RESET Communities supports local leaders to work together on complex challenges related to both community and economic development.
Housing, climate, health, economic transition, and social cohesion are deeply connected, but most communities are still expected to respond through separate programs, short-term funding, and one-off projects.
RESET Communities supports a more integrated approach that helps local partners connect people, ideas, and resources and turn their shared priorities into practical action for social, economic, environmental, and cultural well-being.
Why a Different Approach is Needed
Many communities face rising complexity while the systems around them remain fragmented. Challenges are increasingly connected, but policies, decisions, programs, and funding often aren’t.
- Issues like housing, workforce development, climate resilience, and community well-being do not fit neatly into one department or one sector.
- Short-term projects can be useful, but they rarely create the conditions for lasting change at the community level.
- Communities are closest to the challenges, yet often furthest from the decisions and resources shaping the response.
Additionally, there is a pressing need to connect local actions to critical global issues such as those articulated by the UN 17 SDGs.
Who Is RESET For?
RESET Communities works with places and organizations that know business as usual isn't enough and are looking for a more connected, place-based way forward.
- municipalities
- community Futures organizations
- institutions focused on social and community finance
- community and economic development organizations
- most importantly, it's for those who are asking:
How do we join up our efforts instead of adding another project?
How do we translate global goals, like the SDGs, into something that makes sense locally?
How do we build leadership and capacity across our organizations and community, not just in one department?
What Can You Expect
When communities work with RESET, they can expect to see:
- A clearer shared picture of local challenges and opportunities.
- Less duplication and fewer gaps between programs and initiatives.
- Stronger trusted relationships and leadership across sectors.
- Local action that lines up more closely with big‑picture goals, including the SDGs.
Over time, this way of working has proven to support social, cultural, economic, and environmental well‑being in a more intentional and lasting way.
What's Behind the Curtain?
The roots and concept of RESET Communities have drawn upon many years of learning from leaders (with or without a formal title) from across Canada - and now more globally - who worked along side Campus for Communities of the Future. Many members of Catalyst Now, both global and Canadian, have also honed these learnings. This 20-year journey to becoming a full-stack intermediary organization has been captured in a one-page infographic.
R.E.S.E.T. Communities Collective increases responsiveness to complex challenges and opportunities by collaborating with multiple partners to provide a variety of support and services that enhance social, economic, and environmental well-being.
Future-readiness is increased by supporting capacity for (1) community-driven development, (2) systems-practices, (3) strategic foresight, and (4) AI and digital optimization. We've learned these four components are necessary for the project and systems collaboration and informed decision-making that are essential for transformation and innovation.
Innovative approaches require being bold, perseverance, tenacity and a sprinkle of panic.
-- Michelle Baldwin
Many situations in life are similar to going on a hike: the view changes once you start walking. You don't need all the answers right now. New paths will reveal themselves if you have the courage to get started.
--James Clear
Leadership today is about courage. Courage to realize our challenges are complex and no one individual, organization, or sector can resolve them on their own. That means we have to let go of the idea that we alone have the answers. Instead, we need to strengthen our individual and organizational competencies in order to become system-catalyst leaders who call meetings before the answers are known, aren't intimidated by messy, and can ensure a culture where all voices are heard. Only then, can our collective gifts, experience, and wisdom be focused on building a better future for all.
--Brenda Herchmer
In times of change it is the learners who inherit the future. Those who have finished learning find themselves equipped to live in a world that no longer exists.
-- Eric Hoffer
