IS THE GLASS half empty or half full? The answer is both!

Nova Scotia and its individual communities are going through some honest transition, recognizing the books need to be balanced with the recent callout from our government for all of us to seek investment.

The glass is "half full and half empty" is the approach that is working for communities like St. Andrews, featured in the book From Clients to Citizens, co-authored by Gord Cunningham, assistant director for the Coady International Institute, and Allison Mathie, who conducts research and designs programs at the institute.

Cunningham says that if every community in Nova Scotia could mobilize their internal and external resources like St. Andrews has done, that the Nova Scotia economy would be well on its course to recovery.

So what is it that instills confidence in community investors, partners and external resources? When a community gets honest with itself, that’s the first step.

"There is something in the psychology of successful communities," says Cunningham. "The notion of positive deviance, in every case where there are these ‘outliers,’ these citizens who shift the culture to one from client to citizen-led, in partnership with government and other stakeholders, who drive success."

Cunningham says it doesn’t matter if it is St. Andrews or a community in India or Vietnam, often the true leaders are people who have gone away and come back and they look at the world through a new lens and their positive energy brings people into their projects.

When asked if the glass is half full or half empty, Cunningham says, "The answer is both! You start with half full."

What made the St. Andrews story noteworthy enough to win the 2009 Lieutenant Governor’s Community Spirit Award, and to win the Excellence in Collaboration Award this week at the 2009 Celebrating Communities Conference, held in Truro, was that they "exude sustainability."

The citizens of St. Andrews, a small rural community about 10 kilometres southeast of Antigonish, gathered and raised much of the money and resources they needed to build a community centre, a curling rink and seniors complex from inside the community.

Then, when they went outside the community, external groups jumped on board their vision because the citizens had demonstrated that they were personally investing too, and that they could work incredibly well together.

Everyone got to have ownership. Everyone got credit.

That’s the key to what will take Nova Scotia forward. Those communities whose leaders quibble publicly with other levels of government over resources will continue to waste energy and precious time, while resourceful, visionary communities like St. Andrews will move forward full steam ahead.

I spent my teen years a stone’s throw from St. Andrews. The place naturally had a culture of including everyone at the "banquet." Even though we had very little growing up, I was included.

Perhaps by osmosis a culture of engaged citizens grew out of our proximity to the Coady institute in Antigonish and its international spirit of empowering others to take ownership.

Let’s all be part of the "movement" led by Father Moses Coady as we celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Coady International Institute this week.

If you witness leaders "quibbling," as a citizen, you must know you have the right to put an end to it. We have little time for that with a debt of over $13 billion. Let’s look at what we’re good at and get honest about what we don’t have. Let’s co-operate.

Barb Stegemann is the author of The 7 Virtues of a Philosopher Queen and lives in Bedford.