THE MINDs PROJECT
Whole-of-Society Defence & Resilience, Mobilizing Canada's Social Purpose Organizations
Educate & Build Understanding
Educate
Energize
Legitimize
Mobilize
Inclusion
PROJECT OVERVIEW
MINDS — Mobilizing Canada's Social Sector for Defence and Resilience
is an 8-month research and design initiative led by ICI Canada in partnership with the Department of National Defence and the Canadian Armed Forces (DND/CAF).
In an era of increasing complexity, climate emergencies, geopolitical instability, and hybrid threats, national resilience requires more than military capacity. It requires the full fabric of society: community organizations, Indigenous leaders,
service networks, and local institutions that hold communities together under stress.
MINDS will map, study, and design the framework Canada needs to coordinate these assets with national defence and resilience planning.
This is whole-of-society defence, made in Canada.
WORKSTREAMS OVERVIEW
Workstream 1: Mapping Canada's Social Infrastructure
We're identifying 50+ leading community-anchored organizations (CAOs, from food banks to Indigenous hubs to youth networks, and building a geospatial capability map and dashboard showing where this infrastructure lives,who it serves, and where the gaps are.
Workstream 4: Workshops & Engagement
We're hosting 2 regional in-person and 3–4 virtual workshops to co-design
the framework with the communities, organizations, and leaders it will serve.
Workstream 2: International Benchmarking
We're studying how Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Estonia have built formal
legal and institutional frameworks for whole-of-society defence, and
extracting the design principles most relevant to Canada.
Workstream 5: Knowledge Disemination
We're delivering an interim report (Month 7), a final report (Month 11),
2–3 policy briefs, and national op-eds to ensure findings reach
policymakers, practitioners, and the public.
Workstream 3: Key Informant Interviews
We're conducting 20+ conversations with defence leaders, Indigenous leaders, social sector experts, and community organization heads to surface operationalrealities, partnership opportunities, and implementation risks.
WHY NOW?
Canada's security environment has changed. Wildfires displace tens of thousands.
Cyberattacks hit hospitals and utilities. Geopolitical instability creates
new pressures on northern sovereignty. Mass displacement events stress
community services to their limits.
In each of these scenarios, military and emergency management capacity alone
is not enough. The organizations that hold communities together, that provide
shelter, food, mental health support, and human connection, are as essential
as any formal emergency system.
Countries like Finland, Estonia, and Sweden recognized this a decade ago.
They built legal frameworks and coordination mechanisms to make it real.
Canada hasn't. Yet.
MINDS exists to change that, and the time to start is now.
GET INVOLVED!
Whether you lead a community organization, work in defence policy, conduct academic research, or simply believe that Canada needs to take whole-of-society resilience seriously, we want to hear from you.
Ways to get involved:
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Nominate an organization: Know a community-anchored organization that should be on our map? Tell us about them.
Share your expertise: We're conducting key informant interviews with leaders across sectors. Request a conversation.
Attend a workshop: Join one of our regional or virtual workshops to contribute to the framework design.
Stay informed: Sign up for monthly updates on our progress and findings.
Send Us a Message!
