WELCOME TO ACE COMMUNITIES!

Posted on: Jun 24 2008 | Posted in: ACE Announcements


We invite you to join us as we work to enhance the quality of life in rural Alberta by strengthening community leadership, collaboration, and innovation through recreation, parks, arts, culture and heritage.

ACE Communities – Active, Creative and Engaged Communities –  is an initiative of the Alberta Recreation and Parks Association (ARPA) designed to get More people. More Active. More Often.

We know that recreation, parks, arts, culture and heritage significantly improves the well-being of individual Albertans and the development of healthy, vital communities. What hasn’t always been quite as clear is how to ensure these potential benefits are implemented and maximized.

Fortunately, thanks to the Rural Alberta’s Development Fund, EnCana, Cenovous, CanWest Media and other corporate sponsors, a three and a half year project has resulted in ACE Communities (ACE Communities) being able to invest the time and energy to learn more about how to strengthen community leadership.

It is also important to note that ACE Communities was the result of significant learnings from its predecessor Alberta Active Communities (AAC) that was funded by the Alberta Lottery Fund as well as EnCana. 

So what are ACE Communities?  Active creative and engaged communities are those that have high levels of active involvement, creativity, social capital and social cohesion. They are communities that contribute to the creation of places, spaces, connections, and a culture that enables wide participation.The result? Communities that are productive, healthy, resilient, and innovative.

For an article from Canwest that provides an overview of ACE, CLICK HERE.

We’ve learned that to deliver the benefits of recreation, parks, arts, culture and heritage, we need to ensure communities where people have a sense of belonging, are physically and socially engaged, involved in decision making, and involved as volunteers. Ultimately, ACE Communities will also have a high quality of life that is available and accessible to all. Simply put, ACE Communities are places where people want to be. 

Research and consultations with local communities, practitioners, and related fields early in the AAC project resulted in a key learning that has significantly shaped the direction of ACE Communities.  The key learning? Active creative and engaged communities don’t happen without LEADERSHIP!  And, not leadership in the traditional sense, but rather skilled and knowledgeable community leaders who can work together with business, government, and the voluntary sector to engage citizens. It is this investment in building community leadership and citizen engagement at the grassroots level that will ensure this initiative leaves a lasting legacy.  This key learning shaped the resulting ACE Mission and Strategic Priorities:  Purpose: To enhance the quality of life in rural Alberta by strengthening community leadership, collaboration, and innovation through recreation, parks, arts, culture and heritage.

Strategic Priorities: AAC is comprised of six strategic priorities: 

Goal #1 COMMUNITY LEADERSHIP:  Enhance creative development and strengthen local capacity by using a variety of province-wide strategies that will nurture existing, emerging and undiscovered leaders to implement the community-led innovation that will result in active/creative communities. 

Goal # 2 ACTIVE/CREATIVE COMMUNITIES NETWORK: Engage, coach and connect 20 rural and diverse communities/regions to work as partners along with other engaged communities in becoming Active Creative Communities. 

Goal # 3 YOUTH ENGAGEMENT STRATEGIES: Create youth-friendly communities by enhancing opportunities for youth leadership, physical activity, creativity, youth connections, training, education and rural careers. 

Goal #4 RESEARCH: Amass the Alberta-relevant intelligence needed to support active creative communities and deep end the understanding of matters important to the quality of rural living. 

Goal #5: AWARENESS & SUPPORT: Build understanding of the potential offered by active/creative communities at local, regional and provincial levels. 

Goal #6 MANAGEMENT & EVALUATION: Ensure effective Project Planning, Management and Evaluation

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