Seeds of Resilience: Nurturing Innovation in Rural Communities a Turning the Tide’s Vision
Driving along Highway 101, with the picturesque Annapolis Valley unfolding on either side, I contemplate the future of South West Nova. Although the area is nestled between rolling hills and breathtaking landscapes, the changing tides of the post-pandemic world have caused the economic and social landscapes to shift, particularly in rural areas. Throughout these rolling hills and breathtaking landscapes, unique communities stand as testaments to diversity and resilience, embodying the essence of decentralized community development. My final destination is Digby, Nova Scotia. A town that has intrigued me since my early days in Canada. As I explore Digby through the lens of community development with Inspiring Communities, my role with the organization is to build its financial capacity and foster social innovation prototypes that resonate across Atlantic Canada. As Social Innovation Canada’s Atlantic Canada node, Inspiring Communities aims to weave a network of social innovators akin to a mycorrhizal network. This network mirrors the intricate connections in nature, fostering collaboration and exploring the needs of communities to develop and scale local innovation.
As the Inspiring Communities, Turning the Tide (TtT) initiative is based in Digby, my journey to witness rural innovation through a local systems thinker’s eyes was impactful. TtT navigates community development with a collaborative framework addressing employment, economy, environment, healthcare, and anti-racism in a rural context. The initiative understands the importance of neutral ground, empowering Digby's service center to be a hub for testing ideas.
Through my conversations, key themes within TtT, such as Youth Empowerment, Addressing Food Security, and Anti-racism efforts, shed light on the multi-faceted approach to social and economic development. As someone who grew up in a North Atlantic colonial trading port, the similarities I heard reminded me of common themes of isolated Commonwealth communities. When looking at the “decolonization” of these communities, they are layered with colonial bugs. The layers of systemic colonial issues are evident in various aspects, whether it be the centralization of Canada’s economy, the pervasive oppression experienced by indigenous and African Nova Scotian communities, or the generational traumas within Acadian communities in the region. As I strolled through Downtown Digby, I keenly sensed the cumulative barriers that have developed over the centuries.
Additionally, rural communities are poised to encounter challenges from other municipalities in South West Nova. As the Province of Nova Scotia aims to increase its population along with the development of the Halifax Regional Municipality, we will see social and economic divisions if municipalities aren’t empowered to support innovative approaches to community economic development. This convergence creates a perfect storm fueled by a nationwide affordability crisis. Drawing a parallel to wartime, rural municipalities within Nova Scotia are being conscripted to bear the weight of inadequate economic development policies.
Like many rural municipalities I’ve visited this year, I seek understanding. The colonial bugs of flawed public policy have placed these communities in precarious situations. As I gazed out over the Annapolis Basin, watching the powerful tides, I couldn’t help but contemplate how we might glean insights from the ecosystem to inform our approach to transformative change within complex municipalities.
The Future: Exploring the Tapestry of Resilience
Although it may seem like all hope is lost, it’s crucial to appreciate Digby’s future, particularly when viewed through Turning the Tide (TtT). The excitement derives from the initiative’s commitment to bridging communities and empowering youth. Turning the Tide is dedicated to cultivating a more vibrant and resilient Digby community by instilling a sense of place and belonging. This involves exploring building opportunities for the development of business and life skills, as well as offering engaging programming.
At the heart of this vision is their new location, 1 Birch, in Downtown Digby. 1 Birch symbolizes what happens when community investment is allowed to explore municipal change. The future of 1 Birch catalyzes youth empowerment in exploring civic concepts and personal development. This evolving community hub is poised to become a secure space for Digby’s youth to explore, define, and test ideas that will shape the future of their community.
Although 1 Birch focuses on youth, with the right resources, 1 Birch can become a prototype for rural municipalities to jump in the sandbox and explore what is truly needed by their collection of communities. The local team refers to 1 Birch as a youth hub, but it is the starting point, or phase zero, for exploring an ecosystem incubator within rural communities. An ecosystem is a dynamic community of living organisms that coexist and thrive through intricate interactions within a specific environment. What 1 Birch aims to achieve is the creation of a similar dynamic within the community, offering a physical space and emphasizing the interdependence among its members. This mirrors the actors in nature that create a balanced sustaining life.
In the realm of social innovation, an innovation ecosystem displays similar characteristics. It is a collaborative network where innovators, stakeholders, and funders unite to transform ideas into meaningful initiatives. The success of an innovation ecosystem relies on the seamless interplay and symbiotic relationships among its diverse participants. This shared framework nurtures the growth of groundbreaking ideas and facilitates the evolution of these concepts into valuable contributions that can be scaled.
Across Atlantic Canada, there has been a demand to approach complex problems differently. We will be required to explore how we can create a tapestry that respects the founding communities of the region and embraces our domestic and international newcomers. We are entering an era of division, and we have an opportunity to combat it by being a mycorrhizal network for adaption and innovation.
My Reflection
During the pandemic, I recognized that my path toward becoming an economic development policy analyst needed to shift. I realized the crucial importance of understanding how a collection of communities constructs their local economies, which needs to be improved in traditional economic development strategies. Despite transitioning into the community economic development space, a deeper analysis led me back to the core of hard economic development. This realization became increasingly evident as I traversed throughout rural Atlantic Canada. Centralizing economic development strategy has removed the community experts from the economic future equation. Interacting with rural innovators underscored the resource disparity between social innovation and their traditional innovation counterparts.
To truly aspire to be an innovative nation, we must examine how we fund initiatives that foster the integration of intrapreneurship and community development — a juncture encapsulated in the creation of community-based social innovation. This approach prompts communities to explore their sovereignty by determining their unique resilience needs. If we are fortunate enough to explore urban development, the obligation needs to be every dollar invested in urban social innovation needs match funding in rural communities.
Rural communities, already woven with a tapestry of resilience and determination, are showcased by a core spirit to work, live, and play in communities that lack structured infrastructure. The evolution of rural communities is solely driven by community-based social innovation. Yet, as these communities grapple with colonial legacies and generational traumas, a vital conversation is needed on how municipalities can adapt to community needs.
In navigating its challenges, TtT’s commitment to social and economic development, spearheaded by its surrounding community, hints at a promising future for rural gems in Nova Scotia. The overarching question then becomes: How can we, collectively, explore funding models that empower communities to learn, develop, test, and invest in their solutions?
