Communities Development Society

"Building resilient connected rural communities"

Programs - Community Issues

The following are the issues facing communities within the Western County of Rockyview today:

    Rural environment

    1. Environmental issues related to rapid community growth.
    2. A sense of community belonging and connection, community infrastructure and amenities, land use strategies and maintaining open spaces.
    3. Pressure for change is also mounting from two overlapping areas of discourse, grassroots democracy and sustainability planning.

    Rural economy

    1. The current economic downturn has adversely affected the non-profit/voluntary sector organizations with reduced fundraising revenues, a drop in investment values and a change in demand for services.
    2. Agricultural succession planning is needed for aging farmers/ranchers to "hand off" to the younger generation who are facing increasing issues between land value and production capacity value.
    3. When the majority of baby boomers retire it will leave large gaps in the labour force, especially rural areas.

    Rural community

    1. Basic services continue to be scarce in rural areas (health, education, commercial & community core).
    2. Community leadership is undergoing transition related to aging demographics and new populations. There is also a gap between community service organizations and new emerging community groups.
    3. Building community and a sense of identity is hampered by community conflict arising from new provincial, regional and local sustainable land use planning strategies. Special interest groups are forming and pitting neighbour against neighbour.
    4. Servicing the aging Baby Boomer generation will be a challenge for local infrastructure, including transportation, health and home care needs.

    CDS has been addressing these issues through:

      Increasing community participation

      • Engaging existing knowledge and skill pools.
      • Outreach and recruitment, volunteerism, community building, public education, leadership development, and community action.

      Increasing community leadership capacity

      • Partnering with existing community organizations or starting new ones to undertake complementary projects.
      • Providing collaborative opportunities for community organizations to network and share resources.

      Promoting social change and organizational sustainability.

      • Establishing CDS's regional reputation as a model of effective citizen participation.
      • Creating social change and promoting social innovation through a variety of grassroots community capacity building strategies (eg. Communication links, aging in community strategy, social enterprises, etc).

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