When the City of Calgary announced $60 million - $120 million over a year - in cuts to services, The Calgary Alliance for the Common Good launched the #KeepCalgaryStrong campaign and invited others to join in. Together we got a reaction that preserved many essential services for Calgarians, especially those who are most vulnerable. 

We celebrated a win for our seniors campaign when the City agreed to move forward with a plan to support seniors to stay in their homes and communities. This plan will address 8.5 of the 9 points for which our seniors team was advocating, and it will have an impact on thousands of seniors in the years to come. 

Relationships formed through the Calgary Alliance for the Common Good resulted in the creation of an Elder-led reconciliation process. In this process, 17 Christian leaders are meeting monthly with elders, following a process of trust and relationship-building designed by the Elders. At one of the first meetings, an Elder stated that as far as he knew this was “historic”, and was “the first time anything like this has happened”.

Leaders from our Alliance recognized that there was a need for faith communities to come together to address poverty in our city, engage in dialogue and overcome our divisions. In response, they created Calgary's Interfaith Council which went on to win the King Abdullah II UN World Interfaith Harmony Week prize. The Calgary Interfaith Council is now an independent organization that works in partnership with the Calgary Alliance for the Common Good.

Learn more about Calgary's Interfaith Council at https://www.calgaryinterfaithcouncil.org

After Calgary’s 2013 flood. The Calgary Alliance for the Common Good partnered with Alberta Health Services to provide mental health first aid training for community leaders so that they could be better equipped to support people dealing with the long-term mental health challenges that the flood created. This training was then offered in other communities in Alberta.