This thesis explores the topic of belonging: both the sense and experience of it as well as the relationship to individual and collective well-being. Through in-depth interviews with five leaders and advocates in the social justice community, I explore their perspectives on the topic, significant influences, the power of the experience, and the relationship between inclusion and belonging. Further, the capacity for belonging to influence and impact social issues such as marginalization, discrimination, and poverty are explored. Methods for fostering belonging are also considered with a view to suggesting recommendations for promoting a lens of belonging as a means for renewing a commitment to the beloved community. / Graduate

Almost every year, Aboriginal communities are evacuated from northern regions of Canada to nearby cities because of threats due to forest fires and flooding. In this thesis, I present the perspectives of twenty members of the Hatchet Lake First Nation, who were evacuated from Wollaston Lake in northern Saskatchewan during the summer of 2011. My main research question is, how do residents of Wollaston Lake describe experiences of disruptions to well-being and distress during the evacuation and in the evacuation centers? My methods are qualitative, as I conducted open-ended interviews and participant observation while residing in the community for six weeks during the summer of 2012. Following the approaches of Geertz (2000), Garro (2000), and Mattingly (1998), I engaged in a narrative analysis of these data. Three main themes are evident in community members’ discussions of their experiences. First, participants focus on the ways that the fire and displacement disrupted the well-being of fellow community members and, to a lesser degree, their relationships with the land surrounding their town, and their roles within the community. Residents of Wollaston Lake portray a version of well-being that is rooted in the social, rather than individual, self. The second theme relates to family roles, as mothers, fathers, adult children, and guardians describe the various ways that these roles were disrupted during the fire and evacuation, and the distress elicited by these disruptions. These narratives are indicative of the discrepancies between the circumstances experienced during the fire and evacuation, and the values and behaviors that they associate with family roles. The third theme relates to expectations and blame, as community members recall the various ways that the evacuation failed to meet their expectations, and they attribute blame to those that they deem responsible for these inadequacies. Specifically, community members focus on expectations relating to the handling of the threat of fire, the organization of the evacuation, and their interactions with members of the host communities. These findings indicate the incongruities between current emergency management practices in Saskatchewan and the needs of this community. The implication of these findings is that, in order to minimize distress during future disasters, organizers must develop plans that account for the distinct social norms and vulnerabilities of the communities with which they work.

To attract visitors to stay and enjoy the rural landscapes and reduce out-migration to cities, there is a need to enhance practices and policies to boost rural community well-being. Community well-being is about residents' feeling of satisfaction with their local place with considering the social and physical environment, the services, and facilities regarding place attachment (Forjaz et al., 2011; McCrea et al., 2015). In this study, the extent to which farm shops as agriculture diversification strategies impact the community well-being in rural areas is investigated. Kalmar Län, the southern county in Sweden, is the chosen case study to learn more about the subject. For this research, eight interviews were conducted with farmers, and data were analyzed with thematic analysis.  Findings of this study indicate that farm shop owners' motivation to start and continue their activities is not limited to financial incentives, and there are other influential factors that encourage farmers to start and continue their farm shop businesses. Moreover, Farmers in Kalmar County are working as a network and feel connected with one other in varied ways. Furthermore, the direct impacts of farm shops on health and nature were expressed by farmers as well. According to the farmers, these shops impact society by providing spaces for social interaction, which is a critical performance of farm shops. And all these factors increase the feeling of attachment to the place for both farmers and visitors and motivate visitors to visit farm shops more often and encourage farmers to continue their activities in the rural area, and consequently enhance the well-being of community in the rural regions.

Chapter one: The influence of charitable activity on Indigenous communities’ well-being and other socio-economic outcomes Hitherto and within the Canadian context, no one has investigated the role played by the charitable sector on the economic well-being for “on-reserve” First Nations and Inuit communities. On the one hand, Indigenous peoples face longstanding and complex social problems and economic hardships. On the other hand, there are charities which provide public goods and services and benefits to communities by helping to fill needs. This is the first study to examine how the presence of charities may affect some measurable socio-economic outcomes of Indigenous communities and their people, by triangulating data from multiple sources: administrative data from the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) on registered charities, the 2001 and 2006 Census Surveys, the 2011 National Household Survey and the Community Well-Being (CWB) Index developed by the Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada (AANDC). My findings indicate that having access to at least one charity is associated with increases in a community well-being measure of 3 points on a 100-point scale, in household income (5.1%) and in individual’s wages (6.9%). When the number of charities increases in a reserve by one unit, the CWB rises by 1.1 points (on the 100-point scale), household income by 2.7%, individuals’ total income by 1.9% and individuals’ wages by 3.4%. Chapter two: Government funding to Indigenous charities The government is an important revenue source for charitable organizations in Canada. Big differences in public funding can be observed across registered charities that serve Indigenous peoples and all other registered charities. Using charitable organizations’ tax returns, the T3010 Registered Charity Information Return for the years 2003 to 2017 I investigate these government-funding patterns. I test different hypothesis on financial support from government sources by discerning first between Indigenous and non-Indigenous charities, and second between Indigenous charities on reserve and off reserve. I also analyze the relationship between the funding across levels to see if one level of government funding is contingent on other levels. The results of my study point to a higher likelihood of Indigenous charities receiving government support as compared to non-Indigenous charities, with a 24% increase in the predicted probability of funding. Indigenous charities on reserve have a predicted probability of receiving government funding that is almost 17% lower than those off reserve. From the exploration of the link between the three levels of Canadian government funding for Indigenous and non-Indigenous charities two insights emerge. Firstly, the federal government is more likely to support Indigenous charities if they do not receive any other public funds, and the provincial government supports them if they do not get any municipal funding. Secondly, Indigenous charities are more likely than non-Indigenous charities to get both federal and provincial funding, and federal and municipal funding. The comparison between Indigenous charities off reserve and on reserve reveals that the on-reserve ones are less likely to be funded simultaneously by two levels of government. Chapter three: The causal relationship between government funding and donations to Indigenous charities While billions of dollars are donated annually to charitable organizations, relatively modest amounts go to charities that specifically serve Indigenous populations. In comparison to their non-Indigenous counterparts, these charities get fewer private donations, have less fundraising revenue and receive less gifts from other charities. This chapter studies the causal relationship between public funding and these three types of revenues, focusing on the Indigenous charities and distinguishing between on-reserve and off-reserve charities. I use the large T3010 dataset with financial information for over 95,000 registered charities, covering a 15-year period from 2003 to 2017. The estimation and identification strategy relies on novel instruments using a 2SLS model. The results indicate a crowding out effect of public funding on donations for Indigenous charities; I also find evidence that the level of government funding matters. With the preferred instrument, a one dollar increase in government funding crowds out seven cents of private contributions; the three levels of federal, provincial and municipal funding decrease private donations by 15, 6 and 46 cents respectively. Government funding negatively affects fundraising effort and gifts from other charities. For every dollar in public support the former decreases by one to seven cents and the latter by three to 12 cents. These reductions imply an economically substantial effect on charities’ revenue. Little evidence is found that government grants impact differently Indigenous charities on reserve compared to those off reserve. The area and programs in which charities operate matter though, which is critical for how governments structure grants to Indigenous charities.

<p dir="ltr">Restoration of civil infrastructure is <b>not</b> equivalent to the full recovery of a community from natural hazards. Considering the recovery of only civil infrastructure in quantifying the disaster recovery of a community does not allow for capturing the long-term socio-economic impacts of natural hazards (e.g., stress, anxiety, unemployment, etc.). The role of having a robust social infrastructure in facilitating disaster recovery and addressing both short-term and long-term impacts of natural hazards needs to be explored. Social infrastructure is defined as formal entities (e.g., governmental organizations, community centers, NGOs, religious centers, etc.) as well as informal social ties such as individuals and households that assist in post-disaster recovery and alleviate the distress caused by natural hazards. Social infrastructure not only addresses post-disaster tangible needs such as shelter, food, and water but also helps alleviate disaster-induced socio-economic distress in communities.</p><p dir="ltr">This research focuses on identifying the capacity needs of the social infrastructure to facilitate disaster recovery (measured using community well-being as the recovery metric), while integrating the cascading impacts from other affected inter-dependent infrastructure systems (i.e., civil, civic, cyber, financial, environmental, and educational). Using community well-being, which is defined as the state in which the needs of a community are fulfilled, allows for incorporating both short-term and long-term impacts of natural hazards.</p><p dir="ltr">The research starts with modeling post-disaster community well-being using the indicators selected from existing community well-being models. After the selection of indicators, several data sources such as phone call, survey, and FEMA support programs data were used to 1) verify the structure of the community well-being model, and 2) quantify post-disaster community well-being. Chapter 3 elaborates on this process and its outcome, which is a framework for quantifying post-disaster community well-being based on disaster helpline and survey data.</p><p dir="ltr">Chapter 4 introduces a Bayesian Network<b> </b>modeling framework for quantifying the role of social infrastructure services in the form tangible, emotional, and informational support in enhancing post-disaster community well-being. The Bayesian model was then used to propose capacity building strategies for increasing the robustness of social infrastructure and its supporting infrastructure to foster post-disaster community well-being in the face of future hurricanes.</p><p dir="ltr"><b>Intellectual Merit</b>: the proposed research is unique in its kind as it leverages social and psychological well-being models and theories to characterize the role of social infrastructure in the recovery of communities from natural disasters. The research contributes to infrastructure and urban resilience models by considering the role of social infrastructure services using community well-being as the recovery metric. It also contributes to social sciences by introducing 2-1-1 disaster helpline data as an inexpensive and timely replacement for multiple rounds of survey questionnaires for quantifying community well-being.</p><p dir="ltr"><b>Broader Impacts</b>: the proposed model and the obtained results can serve as an Ex-Ante Capacity building tool for decision-makers to predict the status of communities in the face of future natural hazards and propose capacity building strategies to have higher post-disaster support, and thereby, community well-being.<br></p><p dir="ltr"><br></p>