For more than 100 years, community leagues have supported social, cultural, and recreational opportunities in neighbourhoods across Edmonton.
Edmonton’s 163 community leagues provide local spaces and programs that help residents build a deep sense of connection and belonging.
Community leagues build the foundation for safe, healthy, vibrant and inclusive neighbourhoods.
Community leagues play a significant role in how residents connect with each other. Community leagues are self governing, volunteer-run non-profit organizations that represent residents within a specific geographic area.
They build and maintain local amenities, host social and recreational programs, and advocate for neighbourhood interests.
They also give residents a voice in shaping their neighbourhoods. Community league members gain access to savings on city recreation, outdoor amenities and neighbourhood programs.
Read Why Edmonton: Community Leagues Bring Folks Together
Find Your Community League
The Edmonton Federation of Community Leagues Facility Map provides information on location, contact numbers and emails, facility photos and how to book for events.
The Edmonton Federation of Community Leagues (EFCL) is an umbrella organization representing Edmonton's community leagues. While the EFCL does not act as a central governing body, it actively supports and empowers leagues across the city, offering guidance on volunteer management, fund development, board governance, training, and strategic planning. EFCL's Board of Directors is composed of members representing distinct geographic districts, all of whom serve on their local neighborhood Community League boards.
The City of Edmonton provides support to community leagues for community recreation amenities, events, and programming through policies, funding programs and a land use agreement. This includes licensing and permitting, education on land use and parkland stewardship, supporting community-led parkland projects, bylaw awareness, and connections to other City programs and services.
Agreements
The City of Edmonton and the Edmonton Federation of Community Leagues (EFCL) have a collaborative agreement that brings them together for the common goal of supporting leagues.
Community Leagues facilities, such as halls and ice rinks, are located on City owned parkland. Most community leagues have designated land for infrastructure amenities and program space.
A Tripartite Agreement is used as a land-use contract between the City of Edmonton, the EFCL, and individual community leagues that outlines the terms and conditions under which each Community League can occupy city land and build and operate facilities. The Agreement also speaks to the responsibilities of the league, the City and EFCL.
Community League Governance and Sustainability Project
The City of Edmonton and the Edmonton Federation of Community Leagues (EFCL) are working together to update our shared governance, infrastructure and funding agreements. Our goal is to ensure community leagues continue to play an important part in neighbourhoods for generations to come.
Why This Project Matters
This project aims to address the challenges facing the network today such as:
- Volunteer overload: In 2025, an estimated 9,320 volunteers contributed over 321,000 hours to their community leagues.
- Aging infrastructure and financial gaps: The median age of community league halls is 48 years. The infrastructure updates could cost up to $100M.
- Differences across neighbourhoods: While older neighbourhoods may be struggling to maintain aging infrastructure, leagues in some newer neighbourhoods are establishing programs with minimal infrastructure to activate on their licensed land.
- Outdated policies: The agreements that guide community leagues (such as Policy C110 and the Tripartite License Agreement) need to be updated to clarify roles, responsibilities and service expectations.
Frequently Asked Questions
The City supports the long-term sustainability of the community league system. The greatest strength of the community league network is its grassroots, volunteer-driven leadership and neighbourhoods based approach. The goal of this project is to update the support systems so that community league boards have the capacity to do what they do best: connect neighbours.
The City is exploring the viability of developing mixed-market housing alongside community league facilities in established or new neighbourhoods - a process that would ultimately require approval from City Council. This work is exploratory in nature. No specific community league co-location projects are being considered at this time.
This initiative is part of the City’s Housing Accelerator Fund action plan, which is designed to find innovative solutions that increase housing supply and remove barriers to non-market affordable housing development. This work will involve examinations of land use, development footprints and regulatory as well as tripartite agreement conditions, along with other factors that affect redevelopment. The City will collaborate with the Edmonton Federation of Community Leagues (EFCL) as part of this regulatory review.
Timeline
June 2026: Review Completed
April-December 2026: Envision
January-December 2027: Policies and Plans
Neighbourhood Resource Coordinators
The City’s Neighbourhood Resource Coordinators work closely with community groups, including community leagues, and connect them to City programs and services.
Neighbourhood Resource Coordinators also offer support and guidance to community groups pursuing projects and development opportunities.
To find the Neighbourhood Resource Coordinator for your district, contact 311.