On Wednesday, October 12, the University of Calgary’s School of Public Policy released their take on the future role of Calgary’s Community Associations. The report, meant as a guiding hand to the City of Calgary’s administration’s probe, details seven recommendations that range from small tweaks to large institutional changes.
“Are the roles of community associations valued from a corporate City of Calgary perspective?” asked Brian W. Conger, one of the authors. “If they are, then there are some small tweaks that would really help them out.”
Calgary has 151 community associations with their own ideas, mandates and rules – and one of the overwhelming conclusions of the report says unifying those voices will benefit the furthering of big community issues. The report suggests roles for these voices need to be clarified, they need consistent funding and should also be lumped into community districts.
“There’s an opportunity here if we say ‘yes, community associations are important and I think they’re very important, they play an important role, then what do they need?’” Conger said. “Support for operations, clear mandate on their roles, the advocacy nature of community associations leads to frustration.”
Leslie Evans is the executive director of the Federation of Calgary Communities. The federation supports the community associations in the city, not-for-profits and some residents associations.
Evans heard the reports findings for the first time Wednesday, her early impression of the report shows they’re on the right track, because they’ve been having similar conversations already.
“What the report doesn’t talk about is the uniqueness of Calgary’s community association model,” Evans said. Compared to Portland and Seattle, Calgary’s associations don’t have city staff involved, they are run by volunteer efforts.
“In this proposal my thought is a serious amount of resources is needed on a bureaucratic level. It will be an extra level of operations.”
She said her concern with some of the proposals would be adding more responsibility to volunteers who already give so much of their time, and dampening the array of community voices.
Calgary’s Community Associations can be related to the Neighbourhood Associations merging in Lethbridge. Although there are different histories and in some cases, different function and form, both organizations sets have one very significant thing in common – they contribute to the health, safety and inclusion of a community at the neighbourhood level.
What does the findings of this report mean for Lethbridge Neighbourhood Associations and the Council of Lethbridge Neighbourhoods (CLAN), a support organization for these associations? This is an especially pertinent question as more Neighbourhood Associations emerge in Lethbridge and CLAN plays a more active role in their development.
The recommendations:
Clarify expectations: If the city sees community associations as city builders, they need to understand their role. This includes thinking about how much influence they should have on decision making. The report underlines this could cut down on frustrations and NIMBY-ism during planning processes.
Provide consistent funding: These groups are offering a ton of programs through membership funding and fund raising cash – there’s no certainty, or consistency. The report suggests tying a percentage of municipal departmental budgets for these programs.
Think broadly: Interaction between the business revitalization folks, clubs, service organizations and other community initiatives can broaden local perspective beyond just livability.
Partnerships with resident associations: Working together with these associations could help stabilize funding, and help run both operations smoothly.
Shared spaces: Calgary is mandating more mixed-use developments for community amnesties. This can open up private and public sector partnership opportunities and give community associations access to amnesties they couldn’t otherwise afford, or keep up.
Community Districts: Creating larger community districts made up of several community associations can help with filtering community information and highlighting big button issues.
Formalize the city’s role: The report is asking to fold the Federation of Calgary Communities current function into the City of Calgary or giving resources to the federation so t