The Social Cities research report “Strengthening Vital Signs Through Urban Religious Communities” is now available. The report was supported in part by the Calgary Foundation and is based on a series of community roundtable consultations, primary research, review of official documents, and statistical data from the Canada Revenue Agency. While earlier work focused on Calgary’s downtown, this report considers the city as a whole.

Calgary has a history of strong engagement between faith-based organizations and the communities they serve and are part of. After making changes to the Centre City Plan in May 2013 to make formal provision for the role of faith-based organizations in long-term structural planning, it was natural to continue to explore how that dynamic might play out across the city of Calgary.

One of the central findings of the report is that there are untapped resources in faith-based organizational networks that could enhance long-term structural planning in the city. At the same time, faith-based organizations are challenged by a lack of common organizational structures that would allow them to interact with established planning and development processes.

“Strengthening Vital Signs Through Urban Religious Communities” provides a review of the planning landscape of the city of Calgary, the size and extent of faith-based organizations in the city, and strategies for enhancing meaningful collaboration between these two significant strengths.