Asset-Based Community Development
When Community and Municipalities Meet in the Middle
June 6 - 8 | St. Albert, Alberta
Top thinkers in the field
15+ Workshops
Free attendance with membership
About the Gathering
Join us on June 6-8 for our annual national conversation from St. Albert, Alberta, as Tamarack’s Learning Community convenes to discuss how we put people at the centre of our work and build plans that are community-led and municipally supported.
This event will gather together Canada’s community development leaders and neighbourhood practitioners to explore Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD) and bringing community and municipalities together to meet in the middle. We are assembling a diverse group of keynotes to help shape the conversation over three days. We will learn together from towns and cities across North America that have taken a bold shift to change the way they show up in community and stop doing to and for community to being more supportive. We will also hear from people who are taking back the function of their neighbourhoods and becoming leaders for change.
We are excited to partner with four cities and towns from across Alberta and have chosen to host this gathering in St. Albert with the City of Wetaskiwin as a co-host.
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Doing Things Differently: Meeting in the Middle
We know community is essential to the health and well-being of those who live, work and play in our towns and cities. We need to rethink how we work in community and figure out the role of people, associations, organizations and municipal staff. Over time, organizations and municipal staff have taken over the responsibility of a neighbourhood and have created a service-centred mindset. People have lost their function in community and have become recipients of programs and services.
We will learn about the uprising of everyday people taking action to support their neighbours and using ABCD to take on the functions of a neighbourhood and how municipalities are working to find the assets and connect them together.
So, how can we support this work?
We have put together a learning experience that brings in interactive and experiential learning through 15+ workshops that are on:




This is an approach to the development of communities based on their strengths and potentials. It involves assessing the resources, skills and experiences available in a community; organizing the community around issues that move its members into action; and then determining and taking appropriate action.
This is one of the foremost opportunities available to us to foster a sense of belonging and learn about the functions of community. Neighbourhoods are home to an abundance of people with shared experience, while at the same time offering great diversity in personalities, experiences, gifts, cultures and backgrounds.
This is about harnessing community assets to build strong neighbourhoods. When citizens are connected and working together, they strengthen the economic, social and physical infrastructure. Understanding the functions and roles that people play in the health of their neighbourhoods will allow municipalities to shift the way they show up in community.
This is about shifting from a service mindset to one that recognizes that the people and neighbourhoods have what it takes to solve community problems. It involves finding your community champions and building community from the ground up.
Meet Our Speakers
Throughout the gathering, we will be guided by several community visionaries from the field who will share their experiences in building community and inspire group conversation to share our own experiences with one another.
De'Amon Harges

De’Amon is a faculty member of the Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD) Institute, Community Organizer, Creator of the Learning Tree, chairperson of the Grassroots Grantmakers Association Board, and featured in the new documentary “The Antidote: On Kindness in America” - is a frequent speaker on ABCD in secular and religious groups around the world, and is a layperson at Broadway UMC, Indianapolis, IN. De’Amon's role is to listen and discover the gifts, passions and dreams of citizens in his community, and to find ways to utilize them in order to build community, economy, and mutual “delight.”
Emily Talen

Emily Talen is a Professor of Urbanism at the University of Chicago, where she teaches urban design and directs the Urbanism Lab. She holds a Ph.D. in urban geography from the University of California, Santa Barbara.
John McKnight

John holds an honorary doctorate from the University of Waterloo, Canada and is a Professor Emeritus of Communications Studies and Education and Social Policy at Northwestern University in Evanston, IL. For more than four decades his research and teaching have focused on social service delivery systems, health policy, community organization, neighbourhood policy and the incorporation of labelled people into community life. John leads a group of more than 50 fellows around the world and has mentored the likes of Barack and Michelle Obama.
Lisa Helps

Lisa is working as Housing Solutions Advisor in the Premier’s Office, for the start-up of BC Builds. She is thrilled to be working with Minister of Housing Ravi Kahlon, stakeholders and partners, to help design and develop the BC Builds program – an initiative to build housing for middle-income families, individuals, and seniors.
Jim Diers

Jim Diers has a passion for getting people engaged with their communities and in the decisions that affect their lives. His work in the Seattle Department of Neighborhoods was recognized with an Innovations Award from the Kennedy School of Government. He was appointed the first director of Seattle's Department of Neighborhoods in 1988 where he served under three mayors over the next 14 years creating what some would say is a miracle of neighbors where he put his passion to work for a direct-action neighbourhood association, a community development corporation, a community foundation, and the nation's largest health care cooperative.
Kim Samuel

Kim is an activist, educator, and leading voice in the global movement for belonging. She founded the Samuel Centre for Social Connectedness, which works with advocates and researchers to fight social isolation and build belonging around the world. She is Visiting Research Fellow at Green Templeton College, Visiting Scholar at the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI), and the Fulbright Canada Ambassador for diversity and social connectedness. Kim is the author of On Belonging: Finding Connection in an Age of Isolation, an exploration of the crisis of social isolation and our birthright of Belonging.

Who Should Attend?
In the spirit of ABCD, this workshop is open to everyone. We will learn together, enjoy a sense of community, and celebrate and explore the gifts we each bring to community life.
- Municipal staff, organizations and community governments who are considering changing the way they show up in community
- Neighbours, champions, volunteers and people who want to lead in building a better neighbourhood
Meet Our Co-Hosts
Meet our partners
