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Our first 2 years were filled with learning and unlearning. We learned the language of social innovation, to accept different forms of knowledge and learning, and to trust the process and each other. Importantly, we also learned that we are not the experts, but curious co-travellers with our fellow citizens on a journey to make our city better together.
In 2018, 2019 and 2020, we learned - perhaps less about the processes and more about the destination. Recover deepened their understanding of what it truly means to live well and be well. Recover also gained insight into the need for understanding layers of place, self-location and ethical space making.
Recover took stock of all of its research and experience. It was time to see what it was telling us about what we really mean by the term urban wellness. In 2020, we commissioned one of our consultants to aggregate all our data and they put together the Soulful City document. It contains a wellbeing framework that is built upon all the insights that emerged, and it has 6 kinds of connection at its core.
Recover also worked to better understand Indigenous concepts of wellness and wellbeing. Another of our consultants prepared strategic recommendations to help all those involved with Recover to build understanding, build good relations and develop capacities. It is very closely aligned with the City's Indigenous Framework.
Recover continued to support a smaller number of prototypes - this work was hampered by the pandemic, but allowed the prototype teams to spend more time on research and ideation.
Recover presented to City Council in August 2018 and got the go-ahead to continue our work. In December 2018, we received four years of funding (2019-2022).
In our second year, we added Strathcona as the sixth neighbourhood in our scope. We continued with our ethnographic research, and aggregated the data we collected to better understand what was important to the 59 street-involved people we got to know, and also what wellbeing meant to Edmontonians from all walks of life. We drew on 3000 years of Eastern, Western and Indigenous traditions, as well as contemporary interdisciplinary thought, in order to develop our wellbeing framework.
We and our partners designed and tested more prototypes, supported the local social innovation community, tested prototype evaluation tools, and evaluated our past work. We also worked with City Centre Mall to determine how private/public spaces could better support people experiencing marginalization, and what guidance private businesses need in order to provide this support.
June-November 2018:
What We Heard Report
What We Heard - What If Report
Year Two Kick-Off Workshop Summary
Strathcona Kick-Off Workshop Summary
January-May 2019:
Starting with Research Workshop Summary
Sensemaking Community Workshop Summary
Recover Co-Design Workshops
RECOVER — Research Playback
Strathcona Mall Playback
City Centre Mall Playback
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 5 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.
View Year One Executive Summary View Trend Report
September-December 2017
What We Heard - Community Advisory Committee
What We Heard - External Partners Committee
Vision Workshop
Government Mapping Workshop
Community Mapping Workshop
January-April 2018
Research Recap Workshop
Introduction to Prototyping Workshop
Tabletop Prototype Workshop Summary
We are seeking to further our community relationships and partnerships, as well as opportunities to apply our wellbeing framework to a variety of community and City projects.
We will continue to support new prototypes, as well as the prototypes that are currently in development. This process involves researching, designing and testing ideas, and learning how to meaningfully incorporate the 6 kinds of connection. It also relies on pursuing partnerships to share in the cost and the development of this wellbeing work, and building relationships of trust in many different communities.
We will be looking for ways to enhance our partnerships with post-secondary institutions, and to assist professors and students who are using the wellbeing framework in their course work.
And, as always, our work involves a lot of collaboration — with individuals, community groups, businesses, service agencies, governments, and other external partners. We are always interested in new and unusual partnerships to drive prototype development, and we’re excited about connecting further with our advisors within Recover’s Catalyst Group.
If you have ideas for community wellbeing that you’d like Recover to consider, please reach out to us.
Recover’s work is all about relationships. Here are some key partnerships we’ve built along the way:
For a more detailed listing, view Recover Relationships.