The Need

We believe Cambridge residents can contribute immensely to the development of our community.

But common approaches like writing editorials in the local paper, circulating petitions or commenting on municipal plans through social media, surveys and public consultations are simply not enough.

We need a new and innovative community engagement approach to working collaboratively with the City, the Region and the social service agencies that support Cambridge.

The Approach

Citizens for Cambridge takes an innovative approach to contributing to community development and engagement.

• Knowledge: We develop as highly informed a perspective as possible by acquiring evidence-based data, the input of credible experts, reliable case studies and other relevant information.

• Relationships: We aim to understand the unique role, interests and concerns of each organization and group involved and attempt to build cooperative relationships with all.

• Collaboration: We partner with decision makers, bring together relevant stakeholder groups and facilitate working together to smartly solve problems with our entire community in mind.

• Innovation: We challenge the way things are done and focus on developing innovative solutions that will better satisfy growing community needs with the limited resources available.

The Results

For many years, Citizens for Cambridge has successfully employed this unique approach. We’ve consistently received a positive response from the elected officials, city administrators and other community leaders we have engaged.

This has resulted in:

• being proactively invited to participate in solving problems with decision makers

• being trusted to deliver a balanced and rational perspective on behalf of residents

• the feedback and ideas we share being valued and responded to quickly

The outcome of being more deeply engaged is important to note. Not only has it become clear that our involvement is critical to the process but we have also experienced how our contributions have led to the development of significantly better solutions for all.

Cambridge Neighbourhood Table is an example of a project that was conceived by Citizens for Cambridge. Cambridge Neighbourhood Table is an innovative Kinbridge neighbourhood grassroots program currently under development. Its primary focus is community development, where everyone in the neighbourhood is invited, using a communal dining approach to create a connected neighbourhood.

This community development program was created by Kinbridge in collaboration with Citizens for Cambridge, For the City and a dedicated steering committee of partners, community members, stakeholders and staff from the City of Cambridge and the Region of Waterloo.