What We Do
Every One Every Day Kjipuktuk is working with local residents in the North End of Kjipuktuk (Halifax) to build a new system of neighbourhood participation that that has potential to transform how we live and learn together every day.
Halifax’s North End is a special place, and home to many people with different languages, cultures, skills and hobbies. Together we want to make even more opportunities for people to get together and share these wonderful things. Can you imagine a place where people can get together to cook, play, share, learn, bake, make, mend and chat? We’re going to make it happen, but we need you!
Every One Every Day is working to create opportunities for neighbours to connect and learn over shared interests, and where everybody from across the neighbourhood can get to know each other. Central to these interactions is respectful learning and sharing across the histories and cultures that make up the places we call home.
Every One Every Day is made possible by residents like you coming together to share ideas, time, and skills, and offer inspiration for the kinds of things we could be doing more of to make everyday life better for everyone. To get started, residents are invited to come by the Neighbourhood Shop at 2169 Gottingen Street to meet others living nearby, share ideas with the team, and contribute to growing a network of neighbourhood projects inspired by the energy and creativity of your North End neighbours.
Taking part is easy. Every One Every Day projects are all about doing practical, creative things with people nearby, and finding more ways for people to connect and learn across the neighbourhood. They are all free to attend and open to everyone.
Taken together, and with all the wonderful spaces and projects that already exist in the North End, this vibrant and welcoming network of opportunities can help to create an optimistic vision of the future - making it a place where everyone’s contributions are important and vital.
What is Every One Every Day All About?
People pop in to have a cup of coffee (or tea!) and share their idea for a project, working with the design team to bring their ideas to life in the neighbourhood.
Since June 2022, the project has been working to grow a large enthusiastic network of people who are doing practical things together to make everyday life better for everyone.
So far a range of projects have been initiated with a growing number of people participating, with as much or as little support as needed, included cooking, sewing, building, making, and much more.
We have a Neighbourhood Shop on Gottingen Street that is here to help neighbours connect over shared interests and work together on mutually benefical projects.
Many small things done by many people really add up, and really do make friendly, healthy, and happy neighbourhoods.
“We’ve been living in parallel for so long. It’s about time we came together.”
The Ambition
Every One Every Day Kjipuktuk has a big ambition: To build a new system of neighbourhood participation that is reconciliation focused and inclusive to all – where a new foundation for civic and social infrastructure is built upon relationships between people, nature, and place, and where residents can actively contribute to a more reconciled future for all.
To measure the value that is co-created by growing a network of participation and establish its viability as a long-term pathway for building neighbourhoods and cities that are happier, more resilient, and socially connected.
Weaving Truth & Reconciliation into the design of civic and social infrastructure.
The journey of Reconciliation is rooted in relationships and honouring processes of truth and healing. So, we must create systems designed for this very thing — relationships between residents, organizations, and governments — first to build understanding across our ways of being and knowing, and to shift mindsets, systems and structures to not only account for these differences, but also to honour them through the ways we live and learn in society together. Every One Every Day Kjipuktuk creates opportunities to bring Reconciliation to life across neighbourhoods — through enhancing Indigenous identity and belonging in the urban context, and building new relationships that are about learning, and fostering harmonious interactions with each other and the places we call home.
Creating conditions for people and institutions to collaborate.
Every One Every Day is creating robust social infrastructure that has potential to transform people’s lives and the neighbourhoods in which they live. The urgent challenges of our time require new systems and structures that empower local people to contribute local solutions, as they are uniquely positioned to do. And with an ecosystem of local, national and international actors, to nurture new models of stewardship and shared ownership that make way for cities not designed for populations, but for generations — past present and future. This work can’t be done alone; But rather, it will take the minds and hearts of many — there is no other way.
Placing people at the heart of neighbourhood development.
The relationships we build everyday matter; And what we do together everyday matters too. Every One Every Day Kjipuktuk creates infrastructure for weaving the diverse threads of our communities together, through spaces designed for bridging — where neighbours can meet based on shared interests and build new relationships with one another and with place. It puts residents at the heart of decision making, where they have the tools and supports necessary to work together daily on practical and creative projects that help to shape the kind of neighbourhoods they wish to live in and are about.
““To rise to the massive global challenges that face us all, we need new models for shifting culture. Every One Every Day Kjipuktuk is one powerful model for deep, place-based transformation. At the scale of neighbourhoods, it represents the world we need to build, collectively. Simply put, it inspires us to re-imagine how we live and work together in the future.””
How We Work
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When we say everyone, we mean everyone. We all come with unique stories, experiences, gifts and talents. Every One Every Day is an open invitation to connect and learn from one another across shared interests. Can’t find something that interests you? Need help to register or take part? Our team is here to support you in taking part and connecting with your neighbours.
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This isn't about being skilled or an expert in something. It’s about learning and spending time with others, and having support to bring your ideas to life in the neighbourhood. Whatever you enjoy doing or think you might like to try could be something that others are interested in too – we’re here to make it easier to start and grow your ideas.
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Most people have busy lives. Between work, raising children, caring for older relatives and keeping households going, people need opportunities that fit with all the other things going on. These activities will be near where you live, they will be short and at different times of day, and free to attend.
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The whole neighbourhood matters. Getting involved in Every One Every Day means creating space for everyone to have a say in picking projects, planning, and taking part. The projects outlined in this newspaper are designed to spark ideas around what we could do more of together. Anyone can contribute, including children of all ages - we call them mini-makers.
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Every One Every Day is not a volunteering program. We work with residents to help create projects that directly benefit you, your neighbours, friends and family. These benefits might include learning new things, saving you money or time, sharing and trading resources, or making new friends and creating a greater sense of community.
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These projects see people working together on practical ideas that make their neighbourhoods more exciting and enjoyable places to live. By taking part in these projects people become creators and co-producers of the places in which they live. Over time, we can create networks of people and projects that make everyday life better for everyone.
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We all have a responsibility to learn the truth about Canada’s history, particularly the nation’s relationship with the First Peoples of this land. Every One Every Day strives to create space for important conversations about the truth in our history and how sharing that knowledge contributes towards a more reconciled and socially-just future.