The impact of a rural school’s closure on community resiliency

Abstract

In this study, a community resiliency model is utilized to explore the impacts of a rural school–community relationship and the school’s subsequent closure on community resiliency in the village of Limerick, Saskatchewan. The findings from semi-structured interviews and focus groups indicate that community recreation events and activities, prior to and after a rural school’s closure, have considerable implications for community resilience. In particular, the school–community relationship cultivated community recreation events and activities that displayed residents’ resilience potential. In addition, as a result of the school’s closure, the community’s residents were able to mobilize community assets to develop new community recreation events and activities to recover from the loss of the school. As a result, the residents displayed a number of attributes found in resilient communities. In fact, this study highlights that Limerick’s school helped the community cope and adapt to the school’s closure. This article demonstrates the strengths of rural school–community relationships, the changes that a school’s closure can have on rural community members’ lives, and also specific actions that community members can take to develop and sustain the community’s resiliency.