SECA purchased 60 chairs with the help of donations and sponsorship from Home Depot locations and distributed them across the community in parks, along pathways, beside 8 Little Free Libraries – LFL (previous Activate YYC grant), on a condo patio that is open to the public, by the tennis courts, and in a temporary dog park. 

The colour of the chairs happened to be a colour in their logo which was a happy surprise. The group had a work day to stencil “#SECAchairs” onto the front of each chair, and numbered each chair. The CA then recruited 18 “Chair Observers” to watch and record on a Google Sheet where the chairs moved through the month of September. Some chairs didn’t move at all. Some chairs moved frequently. They were able to learn the patterns that will inform future placemaking work in the community.

SECA had requests for chairs from at least 3 individuals. They also received requests from residents of other communities – which gave a chance to educate people about CAs and the community boundaries.

“I think our community members have a better opinion of SECA now. They perceive that we are doing good work. We’ve been doing great work for a long time but this project was universally appreciated. We didn’t receive one negative comment which is pretty amazing”, said project lead Lynn Jobe.

The community now understands how powerful relatively small changes can be to the sense of community connection.

One resident mentioned, “You know, I would never sit next to a stranger on a bench but I did sit next to a stranger in the chairs and we talked. Chairs are different”. This phenomenon was mentioned in many conversations.