Former Castlegar senior city staffer pens book promoting more positive civic values
By Contributor
Ed. Note: Diane Kalen-Sukra was a senior city staffer with the City of Castlegar, as well as the award-winning CAO of the Village of Salmo.
Local author, speaker and veteran community builder Diane Kalen-Sukra’s new book Save Your City: How Toxic Culture Kills Community & What to Do About It is being hailed by national civility advocates, media pundits and governance experts as a must-read for community leaders and citizens.
Kalen-Sukra will be kicking off her book tour with two local talks next week to the Kootenay meeting of the Local Government Management Association in Rossland on April 11 and the Rotary Club in Nelson on April 12. She is then headed to bookstores in Victoria, before delivering a keynote address at a national conference in Kelowna for local government officials in early May.
CBC Radio’s Ira Basen calls the book, “inspired and powerful…our democracy is in peril and this book delivers the right message, by the right person, at the right time”. Acclaimed governance expert George B. Cuff calls it, “an absolute must-read for community builders. Wisdom for our increasingly uncivil society.”
“While it is popular to point fingers at the incivility and divisiveness we see in U.S. media, the sad truth is that Canadian communities are experiencing an increase in toxic behavior in the public square, whether it be at meetings, online, at school or at work,” says Kalen-Sukra.
“This toxicity is eroding our sense of belonging, community and well-being as well as undermining our capacity to collaborate and innovate together to address the critical challenges facing our communities today.”
Kalen-Sukra points to the growing infrastructure deficit, climate change, homelessness, mental health and addiction issues as examples of the challenges that call us to revive the art of living and working well together.
“For a democracy to be healthy and communities to be vibrant and resilient, we need to foster the type of culture that can sustain us,” says Kalen-Sukra.
The book empowers community leaders and citizens to be part of the solution by taking readers on a journey from Bullyville to Sustainaville, including an eye-opening visit to classical antiquity. The successful journey includes a renaissance of civic values and civic education as vital to fostering the type of culture that can sustain us, our democracy and our planet.
A list of retailers including Amazon and Chapters Indigo can be found at SaveYourCity.ca. An exclusive edition for Canada’s local government officials and staff, published by Municipal World, includes a companion workbook for individual and group study and a forward by the acclaimed management consultant and governance expert George B. Cuff.
Watch the trailer for the book at https://bit.ly/2UIV32S
For more information or to invite Diane Kalen-Sukra to speak to your group, organization or business, visit www.SaveYourCity.ca
To find her on social media, go to @dianekalensukra (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram)
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