About Neighbours United

We can make a difference when we work together on our common struggles. 

For too long, we’ve been divided over solutions to big problems that affect people every day, such as pollution, waste, energy, transportation, and climate change.

We can overcome division and move forward together by doing something we haven’t done before: talking and listening across lines of difference, particularly in rural communities and small towns built around traditional energy and extraction industries.

To do this, we are using a tested and proven model called deep canvassing. This engagement method is rooted in listening with honest curiosity and non-judgment to the concerns of people who have conflicted feelings on an issue.

By sharing stories of our life experiences and understanding the heart of the issues that divide us, we can overcome polarization, fear, and prejudice to find our common ground and willingness to make the positive changes that are good for all our neighbours.

We are the first group anywhere to run a long term deep canvass project on climate & energy, and the first and only group in Canada to use deep canvassing.

Visit our sister project, Living Here, to read stories about the root problems we’re hearing in the deep canvasses, and the solutions created by rural and small town people.

Living better together in community is about listening, understanding, and engaging more people in our common struggles to make the lives of us and our neighbours better.

Together we are Neighbours United.

Neighbours United is inspired by the deep canvassing projects of the Leadership Lab, the New Conversation Initiative, the Montana Engagement Partnership, and SURJ. We have been working with The New Conversation Initiative in developing this project.

Neighbours United is a project of the West Kootenay EcoSociety.