The future of a community

By Janet Kanters Times Editor

The world is changing, the country is changing, the province is changing and communities are changing. No one knows that better than Doug Griffiths, who actively pursues his passion of helping communities, organizations and businesses grow stronger.
The former MLA was in Strathmore last week to take part in a “town hall” to address the need to support a thriving downtown in Strathmore.
“Things are changing, and our downtowns need to go back to what they were originally about – socialization,” he said. “They need to focus on businesses that are centred around the core of the community – the downtown.”
Griffiths asserts a community’s biggest challenge is not that it lacks good plans, but that it lacks the right perspective and attitudes. Through his company 13 Ways, he helps communities identify what is holding them back from finding success, and then helps them overcome it.
From a town’s point of view, Griffiths says the biggest mistake that’s made is the presumption that elected officials are responsible for everything.
“They’re just responsible for running the municipal corporation,” he noted. “But they are leaders. So, I always recommend they focus on not just building a municipal business plan but municipal strategic plan. And to bring chambers of commerce and schools and health care and volunteer organizations all together to form a collective strategy for the community, where the people realize everyone owns the success of the community.”
Griffiths said most communities, organizations and businesses fail not from a lack of planning, vision, purpose, strategy, values or resources, but because of the attitude that precedes them, an attitude that comes quite often from a town’s residents.
“We really need to see changing attitudes so that we’re more positive, we’re more optimistic,” he said. “We talk about the need for young people to stay in our communities or to come back to them. But all we do is complain about our town and say there is no hope and future, and then wonder why young people leave. Well, we’re the ones chasing them out of town. We need to stop with the bad attitudes and start focusing on opportunities and hope.”
Griffiths said there are a lot of other things that can be done to attract people to a community, and to keep them there.
“We can beautify, and make sure our towns are appealing, yes. We can also become deliberately, individually, a more welcoming community by being sure we’re not housed in our little groups and our little communities. We think we’re friendly, but we may not be very welcoming.”
Griffiths said there are five groups inherent in many places. They are the N.I.M.B.Y.s – Not In My Back Yard; the B.A.N.A.N.A.s – Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near Anything; the N.O.P.E.s – Not On Planet Earth; the C.A.V.E.s – Citizens Against Virtually Everything; and the F.E.A.R.S – Fire up Everyone Against Reasonable Solutions.
“Those groups need to be identified, and because their negativity is so contagious, the biggest task and the hardest work that needs to be done is inoculating the general public against the anger and the frustration and the fear. And starting the conversation,” he added.
Griffiths said the reason these people, which amount to perhaps five per cent of the population, are allowed to feed on and infect other people is because of apathy.
“We say ‘it’s not my business, it’s not my responsibility.’ But when I talk to high school students, I remind them that if they’re not happy with their current community, and they have no plans on contributing or helping it, it doesn’t matter where they go, they’re still going to be part of another community. And it’s up to them to decide if they want it to be successful.
“It’s our ability to decide if we’re going to contribute to the community and whether or not we’re going to make it better.
“Somebody in the community has to initiate the different attitudes,” he added. “If it’s not our elected officials, it falls to volunteers or other people who have authority because of their position. They should use their position to influence and start to change the conversation.”