held by multiple organizations. Funders can then commit to supporting the operational base for multiple years.
AG: It's going to take a lot of support and it takes connection. But the flip side of that is that funding then enables a different sentiment of abundance and feeling like there is enough and that it doesn't always have to be your organization or mine. It can be both organizations working in collaboration to meet similar objectives, but with differences that are important for the communities that they're aiming to serve.
Mobile planters built by community members at Wonder’neath, using the Community Build Trailer.
Teaming up to apply for funding is one helpful way to achieve organizational sustainability. Here’s Heather.
HW: If we can work together on some of those efforts, I think we spend less time in that chasing thing, and more time developing good programming. And I think partnerships, they mean a lot to funders. We're creating better value, we have more impact in communities we go into, because we are each adding something to this puzzle.
Collaboration can also expand the reach of programs. Danielle said she’d love to see a database of community organizations to make it easier to collaborate. Shared training on topics like grant writing, employee safety, inclusivity and Truth and Reconciliation could also build collective capacity.
DM: The Truth and Reconciliation piece, I think a lot of people don't really know how to go about doing that. And so instead of trying and failing, you're gonna have people avoiding it . And so the idea of providing funding for training within particular community goal areas, that one's a really good example.
Another piece of the puzzle is storytelling. Jacqueline says she wishes more young people knew about the work that these community leaders are doing.
JN: I almost wanted to just share stories of these leaders who are doing their best and showing profiles of these people and having it so that every young person knows that there is someone actually taking care of things. It's not just a hopeless system where things are falling into disrepair.
There’s hope in the fact that many practitioners and funders want to see more inclusive, participatory and self-sustaining neighbourhoods. But it all begins with meaningful relationships and trust, Heather reminds us.
HW: Relationships happen over time and they require maintenance. We always just have to remember to give ourselves some space and also prioritize relationships.
Music outro
II: To learn more about Every One Every Day’s work, read the whole series on their website or find them on the Community Foundations of Canada’s website under Initiatives - > “transformation storytelling fellowship.” A big thanks to the team at Every One Every Day Kjipuktuk; 7Gen Cities, and Community Foundations of Canada for their care and support with this story. Thank you, merci, wela’lin, and terima kasih for listening!
Inda Intiar (she|her) is a Transformation Storytelling Fellow with Community Foundations of Canada. Through this role, she seeks to use storytelling to showcase how innovation and initiatives on the ground can help transform broader systems and societies. She’ll focus on the work of 7GenCities and Every One Every Day Kjipuktuk/Halifax in providing social infrastructure that centers Truth and Reconciliation and encourages the inclusive and active participation of community members.