Envisioning New Futures: “Am I Part of the Solution?”
Envisioning New Futures tells the stories and experiences of community members as they share their hopes, goals and successes being in community. Exploring the past and present to envision new futures.
Tyson (He/Him) has experienced many forms of community and his first journey into community was attending church as a young person. Reflecting on how he shows up in his response to community has been an important ‘North Star’ to how he approaches his community building efforts! Being able to show up as his authentic self is a demonstration of how he knows he’s in community with the right people.
What’s your community journey?
“I come from a more religious background, and have seen how community can work and can’t work. When I started working at the Federation of Calgary Communities had me thinking more about how do we have deeper relationships with our neighbours”. For Tyson, the notion of neighbourliness extended to how people connect with one another in general… one of the ways Tyson does this is through a program he’s developed called Recess Calgary. With Recess, Tyson is bringing people together with an anti-oppressive lens to shape interactions and attitudes that allow for us to “take a break from this culture that tells us to be really, really busy, to not be in community with each other”. For Tyson, “play is an act of resistance to the continuous grind of capitalism. What can we do to begin enjoying each other’s company and find that joy again?”
What does a Just & Decolonial Future Look Like?
“I think it’s land back, I think it’s communities of care, transformative justice, people checking in on other’s boundaries… people saying pronouns as a way of introducing to others… where public infrastructure is utilized, funded well, and people who think they are too good or rich aren’t using it are using it because it’s good for everyone and because they get to connect with other people in those spaces… those are lofty goals.”
“This past year, especially, I just kind of roll my eyes sometimes when I hear it
You personally might not be doing part of the solution and that’s why you’re not seeing action, because it does happen, it is happening. And it’s not transformative in a way that you can just sort of reap the benefits, you actually have to do the work. You have to be a part of it.
You have to reflect and think, ‘am I being part of the solution right now? Am I being in community with people who are doing these things, so I can actually learn from these people? The future is in these small actions … do the work today so that tomorrow is better.”
Final note: Be aligned with your values when it comes to building community, you WILL find people who support you in these efforts!
Can you share a story about a time your community came together?
“I went to a potluck, and the potluck was a recurring thing, but this time we asked people to bring a story about food. That answer was so different - I came in talking about experiences I’d had with food while backpacking around Europe. Other people talked about their relationship with food, how they were food insecure growing up, or how food impacted their body and what that meant. Some people talked about where the food came from and the carbon footprint. Others graciously shared how food represents to them and their family. Who knew there is such a wide selection of people and their experiences with food, it was such a powerful experience for me … it was really important for me to hear, and for other people to share in a way that was neutral. I always think about that, I think those are simple but profound ways of seeing community coming together.”