For the past 20 years, the Sunalta Community Association has dreamed of opening a community hub where Beltline resident can gather.

On March 17 that dream came true, as the Sunalta Community Association cut the ribbon on its new $5.1 million building located next to the historic community hall.

Jenny Vickers, Executive Director of the Sunalta Community Association, said that the creation of the hub—and the length of time to develop it—was a result of how grassroots the project was.

“We put a lot of heart into this project, and we were very careful at each step. We started with the community engagement, we then re-engaged throughout the years to make sure that this project was deep-rooted in what the community wanted and needed, and not what 10 of us around a board table thought was important,” Vickers said.

What the final design has created is a sustainable space offering free and low-cost community programming supported through a social enterprise cafe. Amenities include meeting spaces, a mini outdoor soccer pitch, and eventually a commercial kitchen that will aim to tackle food insecurity.

Vickers said creating a space where community members could gather and find shared connections was vitally important to the project.

“We heard through years of community engagement, that one in four Sunaltans lives on low income, over 34 per cent live alone—which is three times the City of Calgary average—and that residents self-report being food insecure and socially isolated,” she said.

“We also know that 27 per cent of Sunaltans came to Canada as refugees or newcomers, so we really wanted to make sure that when we were building community, we were keeping those things in mind. This is a purpose-built building to help us deliver and fund programs and services to start to tackle some of those deep-rooted issues in our neighbourhood.”

Community designed, built, and operated

The project won a Mayor’s Urban Design Award in 2019 and was supported throughout the length of the design, development, and construction process by dozens of local Sunaltan individuals and businesses, along with the City of Calgary and the United Way of Calgary and Area.

The community association has been planning future phases of development to connect the hub to the original heritage community hall.

The hub was designed by the Marc Boutin Architectural Collective, which designed other prominent Calgary buildings such as the Inglewood Bird Sanctuary expansion, Century Gardens Park Pavilions, and the Ramsay Residence.

Karen Young, CEO of the United Way of Calgary and Area, said that her organization which was one of the first to provide funding in 2005 for the project, saw the value of investing for the long term through the United Way’s Community Hubs Initiative.

“We really know when we work in community development, it’s about empowering neighbourhoods, empowering residents, and that we’re here for the long game,” Young said.

“It’s OK to put band-aid programs together for the short term, but we’re really trying to create long-term capacity for these neighborhoods so that they’re able to thrive and to be resilient, and so that they’re here for generations to come.”

She said that with one-in-three people not feeling a sense of belonging in their communities, there was a greater need to ensure that community building was taking place.

“We really believe by getting together, building resident capacity where people live, we are actually giving them the skills, the abilities to actually live a healthy life in their own neighbourhoods, to be connected to one another, and to take responsibility and leadership for their own communities,” Young said.

Grown from the grassroots up

Ward 8 Coun.Courtney Walcott said this hub was different than a lot of other City of Calgary-led developments due to the way that the community shaped the project rather than being city-directed.

“The biggest difference was the initial vision and plan. The initial vision and plan that was put together by the community was one that was achievable, it was something that had space, there were opportunities with everything convened in the space, except for one simple thing: it’s usually the same thing, it’s money,” he said.

He said that the City of Calgary providing funding for the project gave community members, right from the association to the architects to the builders who were all local, the permission in the form of a cheque to go ahead.

That meant also helping the project surmount issues like the COVID-19 pandemic and the following inflation and supply chain issues.

“There were so many moments where this project could have fallen apart purely because the bill got too high. Some people talk about sunk cost, right? What do you do when you put too much into it?” Walcott said.

For me, it’s different. This is an investment we made, and we needed to make sure that we could see this investment through at the last minute. Here we are making sure that when that bill came and it needed to be paid, we were going to be the ones to pay it.”

He said that what the new hub represents is not just a hub for Sunaltans, but a place for all Calgarians.

“Sunalta, Scarborough and Beltline are all three distinct, different places. But really, this is all one big community, and when you’re in it that’s what you feel. But that’s not the story we always get a chance to tell,” Coun. Walcott said.

“This is a space where everyone’s invited to be a part of it, and there’s not enough of these. That’s just the honest reality. We spend so much time trying to find our own little slice of heaven, we forget that it’s supposed to be shared. So, this is that beauty.”