How can we ensure that people, communities, and businesses survive a crisis? How do we build more social, personal, economic, and democratic resilience? What are the different roles of individuals, institutions, and governments in building more resilient cities and communities?

These are some of the questions that our May-June cohort of City Shapers: Resilient Communities explored.

City Shapers was a cohort-based, civic education program that brought together 18 to 30 year olds from across Metro Vancouver to learn about civic engagement and how cities work. Together, we explored both formal and informal ways of getting involved and collectively shaping the future of our communities, from activism to online dialogues to running for political office.

As a response to the global COVID-19 pandemic, Cohort 2 of City Shapers was delivered entirely online using the video conferencing platform, Zoom. Guests from a wide range of backgrounds (including academics, community organizers, and elected officials) joined the cohort to share their experiences.

The Program

This cohort of the City Shapers program was held over eight weekday evening sessions in May and June 2020. After spending the first three sessions exploring current issues in community and civic resilience, the cohort put their learning to practice by co-creating vision statements and policy recommendations to tackle resilience from different angles and support engagement at the community or local level.

The Final Community Event took place on Wednesday, June 24th online, and included several representatives from local municipalities as witnesses.

Presenting Sponsor

This program was delivered in partnership with SFU Morris J Wosk Centre for Dialogue’s Strengthening Canadian Democracy Project with support from the Vancouver Foundation.