Jen Harris, CEO of SLí, recently participated in the Building Resilient Communities series sponsored by the Irish Environmental Network and Cultivate. Jen delivered a piece on anchoring Public Participation Network’s Wellbeing Statements in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The underlying theme of Jen’s talk was that we should be using the SDGs to connect the health and well-being of our communities to the health and well-being of the global community and that key to doing that is recognising that we are already doing so much of the work toward achieving the SDGs. Recognition of the shared language and goals will help our communities realize that the SDGs are real, tangible and for us.
COVID-19 has highlighted that our communities, here in Ireland, and around the world, need to be more resilient. But even if we never face another pandemic, we need to make our communities stronger and more self-sufficient. The SDGs show us a path to this resilience whether it is through sourcing our energy through renewable sources or ensuring that all of our people have safe and meaningful work or making sure that no one goes hungry.
