WINDSOR, NS - Barry Braun is a grandfather.
That’s usually one of the first things he tells people as he’s describing what the Happy Community Project is all about.
With sharp glasses, grey hair, and a calming, low voice, he talks about what he hopes to achieve with this initiative.
“I started the Happy Community Project with my grandkids in mind. Where are they going to find a happy place 20 years from now?” Braun asks. “The answer is, if we can remember how to be a happy community, one that takes care of each other, then maybe they’ll have a chance.”
Wanting to shy away from, or perhaps redirect the spotlight, Braun is quick to emphasize that it’s not just him running the show. Hundreds of people have stepped up to make this happen.
“At least once a week, somebody comes forward with some idea on creating a new project,” he said. “So, I’m always supportive of them, but they have to follow through. Some don’t show up, some do.”
Several initiatives on the go
With 11 active projects in only six months, Braun has been trying to guide, but not interfere with all of these community groups trying to get ideas off the ground.
One of the latest concepts is what’s known as a ‘Little Library,’ enclosed cabinets in the shape of old British telephone boxes, where passersby can leave a book or take a book.
“It’s not a unique idea to Windsor, but there’s nothing like that here yet,” he said. “The main people who have been working on that were acting in Quick As A Wink, and just finished all of their obligations with that, so now it’s starting to come back to life.”
The boxes are being constructed and should start showing up soon, Braun said.
But these won’t just be showing up in Windsor – The Happy Community Project is all inclusive of Windsor and West Hants.
Other projects include reviving the defunct farmer’s market, a community garden, a youth hangout, and more – the common thread amongst all of them is getting people to interact with each other.
Will this concept work? It’s hard to say, but at least one of the projects, the recently saved Ellershouse Community Breakfast, is doing well and growing.
“The new team that’s been leading it has now put on two breakfasts,” he said. “The last time, they had 208 people at the community breakfast, and the first one they had 175 people show up. So a little bit of momentum.”
The breakfast, which has been an institution for years, was on its last legs as the original organizers were becoming fatigued with the lack of volunteers to help it out. They were ready to throw in the towel.
But, then, the Happy Community Project stepped in.
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“It had its death notice, the people running it said Nov. 24 is the last one. They had been asking for two years for someone to take it over, they wanted to pass it on. So we asked, 'Who wants to help keep this going?' And about 35 people put their hands up," he said.
"The difference between asking for a volunteer and saying ‘this is our community, how do you want to help make it be a community?’ there’s a really big difference in response."
The Ellershouse experience is a fitting example of what Braun is hoping to achieve with the Happy Community Project – bringing people together to enhance the sense of cohesion and cooperation in an area.
But 11 projects is a lot to take on, even though they’re all run by individual groups.
“The citizens have voted with their feet with where they want to show up and make these things happen, so they’re doing all of the real hard work,” he said.
The Happy Community Project is providing background community support, he adds.
“These are good-hearted citizens that are making these ideas into reality, but they don’t necessarily have the personal project management skills, the expertise necessary to make them happen,” he said. “We also help to create the buzz and excitement that draws some attention to these projects.”
Expansion plans
The Happy Community Project got its start outside of the Windsor area, with chapters in Halifax-Needham and Sackville. Those two operations have been shuttered to focus on Windsor-West Hants, which is seeing a huge amount of support and community buy-in.
Braun said that decision was made to figure out how to best implement the Happy Community Project, in an effort to replicate the Windsor-West Hants levels of success in other communities.
“Sackville taught us lessons, Needham taught us lessons, and those lessons we brought here,” he said. “It’s working amazingly well here. Windsor-West Hants has taught us how to actually do this on a larger scale.”
The Happy Community Project is re-launching in Sackville on May 7, with the hope of replicating the Windsor-West Hants experience.
“There were some very well-meaning people (at the Sackville location), but with these, you develop a culture and a mindset with how these things are supposed to be run, and that way of thinking was getting in the way of its success,” he said.
“What we learned here in Windsor, is you need to take a different kind of approach, ‘we should’ instead of ‘they should.’”
Braun said the Sackville chapter also didn’t have the momentum that the Windsor-West Hants one is experiencing, making it easier to relaunch rather than trying to transform.
The Sackville group tried to take a more traditional NGO community development approach. Experts ‘helicopertering’ into an area, calling the shots, and saying how things should be done.
In Windsor-West Hants, the community members are in charge. That’s the key difference, he said.
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A desire to be one community
Braun says the Windsor-West Hants chapter of the Happy Community Project has seen such incredible momentum because the citizens of Windsor and West Hants want to come together.
“The area has a long-standing desire to be one community with a long history of being divided,” he said. “I hear almost every day how people are tired of that and what the Happy Community Project has provided is a vehicle where everyone can gather and there isn’t that them versus us mentality.”
It's proving, he says, that the town and county can work together - and want to work together.
Braun said participants often remark to him that they have a sense of finally being able to work together on projects that benefit everyone.
“People are concerned about the future, they know it’s going badly, and what the Happy Community Project does is bringing people back to a time when people used to work together,” he said.
“If people needed a barn, a bunch of people showed up and built a barn. I don’t make that up, I’ve heard that story again and again. People see really huge value in that and feel a sense of loss for it. They don’t think it exists anymore. This is showing them it can.”
Braun said showing people that ‘we can do this together’ instead of getting ‘them to do it’ makes people feel stronger and more resilient.
Many hands make like work – but it’s not just about the light work – it’s that the community members now have their own agency, the confidence and ability to do things themselves as a collective.
During a recent visit to the Hants Learning Network Association, Braun was struck by the number of people who felt that they didn’t fully ‘belong’ after speaking to students there.
“I asked the classroom, ‘how many of you feel you belong in our community?’ Not a single person put their hand up. I asked ‘how many feel you do not belong in our community?’ and about half the room put their hand up,” he said.
“They’re a part of our community and we have a responsibility to help them feel like they belong.”
Funding needed
With any non-profit, eventually, people need to put money where their mouth is.
And Braun has turned to private business, community members, and now the two municipal councils for financial support.
Braun said the reason why he’s approaching the local councils is to have "all levels of the community working together," to be part of what he calls "the we, not the they" – businesses, citizens, NGOs and government working together.
One way the councils can show evidence of that support, he says, is to be a financial partner in the project.
“Both councils have recognized through written letters that the Happy Community Project is doing something special,” he said. “It’s getting people to think about doing things in a different way, which is we don’t need to be dependent on the government to take care of all of our problems for us.”
He’s asking for a $6,000 grant from the town and the municipality.
The irony isn’t lost on Braun, but he said the contribution from governments, if approved, would only make up approximately 20 per cent of what it takes to actually make everything work.
“They’re not the only funding source, far from it, but I’m hoping they’ll be a part of the process,” he said.
The rest will have to come from the businesses and citizens of the community if they want it to continue, he said.
The Town of Windsor also offers the Hants County War Memorial Community Centre free of charge for meetings.
Some businesses have already come forward with funds, including Swinamer’s Home Building Centre and Pothier Motors, with more that are interested.
A public fundraising component is also expected in the near future.
Braun laments that running the Happy Community Project is a seven-day-a-week unpaid job, but additional funding would enable him to hire staff to help out would help keep it sustainable for the long term.
Personal impact
But how does Braun feel about all of this? There’s a lot going on, and there has been since The Happy Community launched on Oct. 19, 2016, a mere six months ago.
“It’s a real stew of emotions, how do I feel about all of this? It’s hard to find the answer because there’s tons of things going on all at once,” Braun said. “I have a huge sense of pride in the community go Windsor-West Hants for coming together, so many people stepping up to actually take an active role in their community, in their place.”
But Braun said there’s also a frustration.
“There’s 300, 400 people who have shown up. That leaves approximately 20,000 people who haven’t,” he said. “It’s everybody’s community, and if we do what the experts tell us, where it’s our community and our hope for our children and grandchildren is that we have strong, resilient communities, then it takes more than a few.”
His greatest hope is that more people start showing up and playing an active role.
But, in the end, it comes back to Braun’s grandkids, who inspired him to start this to begin with.
Although they live in Ontario and Alberta, he’s hoping to see the Happy Community Project spread far and wide.
“The goal is, in 10 years, there are 2,000 communities that are happy communities,” he said. “It is ambitious but realistic. Other organizations have had that level of impact, so I don’t see any reason why we shouldn’t be able to do the same. There is a latent desire is most people that they want to belong, they want to make a difference."
Event to check out
The greatest potluck ever is being planned for Victoria Park
on May 27, 1-4 p.m. at Victoria Park in Windsor.
Barry Braun is hoping to see 1,000 community members from Windsor-West Hants and beyond to bring some food, socialize and eat of course.
“There’s been lots happening at the Happy Community Project, lots of things are underway, and we wanted a way to celebrate all of that,” Braun said. “Have a party.”
Braun doesn’t think it’ll be the largest potluck ever, a title that belongs to the Anand Niketan Maninagar Campus in Ahmedabad, India, with 3,264 people. But, he’s hoping there’ll be a significant crowd.
The event will be free of charge, but he’s hoping some folks will come down to help organize, set up, and clean up.
Go online: To find out more about the Happy Community Project, visit http://happycommunityproject.com or visit the Facebook Page at https://www.facebook.com/groups/117198905541721/?fref=nf
