Deep Dive: Preparing for Tomorrow – A Community that Sustains One Another
Point Form Summary
- Strong communities grow through relationships among neighbours, local organizations, businesses, cultural groups and public institutions.
- Those connections help us in everyday life and strengthen our ability to support one another when significant challenges show up.
- The City can’t create community, but it can play an important role in strengthening community ties by creating places where people can meet, making programs accessible and removing barriers to community-led activities..
- We should build on the organizations, volunteers and community networks we already have rather than duplicating their work.
- Young people need meaningful opportunities to join in, contribute and help shape the community; this includes adults under 30 who can be missed if we focus too narrowly on the needs of school-aged youth and older adults.
- Food security matters. The City can use its land, public spaces and planning rules to support community gardens, local food production and markets, while leaving most food programs and agricultural and income policy to the appropriate levels of government.
- Parks, recreation, culture, community events and a vibrant downtown create places and experiences where people can meet and develop relationships, within neighbourhoods and across the wider community.
- The City should strengthen our ability to work together to support one another without taking over health care, income support or social-service delivery.
- Success should be measured by whether participation and lasting connections grow—not simply by counting how many meetings are held or how much grant money is distributed.
Strong communities are built in everyday life
When we think about preparing for difficult times, natural disasters often come to mind first. Emergency response to heat, floods, smoke and fire matters, but it is only part of the story.
A community’s deeper strength is found in everyday relationships: the neighbour who checks in on an older resident, the coach who notices a struggling young person, the cultural group that welcomes a newcomer, or the non-profit that knows who needs help and who can provide it.
Those relationships matter during heat, smoke, wildfire or an evacuation. They also help us deal with quieter pressures such as loneliness, rapid growth, affordability and an aging population.
We shouldn’t wait for a major challenge to build those connections. They grow strongest through the daily interactions of ordinary community life.
The City can’t manufacture community. It can help create the conditions in which it grows.
Keep the City in its lane
The City shapes neighbourhoods, streets, parks and public spaces. It provides recreation and cultural opportunities, supports a number of community ideas and brings people together around practical local issues.
It does not run health care, set income-assistance rates or deliver most social services. When those systems fall short, Council should advocate with good local evidence—not quietly build a second system with property-tax dollars.
That boundary still leaves plenty of meaningful work for the City.
Build on what is already here
Vernon is not starting from scratch. Much of the work of connecting and supporting people already happens through non-profits, cultural and faith communities, sports organizations, service clubs, businesses, informal networks and volunteers.
We also have organizations that help connect and strengthen that work. The Social Planning Council for the North Okanagan brings people and agencies together around shared community issues through work such as Partners in Action. Community Foundation North Okanagan provides funding for a wide range of community-led initiatives, including its existing Neighbourhood Small Grants.
The point is not for Council to tell these organizations what they should do. It is to understand the community infrastructure we already have, listen to the people doing the work and look for places where the City can usefully contribute.
That might mean making useful City information available, providing a clear municipal contact when a project involves City land or services, removing unnecessary municipal barriers, providing appropriate letters of support for outside funding, or entering longer-term agreements when an organization is delivering a clearly defined service on the City’s behalf.
Where good work is already happening, the City’s first question should be, “How can we help?”
Help neighbourhood relationships take root
Vernon’s new OCP calls for a neighbourhood-group program and supports temporary road closures for block parties and other activities that bring people together. The City’s latest strategic-plan update also reports that a neighbourhood social-connection program has been completed.
Council should first receive a plain-language account of what was created, how residents can use it and what it has accomplished.
From there, the City’s contribution could be simple: one clear contact and an easy guide to road closures, park use, insurance and other common requirements.
Residents, not City Hall, should figure out what their neighbourhood needs. The City’s role should be to make it easier for residents to turn good ideas into action.
Make public places work as gathering places
Every decision involves more than its immediate effects.
People are more likely to know one another when they have reasons to cross paths. Parks, trails, recreation facilities, libraries and community events are where many of those encounters happen.
Vernon’s Recreation Master Plan already calls for facilities that welcome casual social gatherings. The Age and Dementia Friendly Community Plan emphasizes accessible public places and welcoming social spaces.
As public places like Polson Park are renewed, the City should ask whether people of different ages and abilities can reach them, use them and spend time together there. A bench in the right place, shade, a picnic table, an accessible path or space for informal use can sometimes do more for connection than a costly new program.
Downtown has a particular role to play in building community ties. Neighbourhood connections help build community close to home; a vibrant downtown gives people from across Vernon reasons to come together. Shops, restaurants, arts and cultural spaces, public events and welcoming streets can make downtown a shared gathering place for the whole city.
Supporting a lively, safe and inviting downtown is not only about economic development. It is also part of building a connected community.
The City can also make suitable rooms and outdoor spaces easier for community groups to use, including reduced fees when there is a clear public benefit. Its new Community Event Partnership Grant is one useful tool, particularly for free public events.
Make room for younger people
Young people are more likely to feel connected to Vernon when they have meaningful ways to participate, not when they are asked to complete another survey.
Recreation, arts and culture, volunteering, community projects and civic involvement can all give young people opportunities to build relationships, contribute and discover that their ideas matter.
The City does not need to design all of those opportunities itself. It can listen to organizations already working with young people, remove barriers where it can, make space for participation and find meaningful ways for younger people to influence decisions that affect them.
One local example is Climate Action Ripple Effect (CARE), which connects students to adult mentors and supports them to develop and carry out projects responding to issues they care about in their community. This project goes beyond simply asking young people what they think. It gives them an opportunity to turn their ideas into action while building intergenerational relationships in the process.
Schools provide many young people with a built-in network of support through caring adults and meaningful programs. That network can become much thinner after they leave high school, particularly as they move away from the family home and into work, post-secondary education or adult life.
Finding ways for young adults to stay connected and involved in their community deserves particular attention. A community that wants younger people to stay, return or put down roots should give them reasons to feel that they belong here and can help shape what Vernon becomes.
I would like to explore something more ambitious: an ongoing, intentional strategy that supports young adults to come together to compare their experiences of living in Vernon, identify challenges, imagine what could be different and work on ideas they care about. Some ideas might become community projects. Others might lead to proposals for changes at City Hall.
This shouldn’t look like another City advisory committee. In fact, the first step should be asking young adults themselves what kind of structure they would actually find useful. The City’s role could be to help get the conversation started, remove barriers where it can, connect people with resources and expertise, and make sure there is a real pathway for good ideas to reach Council and City staff.
If we want young adults to see a future for themselves in Vernon, we should give them more than opportunities to tell us what they think. We should create room for them to help build that future.
Strengthen our local food connections
Food is both a basic need and a powerful way to build relationships. Community gardens, farmers’ markets, shared meals and food-skills programs connect people while also strengthening our local food system.
Vernon’s OCP supports community gardens and food production on underused land. The City can put that direction into practice by identifying suitable City land, removing unnecessary land-use barriers and making it easier for markets and community gardens to succeed.
The City should not try to run food banks or replace provincial income supports and agricultural programs. Its role is to make local action easier, to facilitate regional coordination, and to advocate when the underlying problem lies with senior levels of government.
We can also strengthen our community by increasing our local capacity to grow, share and access food. The more knowledge, relationships and food-producing capacity we have close to home, the better able we are to respond when costs rise or supply chains are disrupted.
Back the people who bring others together
Much of Vernon’s community life is created by volunteers, sports and cultural groups, service clubs, faith communities and non-profits. They have the knowledge and trusted relationships that City Hall doesn’t.
Municipal help should be targeted and easy to understand. A single guide could explain available City grants, fee relief, spaces and contacts. Reporting should match the size of the support: a small volunteer group should not face the same paperwork as a large organization receiving substantial public funding.
The City should also listen through organizations that already have trusted relationships with younger people, newcomers, renters, people with disabilities and others who are often missed by general surveys. Those relationships can help the City hear from people who might otherwise have little opportunity to shape decisions that affect them. That matters especially when decisions will have a significant impact on people whose voices are not always heard through traditional public-engagement processes.
Partnership still requires boundaries. Community organizations should not become an inexpensive substitute for services another government is responsible for providing. The City can connect, listen, share information, remove municipal barriers, offer limited support and advocate. Service delivery should remain with organizations that have the mandate and expertise to provide it.
Know whether connections are growing
Local government needs to monitor success, especially when it delivers or supports programs. It is too easy to start something based on a good idea without being clear about what we hope to accomplish or how we will know if it is working. We should not claim success because meetings were held or grants distributed. A short annual look at this work could ask:
- Are more neighbourhoods and residents taking part?
- Are younger people and others who are often missed finding meaningful ways to participate?
- Did modest City support attract volunteer time, donations or outside funding?
- Did an event or project lead to an ongoing relationship or further community action?
- Are people and organizations better connected when a major challenge arises?
This does not require an elaborate new reporting system. Much of the information may already exist. The goal should be to assemble a useful picture, not create more paperwork.
My approach
Preparing for tomorrow is not only about infrastructure maintenance, emergency plans or financial reserves. It is also about the relationships among us.
I would focus the City on what municipal government can do well: create welcoming places, remove unnecessary barriers, contribute its tools and knowledge, listen to people doing good work and strengthen the neighbourhood and community connections Vernon already has.
Government cannot create a strong community from City Hall. But it can help create the conditions in which people meet, participate, contribute and build trust.
Those connections make Vernon a better place to live every day. And when we face major challenges, they can help us sustain one another.