Sharing Our Stories

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A draft of the final plan and action items is now available and will be presented to the Heritage Advisory Committee on July 26, 2023.

Sharing our Stories is an upcoming priority plan that outlines a strategic direction for the municipality to support culture, arts, and heritage. Our goal is to identify the value and purpose of culture and heritage resources within the municipality and then provide supports for existing and future projects. Sharing our Stories coordinates decisions and guides our work along four central pillars:

Text reads: Vision - What we want to see for the future, including the qualities and elements needed to make this future a reality. Our visit is the driving force behind the Plan; every outcome will contribute to achieving this vision. Pillars - core values of the plan, essential to success, and factored into all decisions. Stewardship, Connection, Celebration, Access. Goals - Aspirational, defines our role and the approach for achieving the vision. Express culture through place, developing cultural capacity, value creativity. Objectives - Using a matrix of pillars and goals, objectives represent high-level direction and policy statements for leading the work of the municipality. Actions - Each action describes a commitment from the municipality, a project, policy, collaboration or initiative to enhance culture and heritage. Actions take direction from the pillars and goals: good actions contribute to achieving the vision.


What is Our Role in Culture and Heritage?
The municipality has a distinct role to play in advancing Culture and Heritage. This plan will define the municipality’s role in Culture and Heritage and how we collaborate with Federal, Provincial, and Indigenous Governments. Sharing Our Stories creates a direction for advancing the cultural resources of the region – including festivals and events, services, facilities, and programs. It provides decision-makers, community partners and the public with a tool for setting priorities.

A table matrix, which outlines the three Goals (Express Culture Through Place, Support Cultural Capacity, and Value Creativity) and the four Pillars (Stewardship, Connection, Celebration, and Access), with action outlined for each Goal and Pillar.

Engagement:
Work on Sharing Our Stories has been underway for the past two years and has followed the four phases depicted below. The scope of engagement was tailored to the scope of actions that could be completed and targeted towards co-creation of the fundamental principles of the plan with the help of 277 organizations throughout the municipality.

1: Broad Engagement of Culture Inventory. 2: Review of Past Engagement Activities & Pre-engagement. 3 a: Targeted Engagement on Draft Actions. 3b: Targeted Engagement on Draft Actions. 4: Future Broader Stakeholder & Public Comment on Draft Plan

As of June 2022, we're on phase 5 of our engagement plan and are looking to organize new rounds of public consultation with our Sharing Our Stories Draft Actions List. View the What We Heard Report


Post Your Ideas:
Sharing Our Stories aims to expand our registry of heritage assets to include more buildings, sites, and cultural landscapes from the African Nova Scotian, Acadian, and Mi’kmaw communities, among others. However, we will need help from the Halifax community to identify potential heritage sites for future registration.

Are there buildings, sites, or cultural landscapes that you think we should consider registering? If so, why is it important to the story of the HRM?



A draft of the final plan and action items is now available and will be presented to the Heritage Advisory Committee on July 26, 2023.

Sharing our Stories is an upcoming priority plan that outlines a strategic direction for the municipality to support culture, arts, and heritage. Our goal is to identify the value and purpose of culture and heritage resources within the municipality and then provide supports for existing and future projects. Sharing our Stories coordinates decisions and guides our work along four central pillars:

Text reads: Vision - What we want to see for the future, including the qualities and elements needed to make this future a reality. Our visit is the driving force behind the Plan; every outcome will contribute to achieving this vision. Pillars - core values of the plan, essential to success, and factored into all decisions. Stewardship, Connection, Celebration, Access. Goals - Aspirational, defines our role and the approach for achieving the vision. Express culture through place, developing cultural capacity, value creativity. Objectives - Using a matrix of pillars and goals, objectives represent high-level direction and policy statements for leading the work of the municipality. Actions - Each action describes a commitment from the municipality, a project, policy, collaboration or initiative to enhance culture and heritage. Actions take direction from the pillars and goals: good actions contribute to achieving the vision.


What is Our Role in Culture and Heritage?
The municipality has a distinct role to play in advancing Culture and Heritage. This plan will define the municipality’s role in Culture and Heritage and how we collaborate with Federal, Provincial, and Indigenous Governments. Sharing Our Stories creates a direction for advancing the cultural resources of the region – including festivals and events, services, facilities, and programs. It provides decision-makers, community partners and the public with a tool for setting priorities.

A table matrix, which outlines the three Goals (Express Culture Through Place, Support Cultural Capacity, and Value Creativity) and the four Pillars (Stewardship, Connection, Celebration, and Access), with action outlined for each Goal and Pillar.

Engagement:
Work on Sharing Our Stories has been underway for the past two years and has followed the four phases depicted below. The scope of engagement was tailored to the scope of actions that could be completed and targeted towards co-creation of the fundamental principles of the plan with the help of 277 organizations throughout the municipality.

1: Broad Engagement of Culture Inventory. 2: Review of Past Engagement Activities & Pre-engagement. 3 a: Targeted Engagement on Draft Actions. 3b: Targeted Engagement on Draft Actions. 4: Future Broader Stakeholder & Public Comment on Draft Plan

As of June 2022, we're on phase 5 of our engagement plan and are looking to organize new rounds of public consultation with our Sharing Our Stories Draft Actions List. View the What We Heard Report


Post Your Ideas:
Sharing Our Stories aims to expand our registry of heritage assets to include more buildings, sites, and cultural landscapes from the African Nova Scotian, Acadian, and Mi’kmaw communities, among others. However, we will need help from the Halifax community to identify potential heritage sites for future registration.

Are there buildings, sites, or cultural landscapes that you think we should consider registering? If so, why is it important to the story of the HRM?