Case Study
Capacity Building in a Social Housing Community
A project of the Salsbury Community Society, Co:Here is in an innovative co-housing community which brings together people from a variety of lived experiences, including those transitioning out of homelessness, in an urban intentional community setting in Vancouver, Canada. Co:Here’s model relies on cultivating caring and mutually supportive community relationships. As Co:Here moved from concept to reality, Just Outcomes was invited to support a collective of its residents and staff (known as the Community-Builder’s Group, or CBG), who were tasked with leading the way on the culture of Co:Here.
The CBG was a diverse group combining many identities, histories, skills, and expectations for the new community. Relationships needed to be established, sources of power and privilege acknowledged, and differences explored. After delivering a customized orientation workshop for the CBG, Just Outcomes facilitated a process to establish group norms, protocols, and a common framework and goals for community-building at Co:Here. At the request of the CBG, we also led a communication skills training for the wider Co:Here community, in which we used current issues in the community as grounds for skill development in communication, listening, and problem-solving.
Just Outcomes helped successfully launch a team at the Co:Here co-housing community that is well trained, connected, and prepared to undertake community building activities within their new and evolving co-housing environment.