Community Dialogue Day

Urban Ecosystem Health in Calgary (2002)

Participants collectively chose a number of topics they wanted to discuss, then broke into small, facilitated groups and created a mural on their topic. The mural background was a stream flowing into a water body. The overall vision was embodied by the water body, and the stream represented the process of getting there. Group members were then easily able to capture the present situation in Calgary by adding "fish" to the stream, which represented resources, current initiatives and societal trends that can help to achieve the vision. Barriers were represented by "boulders" and new ideas were included as "stars".

Each group presented their mural to the other groups and received feedback. A plenary session helped to summarize the day and identify future courses of action.

In addition to these brainstorming and planning exercises, a number of funding and resource agencies were present, such as the Calgary Foundation, the Parks Foundation and Volunteer Calgary. Non-profit groups learned how to better access and utilize the resources offered by these agencies. The day was also an excellent opportunity for participants to network with others with common goals. One concrete outcome was the development of a list-serve to maintain connections and continue discussion between those interested in Calgary's Ecosystem Health.

RESULTS REPORT: To download a PDF that details the day's discussions click here.