Blog: It's Fall – Can you feel momentum in the air?
For as long as I can remember, I’ve loved the fall. The air turns cool and crisp. The leaves turn to orange and red. And my calendar turns to chaos. While summer’s long hot days slow me down, fall instills in me a fresh urgency to get things done before winter arrives. Halloween is almost here, and I find myself looking back over the past couple of months, amazed how the WRCF team and our partners have undertaken so much.
It feels like only last week when WRCF shared seven themes we heard across the 54 different “On The Table” conversations. We heard our communities are craving opportunities to get together, in person. We heard that we should celebrate the community assets – the organizations, the places, the experiences – that already bring many of us together, and that we should find ways to increase accessibility and utilization of community facilities to create connections with more of our neighbours.
It feels like only a few days ago when WRCF explored how we can reweave our social fabric, rebuilding social trust at a neighbourhood level. At our Do More Good Dialogue event, we heard experts from here and away describe the importance and techniques for weaving community networks, we commissioned artists to express social infrastructure in spoken word and in sculpture, and we celebrated a few notable community weavers for their efforts.
And it feels like only yesterday when WRCF hosted a convening of more than 50 people representing 21 community foundations to discuss how we can address the changes that are occurring in our communities as a result of our changing climate. Thanks to over 30 different specialists in science, public health, law, investment, communications, and philanthropy, we have a broader understanding of the massive transitions that are underway and examples of tools we can implement. We acknowledge that the choices we make today in how we invest in physical and social infrastructure will shape the resiliency of our community into the future.
No matter the season, we will continue to share community opportunities to learn and to gather together. We’ll refine our perspectives and definitions of social infrastructure. And if we can help amplify your event, provide perspective to your research, or celebrate your community project, we’ll do that too. I can’t wait to see what the coming months will hold. I have a hunch they will fly by as quickly as the past ones have!