“When is the city going to take responsibility for the homeless population?”

“New people are being diagnosed every day.”

“Prisons are overflowing with women accused of poverty-related crimes.”

“The level of support for people with mental health issues is inadequate.”

“People living in this city are so disconnected.”

“Have you seen the election results?”

Talking to various non-profit groups and individual activists in Calgary paints a bleak picture. There are a number of issues plaguing us that are not being dealt with effectively and that not enough people are aware of.

This is no surprise. But what are Calgarians doing to improve the situation?

Kelsey Lavoie has participated in the Otesha project, volunteered for the NDP and worked as a program facilitator with the Calgary Immigrant Women’s Centre. For her, activism is “Putting time and energy into thinking critically about the status quo, and empowering yourself and others to work toward a more just and sustainable future.”

From volunteering to community building, lobbying, demonstrating, striking, boycotting and culture jamming, the type of work being done to reach that just and sustainable future varies wildly. At the most basic level, however, activism is defined as “taking action with the intent to bring about change,” and there are many in the city who do just that.

When Shirley Marion retired from the Calgary Board of Education, she became a professional volunteer. She volunteers as an ESL tutor with the YWCA and a literacy skills tutor with CUPS, and she volunteers for the Sierra Club Chinook Group, Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society and Heritage Park. She volunteers because she wants to make a difference, but says she sees fewer and fewer people becoming engaged in their community.

“From an insider’s perspective, I see fewer people doing the ‘unsung hero’ type of volunteering. If it’s something special, like the Juno Awards, they come out in droves. But just your regular slog-along volunteers, such as myself — this is in decline.”

According to the 2007 Vital Signs report, Calgary’s volunteerism rates have slipped below the national and provincial average.

Gerald Wheatley of the Arusha Centre sees many of these trends.

“It seems to me that most Calgarians don’t take the environmental and social issues seriously. People aren’t changing their lifestyles substantially. We’re talking about very superficial changes. What we’re buying, how much we’re buying. Not whether we’re driving or not.

Ultimately, this little bubble that characterizes Calgary is insulating us from the problems we’re going to have to confront eventually. Our dependency on oil and gas is going to destroy the province, and yet we’re enjoying so many short-term benefits from it, we can’t seem to make the change that we need to. You can look at the election results to see that — Calgary is consistently a negative influence in the world.

It’s pretty humbling how much information people have in Calgary, but it’s sad to see so little action.”

Wheatley points out that our consumerist culture, urban sprawl, booming economy and high rate of emigration all compound the problem of declining social capital — the measure of how much community involvement there is.

After incredulous reactions to the recent provincial election results, Calgary activists say there’s nothing else they can do except continue doing their work. On the horizon, says Colleen Houston of Calgary’s Disability Action Hall, will be trying times of crisis and opportunity in this city.

“I think that in the next few years, we are in a unique time because we can no longer sustain a lifestyle that Calgarians want. So we can’t sing from the same song sheet.… Albertans in our generation will see that our lifestyle isn’t working. We will have to change.”

In spite of these discouraging trends in activism in Calgary, there are pockets within the non-profit world where positive change is being made.

Paul Drohan, editor of Calgary Street Talk, a publication put out by Calgary Urban Project Society (CUPS), says that despite the frustration felt by many, he has seen positive change in the seven years he’s been with the organization. He thinks there is a greater awareness of certain issues such as poverty and homelessness because of the media.

Drohan feels it’s important to make the distinction between activism and effective activism, “The loudest people are not necessarily the most successful. Awareness of an issue does not necessarily make people sympathetic. You have to find out how to bring about change that going to bring results.

“At CUPS, activism is expressed passively through Street Talk in the sense of telling stories, giving snapshots and insight into the life of someone most people can’t even understand. We have done things to make people aware. We present success stories. To me, it is effective activism because we are getting action even if we are not as visible or as loud as what I traditionally would think of as activism.”

During his time at CUPS, Drohan says he’s tried to “Give a voice to people who are living it which creates more understanding and willingness to become involved.”

For example, one woman, a vendor who was abused as a child and later became a prostitute, wrote her story several times in the paper. As she continued to write and sell papers, people in the area read her articles and came to know and understand her as a human being. Her supporters included police officers, even the fire chief, who let her use his computer to file stories and upload photos.

Another poverty-related organization in the city, the Calgary Inter-faith Food Bank, also enjoys a strong level of support within the city. April Cruz says that donations and rates of volunteerism have been fairly consistent year to year, although there are seasonal fluctuations.

While traditional charities such as the food bank enjoy consistent support, newer innovative projects are also finding success. Melissa Centofanti, the co-ordinator for Calgary Dollars, a grassroots currency system that “circulates new ideas about money,” says she believes that reaching people who aren’t already “converted” means trying to creatively engage them through the use of street theatre, song and dance, and generally embracing a more positive message.

Steve Loo, who volunteers with the Arusha Action Film Series, is affiliated with Greenpeace’s Stop the Tar Sands campaign and the Anarchist Book Fair, and biked 1,215 kilometres from Calgary to Yorkton on the Otesha bike tour in 2005, says the activist community goes through cycles, especially when mobilizing around major issues. “At the G8 demonstrations, there were a lot of people who were highly involved and highly skilled [activists]. After G8, a lot of them disappeared. They came together again with the invasion of Iraq. It kind of goes through these waves.”

Loo’s recommendation for getting involved on issues you care about? “Bring your imagination because the activist scene is small budget with a lot of people with huge amounts of energy. We have to be creative in terms of what we try, what we build and how we use our resources,” Loo says.