ALIVE (Aboriginal Life in Vancouver Enhancement) Society exists to promote, enhance and foster the social, economic, and cultural well-being and health of Aboriginal peoples in Vancouver. Working within a place-based framework to develop inclusive strategies to support Aboriginal individuals, families and extended families where they find themselves, ALIVE creates opportunities for urban Aboriginals in the city of Vancouver to fully engage as citizens in their neighborhoods and in the city as a whole. Founded in 2010, ALIVE now has 626 Aboriginal members and counting!
ALIVE strives to build effective partnerships and collaborations, promoting initiatives and strategies that Enhance the experiences of both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal communities. The recent Environics Urban Aboriginal Peoples Study (UAPS) supports our findings that the majority of Aboriginal peoples in Vancouver feel empowered to contribute to community life within their neighborhoods -- that they can make Vancouver a better place to live. The UAPS reports that for they feel success means a balanced life, close to family and friends, raising healthy well-adjusted children who contribute positively to the community. But Aboriginal peoples in our city must overcome multiple barriers to participation, including feelings of stigmatization and negative experiences accessing supports such as housing, social assistance and child welfare. ALIVE believes that, using a place-based strategy, we can create avenues for Aboriginal citizens to have meaningful impacts in their communities, to negotiate their role in the urban ‘place’ on their own terms.
What do we mean by ‘Place-Based’?
Placed-based thinking is a strategic way of looking at how we structure our communities. It acknowledges unique and complex local realities -- including community norms and values, policies that affect the community and its members, agencies providing services in that area, as well as diverse and ever-changing identities and relationships (cultural, political, gender, etc). This approach recognizes communities as spaces where the potential exists to reorganize human activity in a manner that better reflects the unique social, political, cultural, spiritual and material landscape of the ‘place’. Place-based approaches mobilize resources and capacities to be responsive to local needs and aspirations.
The place where one resides affects all aspects of life. Issues faced by already vulnerable groups, including Aboriginal peoples, immigrants, single-parent families and the elderly, are compounded in communities with pervasive social exclusion, poverty, and poor health. Place-based approaches work to remove barriers, and promote people-centered, participatory service delivery. ALIVE’s strategy adopts a strengths-based approach, valuing and drawing on the diverse skills and gifts of each ’place’ to create comprehensive, holistic, and integrated solutions which meet both individual and broader community needs. potential as an effective way of thinking about our communities.
Placed-based thinking is currently being adopted in many places around the world, with evidence mounting for its potential as an effective way of thinking about our communities.
Common Principles of a PLACE-BASED framework:
- Increase social connectedness, decrease isolation. Creating opportunities to establish relationships among residents and between residents and neighbourhood institutions is crucial, as literature demonstrates that social inclusion is a key factor in increasing the safety and well-being of individuals and the community as a whole.
- Build on and connect existing community supports. Service providers partner with local agencies, schools, community centres, etc. that are already well-established and trusted in the area, and work collaboratively to “complement, extend and enrich”, rather than working in silos and creating programs and services that are redundant and unconnected.
- Increase the capacity for citizens to navigate systems, access resources and lobby for themselves. Community capacity is defined as the social and material resources that can be leveraged to solve collective problems and improve or maintain the well-being of a given community. Individuals and organizations with credibility, familiar with local conditions, are key to developing new connections and championing the goals and interests of the community. When leaders emerge within a community, their status as peers enables them to serve as role models, and sources of knowledge for other community members.
- Engage the community in planning -- ensure mechanisms for input into planning processes and service delivery . Place-based approaches feature mechanisms that respond to community concerns, needs, and aspirations. Policy-makers and service providers collaborate to gather community input and feedback, consistently providing opportunities for citizens to have a real voice in issues, policies and services that affect them.
