Last week Capacity Canada was in Fort McMurray at the invitation of FuseSocial to meet on various topics of common interest and to plan for the year ahead. We also attended the Open House at FuseSocial. Using a “passport” attendees were able to move through the space learning first hand about the range of programs being offered including: training, volunteerism, social innovation, leadership Wood Buffalo and Social Prosperity. This event also gave us lots of opportunity to speak with a number of community representatives.
Capacity Canada, with support from Suncor Energy Foundation, is leading a national capacity building project in communities where Suncor has an interest, including Fort McMurray. This initiative continues the Social Prosperity conversation begun with the Social Prosperity Wood Buffalo (SPWB) project. The goal of SPWB was to improve the quality of life in Wood Buffalo by focusing on building the capacity of the social profit sector using a social innovation-informed perspective. There were a number of achievements and spin offs as a result of the project including: Arts Council Wood Buffalo, Heart of Wood Buffalo Leadership Awards, Convergence YMM, Strategy Roadmap, the Well-Being Survey and the creation of FuseSocial, just to name a few. Because of the success of SPWB, there is a deep desire to keep Social Prosperity alive in Fort McMurray. To this end we had the opportunity to lead a planning session with a small group of representatives who had been most involved with the SPWB project to begin to identify how to sustain Social Prosperity.
It was a busy but fulfilling week of great conversations. There are lots of exciting opportunities ahead to partner on a range of initiatives.
