An Alberta Community Prosperity Strategy: Leveraging the Alberta Community Advantage
By Alexa Briggs, CCVO Director, Policy & Research
While we’re all currently finding our way through living in a global pandemic, attention is turning to the world we want to build in a post-COVID era. Recognition is growing that our recovery efforts should focus on building a better future, rather than a return to the status quo of the pre-COVID era. No single economic recovery plan will be enough. Communities must collaboratively negotiate the recovery process – future prosperity will be built through strategies that involve government, the nonprofit sector and the private sector. The nonprofit sector has been the backbone of the province in responding to the pandemic and in protecting the stability and health of our communities. It is time to recognize a new Alberta Community Advantage – to build and strengthen the Alberta we all love.
This summer, CCVO drafted a start to some recommendations for the private sector, the provincial government, and funders to get started on a multi-sectoral Community Prosperity Strategy. With feedback from many of you so far, CCVO is re-working the recommendations and will be publishing them as a series on this blog. In the winter, look for a discussion paper that will be the foundation for further conversations about what makes a community great – things like public art, green spaces, or the feeling of belonging – and how these community strengths play a role in our economic recovery.
Through our conversations about what an Alberta Community Prosperity Strategy should look like, we heard that Alberta nonprofits want to know what they can do right now. Inspired by our formidable panellists at CCVO’s most recent Nonprofits at 2, here is our take on the nonprofit sector’s role in the current efforts to build back:
Take the lead on addressing inequities
Addressing inequities (e.g. by gender, income, race) is not the sole responsibility of the nonprofit sector, but it is an area where we hold considerable experience and expertise. All orders of government and the private sector look to us to lead on providing knowledge of first-hand experience, analysis of trends, and interpretation of the research on inequities. Nonprofits are well-positioned to make sense of the impacts inaction on addressing inequities have on communities.
To take action now, nonprofits can:
make a formal commitment to racial equity, collect data, and implement hiring practices to increase diversity;
understand and report on the gendered impacts of COVID-19 and;
advocate for a Gender-based Analysis Plus (GBA+) of all recovery strategies.
2. Now is the time to be bold
A recovery that leverages the strengths of all Albertans is imperative, and it is our responsibility as a sector to create space for marginalized Albertans to be heard, and to be a voice for marginalized people who cannot participate in advocating for an inclusive recovery. Now is not the time to shy away from advocating for what we need as a sector to not only ensure that we can continue to operate in these difficult times, but so that we can make sure a post-COVID era is one that is more inclusive, more just, and more equitable.
A pervasive myth of the nonprofit sector is that we can and should operate with limited administration costs or overhead. This myth is a detriment to our ability as a sector to deliver services as effectively as possible and advocate for individuals and communities that need us the most. Nonprofits must ask for funding that covers the actual cost to deliver great results. Being truly confident in the full costs allows nonprofits to articulate this point to funders and strategically decline program partnerships that would drain resources instead of uplifting programs.
3. Show up as equals
The nonprofit sector – the people who work, volunteer, and access services – are an integral part of society. We are contributors to vibrant communities, vital services, and economic success. Too often, however, we downplay the experience, expertise, and knowledge that we hold. We must show up as equals, as the essential part of a cohesive society that we are – and if we are not invited to show up at the table, we will make our own.
Please follow along over the coming weeks as we release our draft recommendations, and join in the conversation by giving us feedback through our website or on social media with #ABCommunityAdvantage. Through cross-sectoral collaboration, we can leverage our Alberta Community Advantage and create an Alberta Community Prosperity Strategy that recognizes how vital a diverse recovery strategy that includes all Albertans is to our future success.