Since its origins in the 1970s, the Canadian Centre for Community Renewal (CCCR) has designed, tested, and implemented research tools specifically to support the transition of communities from dependence to self-reliance. That research has ranged from gathering and analyzing data relevant to a specific enterprise or joint venture, to multi-year projects that aggregate data from multiple sites as a basis for regional or federal policy recommendations.
By way of example …
- In 2006-2008 the CCCR carried out the Development Wheel Project. It was at one and the same time a focussed approach to training, capacity building, and strategic networking for social enterprise developers and an intensive research program aimed to test ways of systematically tracking and evaluating the progress of social enterprise start-ups. Find out more.
- The Oregon Benchmarks analyzes the experience of Oregon in developing metrics for tracking the fulfillment of the state's 20-year vision of its economic, social, and environmental future. Targets (outcomes) and measures (indicators) evolved from the input of a broad cross-section of Oregonians. The clarity of these targets and measures, and their ability to reveal progress or decline, are facilitating the building of strategies and partnerships within and between a vast range of sectors and interests. Find out more.
- On the basis of proven strategies of local revitalization, the CCCR developed a model of community resilience. It expresses in terms of 23 resilience characteristics a community's capacity to shape its own ways of life and work. CCCR also designed and field-tested a process by which small towns could apply this model assess local resilience, and then focus economic and social planning accordingly. The Community Resilience Manual publishes the results of this research, including a complete set of worksheets and schedules for community data collection. Find out more.
Contact CCCR for more information.
