Pathways to Belonging: Newcomer-Led Solutions for Community Participation in Edmonton

Canada

Jun 4

Written By Sophie van Haasen

City of Edmonton and REACH Edmonton Council for Safe Communities

Mayor

Andrew Knack

Start of Project

December 2025

End of Project

Ongoing

Website

Overview

The City of Edmonton and REACH pledge to continue developing and expanding the REACH Immigrant and Refugee Initiative (RIRI). Initially started to address family violence linked to isolation, the program Has successfully built safe communities and prevented family violence through grassroots interventions like Men’s talking circles and a peer-led Cultural Navigator model. Building on this foundation of trust, Edmonton and REACH commit to implementing “Pathways to Belonging”, the latest iteration of RIRI which aims to address newcomer isolation and enhance community participation, vitality, and safety in Edmonton.

Supported by the City of Edmonton’s Anti-Racism Grant Program, “Pathways to Belonging” is aligned to REACH’s Neighbourhood Organizing Initiative (NOI) and empowers newcomer communities to create grassroots solutions through training, education, mentorship, and community asset mapping. Drawing on promising practices utilized in NOI, such as an Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD) approach, the program fosters social cohesion by identifying and leveraging existing gifts and skills of newcomers.

By cultivating diverse community leadership, the project shifts from crisis intervention toward creating immediate belonging, while actively working to dismantle systemic and structural racism to strengthen the city's long-term cultural fabric. REACH commits to standing as a backbone organization in the city effectively bridging the gap between newcomer communities, municipal systems, and law enforcement in this holistic way.

Expected and Achieved Impact

Achieved Impact: This action is grounded in the established methodology of our legacy RIRI program, which successfully supported over 1,667 families and trained over 74 newcomer youth leaders. By utilizing Cultural Navigators, the initiative historically generated a positive Social Return on Investment (SROI) ratio of $1.28 to 1 by building community networks that reduced reliance on policing and justice systems.

Expected Impact: Moving into the "Pathways to Belonging" phase, we expect Edmontonians to gain increased access to vital support networks, information, and services to directly address racism and discrimination. By implementing the ABCD approach and actively participating in the Edmonton Local Immigration Partnership (ELIP), we anticipate a measurable decrease in newcomer isolation and stronger neighbourhood connections. Furthermore, through our coordination of the Out of School Time (OST) Collaborative, we will help newcomer youth better integrate into schools and build robust peer networks. Increasing newcomers’ sense of belonging and leadership will create the conditions to dismantle systemic racism, yielding a new cohort of diverse community leaders equipped to foster a more inclusive city.

Lessons Learned:

Positive Lessons: A foundational lesson from our preceding decade of work is that peer-led, culturally sensitive mentorship is highly effective at breaking down the isolation that fuels family violence. Initiatives are most successful when they move beyond viewing immigrants through a deficit lens and instead recognize them as assets. Empowering community leaders to identify and utilize the inherent gifts within their own neighbourhoods, the core of our ABCD approach and our vibrant NOI, builds sustainable, long-term leadership and organic social cohesion.

Challenges/Negative Lessons: Research and direct experience indicate that newcomers face profound isolation and weak neighbourhood connections exacerbated by language barriers, low income, and cultural differences. Additionally, we have learned that systemic racism acts as a severe barrier to integration, and that mainstream systems often adapt too slowly to newcomer needs. Ad-hoc funding models can hinder the sustained engagement required to tackle these complex issues, precipitating our shift toward formalized, trackable capacity-building to ensure long-term community resilience.