The ripple effect begins here - the 2026 Canada/US CPTED Conference

Larry Leach working on neighbourhood activities with the 12CSI organization in Calgary. Larry is a member of the 2026 Canada/US CPTED Conference planning team. 

by Larry Leach

Recently, we have started putting together an exciting new conference – the 2nd Annual Conference for the US/Canada chapters of the International CPTED Association. It will be on October 2-4, 2026, in my hometown of Calgary, Alberta. I am working alongside the great folks who ran the 2025 conference in Palm Springs, California, and it has been equal parts exciting and a fantastic learning experience. 

With a little under a year to go, we have many details ironed out and ready. I expect to learn and accomplish so much more working with this inspiring group comprising members of the joint Canada/U.S. CPTED team. I am a small cog in an impressive wheel. 

More than that, we have plans for my organization, Calgary's 12 Community Safety Initiative (12CSI), to attract staff and practicum students to this conference. It will be an ideal opportunity to make us a better organization. 

My attendance at other conferences allows me to learn the best practices and it offers an opportunity to network and promote the conference. The feelings that some of the conference delegate experience before and after the conference will carry forward and lead to future opportunities for 12CSI and others. This is a win-win opportunity.

Is this a shameless plug for the conference? Admittedly, it is a nice byproduct! My involvement, and the time I spend with like-minded people, adds a spring to my step, and it makes me a better servant to our organization here in Calgary. That is my main goal. 

 

Most assuredly, it is a feather in the cap of our small local organization to have me involved on the conference planning team. And if you're of a certain age, you may remember the commercial: “I told two friends and they told two friends and so on and so on”. That sentiment really speaks to the magic of a good discussion, a good TED Talk, or conference networking and planning like this. You never know the ripple effect that it may have far beyond what you imagine. That’s exciting!

The prize at the end of the rainbow? First, the topics we’ll be discussing at this conference may spark the very project your community is ready for. Second, you will learn how to launch meaningful projects by talking with experts from across the world. Third, speakers will come from all walks of life and from many different professions – community organizers, police, criminologists, association leaders, planners, architects, and many others. 

Hilton Garden Inn overlooking downtown Calgary
- site of the 2026 CPTED Conference

Take a look where you live. Are there problems that have lingered too long? Are there opportunities to make things better that no one seems willing to act on? Do you and your neighbours want a real say in what happens, rather than waiting for government or big business to decide for you?

TURNING CONFERENCE IDEAS INTO ACTION 

If you don’t shape your community, someone else will, and you may not like the outcome.

A community project does more than build something physical. It educates, inspires, and sends a clear signal that people care. It becomes a symbol of who you are together. Building a sense of community, cutting crime and improving livability are all important goals. Whether it’s a curb extension to calm traffic, a basketball court, a shared garden, or a new community hall, the specific project matters less than the act of starting.

You may not raise all the money you hoped for. The final result may look different than you imagined. It may take longer than planned. But the process, the energy, the collaboration, and the shared purpose - all these can leave a legacy that lasts for years, even decades. It’s that first effort that inspires the next generation to take it further and make it better.

So what should you do? 

Come to the conference. Meet us and share ideas. Learn what success looks like. Mostly...just start! 

Right now.

The pivotal role of connection

 

Mural in one of Calgary's neighbourhoods

By Larry Leach 

Larry is Executive Director of Calgary’s 12 Community Safety Initiative – a non-profit crime prevention collaborative. He was awarded the Queens Diamond and Platinum Jubilee medals for his contribution to community-building. He is a member of the SafeGrowth Network. 

Decades ago, North American society had an unwritten social contract. When you need help, you can reach out to your neighbours. When they needed a cup of sugar or help building a fence, you were there as a community to help. As we progressed through the decades, a sense of community was valued less and we began relying on institutional support. This is the message we have described in prior blogs regarding the Bowling Alone book by Robert Putnam.

Today, we spend our time in an isolated society without the natural neighbour support we once took for granted. 

I won’t preach about getting back to the old days (or about the social contract concept of philosopher John Locke). Still, it’s important to recognize what we had and how it’s been eroded over time to make the next shift better and how to fix what is clearly a societal issue.

We used to know our neighbours, those struggling and those doing well. We knew each other’s children. If a child was struggling, the community picked that up, usually finding out from the local school. They were involved in their lives. School teachers were local, knew the families, and often taught all the siblings and sometimes even the parents. The local police officer knew people in the neighbourhood. Importantly, in knowing came caring.

Children need not grow up alone.
We can do better to care for each other.

As communities found more to do and value, they found less value in this approach, and big government and big charity stepped in to fill the void. Today, teachers change schools often and, in some police agencies, officers are discouraged from policing in their own neighbourhoods. Parents move their children to schools they think are better for their children and drive long distances to put their child in the best sports club or activity, where they hope to achieve success at an early age. 

Throughout this time, we learned that service providers cannot replace family, friends, and significant community members. Humans need connection – a fact well-known in social psychology, and reported in prior blogs by both Mateja and Tarah. 

 

As with many local community organizations, Calgary's 12 CSI runs a community ambassador program and others like anti-bullying, community walks, and safety audits.

FILLING THE VOID

If a sense of connection is missing, how do we fill that much-needed void? In the 1985 book Careless Society, community activist, and author, John McKnight warned of a time when we would believe that We Can’t: We can’t do things for ourselves and each other; We can’t care for our own children or a neighbour’s child;  We can’t muster enough individual or personal will to tell the politicians We Can.  

In contemporary North American societies special agencies now fill these gaps. For example, I am the board chair of a Youth Centre called Cornerstone Youth Centre. This centre did not need to exist when communities made sure the kids in it had lots to keep them occupied. When they slipped, the community was there to pick them up.

Additionally, several agencies have developed around homelessness. Again, this is something that families and communities used to handle. Now it is handled by an agency funded by some level of government. I spoke in a previous blog about how some of these agencies are too big and they are not addressing the needs of the communities where they work. Often they have no relationship at all with the surrounding residents in the neighbourhood. 

WE CAN

I also work for a non-profit called 12 Community Safety Initiative, the neighbourhood organization that helped launch the first-ever SafeGrowth Summit in 2015.

In 12 CSI we employ Ambassadors to walk the neighbourhood, helping residents and visitors to the area connect with services and each other. It is small and nimble and connected to the communities it serves. If community members are unable to be the eyes and ears of their own community, or are unable to help their neighbours, then Ambassador and outreach programs will fill that void until individuals, families, and communities follow the model of caring vigilance and demonstrated compassion. 

This may all seem like nostalgia for a better time, or perhaps it is a naive expectation of the wisdom, generosity, and power of community. But if we are going to participate in our safety, the safety of neighbours, and the creation of a better world I firmly believe we must say, "We Can”. 

Neighbourhoods that take the idea seriously that they are responsible for many of their own needs, will be in a better position to come together and build programs that are truly for community members (and run by community members) before an outside agency arrives and decides it for them.

Local communities can have a major impact on problems like homelessness

As we reported in a previous blog on homelessness, Finland’s communities are doing exactly this with great results. That country made it mandatory for municipalities to shelter and provide outreach services to the needy in their own community. They now have the lowest homeless population in the world. It is government-funded, but it is also community-based. Each municipality is responsible and accountable to its own residents for these services.  

As we say in SafeGrowth, the experts are the people who live in the neighbourhood. It all starts with having a good look at your neighbourhood strengths and the resources needed to help people. We do not need to go back in time to recreate the past, but we can all take some responsibility for how our neighbourhood operates. 

I offer this final challenge: What will you do to make your neighbourhood better? It is up to us. We can!

[Personal note: Thank you to Bob McInnes for his thoughtful contribution to this blog].

The Century of the Neighborhood

Taking a break from deliberations at the 2015 SafeGrowth Summit
Engaged citizens from around the world

Four months ago I posted about President Obama’s eulogy following a racial massacre in South Carolina.

This morning we heard news of another massacre, this by terrorists in Paris. In today’s global village a tragedy for one is a tragedy for all. From that view, these are times of storms.

“When you come out of the storm,” said novelist Murakami, “you won’t be the same person who walked in. That’s what this storm’s all about.”

THE SAFEGROWTH SUMMIT

Last week a small group of SafeGrowth advocates and some likeminded friends from around the world mapped a new way out of these storms in the first-ever SafeGrowth Summit.

One of the SafeGrowth work teams - two day of visioning the future

We met encircled by Canada’s Rocky Mountains in Canmore, Alberta. Hailing from different countries and cities small and large, participants included residents, artists, planners, police officers,  architects, criminologist, activists, but mostly active and engaged citizens.

Our task? Search for practical paths that build community resilience and lead away from crime and violence.

Four diverse teams found their own ideal visions. One crafted neighborhood hubs, a 21st Century shared public gathering space far beyond today’s community center. Another began building a tailored style of hands-on curricula to educate a new generation of neighborhood leaders.

Each team resonated with the idea that it is within the geography of the neighborhood where solutions arise.

Local graffiti artists running their first-ever art show for Summit participants

Following the Summit participants shared their ideas with residents of the 12 CSI Neighbourhoods at a social event on Calgary’s International Avenue, an event punctuated by the inspiring art show of local graffiti artists and music from a youth quartet from Calgary's Multiculural Orchestra.

We are writing Summit results to publish a book in the spring. For now teamwork continues; it continues to frame a way out of the storms of violence, crime and intolerance facing us in the years ahead. And it continues to verify, once and for all, the 21st Century belongs to the neighborhood.

Last day performance by a youth quartet from the Calgary Multicultural Orchestra