Year One
In 2017, Edmonton City Council directed City Staff to work with the Government of Alberta, the Edmonton Police Service and community stakeholders to develop a shared Inner-City Wellness Plan, under the name Recover. The program’s initial focus was on five inner-city neighbourhoods: Boyle Street, Central McDougall, Downtown, McCauley and Queen Mary Park.
Recover's goal was to develop a comprehensive, coordinated approach to urban wellbeing that could be replicated and scaled up to other neighbourhoods.
In our first year, we undertook a phased public engagement process and spent time with street-involved people. We got to know them, learned about their challenges, their joys, and their stories. This ethnographic research informed our wellbeing framework as well as the prototypes that we developed with community partners.