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Communities around the world are entering a new era of community building. Whether improving economic conditions and reducing poverty, re-energizing citizens and social programs, reducing crime, or revitalizing a troubled neighbourhood, they are engaging people from all sectors as never before to work together as equals to improve their quality of life.

At the heart of this engagement are community conversations, in which common goals are embraced by a diverse array of people with different backgrounds and needs, and influencers are drawn from multiple sectors, including community organizations, the various levels of government, and businesses big and small.

Full of informative and inspiring examples of collaboration, Community Conversations, a new Tamarack book by Paul Born, captures the essence of creating such conversations and offers ten practical techniques to host conversations in your community. Learn more here.

Creating Vibrant Communities: How Individuals and Organizations from Diverse Sectors of Society are Coming Together to Reduce Poverty in Canada.

Vibrant Communities Canada is a national project to reduce poverty in Canada. A relatively young national initiative, the learning generated during its formative years (2002–2006) was extensive. This book, edited by Paul Born, attempts to capture and share the knowledge generated during that time, in the hopes of including you in our conversation about community change and poverty reduction. Read this book to learn more about innovative comprehensive community initiatives and successful Canadian community campaigns to reduce poverty. Learn more here.

Can an organization reduce poverty? Can a community? Paul Born is convinced that a community can take leadership and develop a new infrastructure to reduce poverty.

In Leaderful Communities, Born explores the fundamental nature of community leadership and suggests:

• Community leadership cannot exist without community.
• Community leadership is based on values. There is no more profound way to express its fundamental nature.
• Community leadership is about collective purpose.

Community leadership is evident when people engage together through shared values in a collective purpose for the good of their community.

Sample Leaderful Communities:

• Table of Contents & Opening
• Review of Supporting Literature
• Focus Group Results
• Opportunities 2000 and Community Leadership
• References

Belonging is about being – it’s about sense, emotion, relationship - it is at the essence of where we all want to be. It’s a place and a feeling we yearn for. And, when we feel as though we belong, we are in community.

Paul Born continues his research and writing for his forthcoming book Seeking Community - Finding Belonging in Chaotic Times, to be released in 2010.

Alan Broadbent of the Avana Capital corporation and Maytree, has founded and sits on the boards of Canada’s leading social institutions. Alan is also the co- founder and Chairman of the Board of the Tamarack Institute for Community Engagement.

Alan is passionate about cities and his new book Urban Nation provides a prescription for harnessing their potential.

The book’s essential premise is that Canada has become an urban nation, but is attempting to manage incredibly complex social and infrastructure needs according to rules set out in 1867, when the country’s largest cities were little more than towns. He makes an interesting distinction between two phases of urbanization. With industrialization in the mid-20th century, all cities –large and small - expanded rapidly. From the 1980’s however, growth has been concentrated in the largest cities, particularly Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver. He argues that these cities have distinctive needs and require new resources and ways of thinking if they are to sustain their leading role in the economy.

Part of the book’s appeal is that the many themes and arguments in the book are brought together in a very accessible format, making it a kind of primer about urban issues in Canada.

The Winnipeg Free Press writes “Broadbent has provided the blueprint for every civic, provincial and federal politician to potentially alter Canada for the better. . . . Broadbent has literally put his and other people’s money where his mouth is, investing in making Canada’s cities more livable for everyone.”

Thoughtful and provocative, Urban Nation ignites controversy among politicians and passion among citizens and action groups eager for practical urban reform solutions.

Read the Table of Contents and introductory chapter
Urban Nation: Give Power Back to Cities online seminar

Sherri Torjman, vice-president of the Caledon Institute of Social Policy and author of Shared Space: The Communities Agenda, believes that a movement is emerging in communities across Canada, and at the centre of that movement is shared space.

The book explores how in spite of the diverse range of community efforts and initiatives underway, there exists a common thread: we are all working towards increasing resilience in various ways.

Identifying four “cluster” areas of resilience, Sherri believes that by “joining up” with others who are engaged in similar work, we open the door to innovation and increased efficacy. While acknowledging that working in this “shared space” is not always easy, it can have tremendous rewards – enabling all of us to raise the bar and embrace a common agenda that is greater than the sum of its parts.

Shared Space online seminar