Connected Communities:
For a Healthy and Inclusive Montréal

Our new initiative on urban wellbeing, Connected Communities, explores local and community solutions responding to challenges faced by the region of Montréal, improving urban health, and strengthening residents’ feelings of pride and belonging.

The COVID-19 pandemic has shed light on the challenges and vulnerabilities of our communities, testing the quality of life in urban settings. The health crisis has exacerbated inequities, accentuated social disconnection, and further proves that the way we plan, design, and improve our cities, public spaces, and infrastructure, needs to place wellbeing at the center. As we enter the recovery period, cities and communities across Canada face the unique opportunity to address these long-standing issues and to build collective wellbeing, especially by recognizing the tremendous knowledge, skills, and vision that exist within each community, which can build pride through local action.

This initiative builds on NewCities’ previous work with the City of Montréal and the Government of Québec to celebrate the cities that are transforming urban life across the world by placing wellbeing at the heart of their policy and planning. Connected Communities places a focus on local implementation and applied solutions within Greater Montréal. 

Connected Communities aims to identify, explore, and promote local and community-led solutions focused on housing, mobility, and food security in Montréal. Nested within our Wellbeing focus area, the initiative seeks out projects that are boosting quality of life, bringing people together, and strengthening feelings of pride and belonging. 

TIMELINE

Phase 1: Identification of solutions
July-November 2022

Phase 2: Collaborative workshops
January-May 2023

Public Event

Phase 3: Exhibition
July-September 2023

Phase 4: Report & dissemination
of findings
November 2023

During the first phase of the initiative, NewCities will research and identify community solutions that address the region’s current challenges in housing, mobility, and food security. Building on our strengths to convene, we will then organize collaborative workshops with key participants from community groups and organizations, along with representatives from the public, private, and academic sectors. Together, these actors will present cases of inspiring solutions, learning from each other and exploring the barriers they have each faced, in order to brainstorm opportunities that might empower solutions in other contexts. 

The initiative will culminate in an exhibition and an in-person event, bringing the Greater Montréal community together to publicly showcase these inspiring solutions and spark exchanges. The event and exhibition will be accessible to all, enabling connections for partnerships that may amplify solutions. 

The key learnings of the initiative will be consolidated into a report and disseminated across our editorial platforms. Recommendations will also be produced for actors looking to facilitate solutions in their own communities.