Strong Towns Community Action Lab schedule change

Medicine Hat- In response to feedback from the community, the Strong Towns Community Action Lab (CAL) public presentation scheduled for June 13 in Medicine Hat has been adjusted to offer two community discussion opportunities instead.

The first community discussion will occur on Tuesday, June 13 from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. at The Yard downtown on Third Street SE. The second community discussion will occur on Wednesday, June 14 at the Medicine Hat Public Library from 1 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. RSVPs are appreciated but not required and details are available on the City’s Shape Your City page at www.medicinehat.ca/StrongTowns. 

Norm Van Eeden Petersman from Strong Towns grew up on a dairy farm in Southern Alberta and will be on hand at both events to support the community-driven discussion.

“One of the things we are hearing loud and clear is that people want to better understand what Strong Towns is and how it can play a role in making Medicine Hat a sustainable, vibrant community,” says Managing Director of Strategy and Analysis, Rochelle Pancoast. “We’re seeing how much people appreciate the opportunity to participate in a conversation about Strong Towns, so we want to refocus our efforts to generate more of these opportunities.”

Staff and stakeholders directly involved in Medicine Hat’s Community Action Lab will continue their work with other Strong Towns representatives during their two-day in-person visit to Medicine Hat.

The Community Action Lab is a two-year pilot project designed to improve Medicine Hat’s long-term financial and community wealth and resilience, by reanalyzing and shifting the way that the City develops, innovates, grows the local economy, and empowers citizens to contribute to the success of the community.

“A big part of this two-year project is math. Methodically analyzing our long-term infrastructure liabilities both now and as new infrastructure is proposed, needs to become automatic. This ongoing analysis will help us to secure the financial health of our municipality and keep tax rates manageable in the long term.” says Mayor Linnsie Clark. “However, the Community Action Lab is also about shifting the way that the ‘municipality’ as an organization interacts with our community - empowering both staff and residents to innovate and improve our systems and processes to make our city an even better place to live. When we engage residents in conversations about our community, it needs to be effective and responsive.”

Strong Towns was established by Charles “Chuck” Marohn, a civil engineer and city planner. He is the author of several popular planning books including Strong Towns: A Bottom-Up Revolution to Build American Prosperity and Confessions of a Recovering Engineer: Transportation for a Strong Town.

To learn more about Strong Towns and the Medicine Hat Community Action Lab, visit www.medicinehat.ca/StrongTowns.

Those interested in individual online learning can enroll in Medicine Hat’s free Strong Towns Academy at https://academy.strongtowns.org/p/medicinehat-signup.

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For media inquiries, please contact:
media@medicinehat.ca 

or

Lauren Fisher
Communications Manager, Strong Towns
lauren@strongtowns.org