Together, let's mobilise and measure our Municipal, Provincial and Federal elected officials & Governments
On September 4th 2023, after 3.5 years of development, Resident has finally been launched for limited release.
You're reading this as you've been carefully selected to participate in our Friends & Family limited release.
To participate, simply download the app for Apple iOS, for Android, or visit our Website to create your very own account.
What is Resident ?
Resident is a new kind of Social Media platform. It's built by residents for residents. Our goal is to empower Canadians to mobilize their governments.
Being part of a, and helping improve a successful democracy is much more than voting for our Elected Officials every couple of years then hoping for the best until the next election.
There are apps to have someone show up at your front door at a moment's notice to drive you where you want, bring you anything you want to eat, or deliver you any item you could think of ever wanting within a day.
Resident is the app to make sure that your governments and their appointed representatives are delivering what they committed to deliver, and what you need, in a more visible, transparent and on-demand manner than was ever possible before.
What we stand for
- We are the sum of our co-constituents, which we call Residents
- Our platform is and always will be free to use for Residents and Elected Officials
- We bridge the gap between you, citizens and co-constituents with the governments you've constituted, and the elected officials you've elected to manage your governments
- We'll guide our participating Governments to moderate the Posts they are tagged on in the news feeds so that Resident's posts are always addressed, followed-up and acted on.
- We facilitate and centralize all of your communication needs, with your elected officials and ministries, from all 3 levels of government, in one central place.
- We'll never share or sell any information from any of our co-constituents for financial gain or other reasons
- We'll never serve ads on the platform, or monetize our co-constituents for financial gain
- We represent no cause other than an improved democracy. We are are not, and will never be a politically affiliated organization.
- Our revenues are generated solely from the Governments who opt to use the platform's premium features.
We'd love your feedback
If you're reading this, it's because you've been invited to be among the first Canadians to;
- Download the app (or use the web version)
- Create your account
- Be associated to your very own electoral districts
- Municipal (currently 4,333 online in Canada)
- Provincial (currently 722 online in Canada)
- Federal (currently 338 online in Canada)
- Be associated with your very own
- Governments (currently 3,497 online Canada)
- Elected Officials (currently 23,133 online Canada)
- Ministries (currently 306 online in Canada)
- Create Posts (read below for instructions that)
- Resident Chat with your Officials & Governments (read below for instructions)
- Visit the Menu/Support section to;
- Chat with us, our support team will answer you on the spot, don't be shy!
- Submit bugs, our technical team will solve them quickly
- Submit ideas, we'll pave the way for the program's future together
Help us shape our future
Of course, we know that things aren't quite as perfect as we'd like them to be in the limited release, and that's why we've invited you. We really need your help to identify
- Bugs (things which don't work quite right)
- Irritants (things you find cumbersome of superfluous)
- Improvements (things you feel are in the app, but could be better)
- Ideas (things you don't see in the app, but think should be added)
If you want to Chat with us live at any time, you can do so from the app, or, by clicking here
What do I do next ?
Download the app for Apple iOS, for Android, or visit our Website to create your account.
Communicate with your Elected Officials and Governments. Engage on our unique social media platform. Here's how you can get your message across on Resident;
Create Posts
At the bottom of the app (or 'What's on your mind on the website), there is a Blue + button. That's where your journey starts. Once you click it, you'll be prompted to make two choices before you can actually create your post
1. Select the Post type you want to create
Posts on the Resident Social Media newsfeed are meant to be actionable, not just open ended opinions. For this reason, and to help ensure your Governments and Elected Officials know how to respond, you, must select from one of the 4 following post types;
Questions
This is the option to select if you just have a question, and are looking for a clear, honest, accurate and truthful answer.
Requests
If you find yourself in need of a service, such as your city forgot to pick up your garbage, or if you need to report a power outage from a provincial power authority, or if you need something from any federal agency.
Suggestions
Is there something you'd like your tax dollars to be invested in ? A park near your home ? A new idea for a housing development project ? A new tax reform idea ? If so, this is how to get your ideas across. Your co-constituents can like and comment on your suggestions, and your Elected Official can promote your suggestion to a Proposal if they choose, which will then allow all of your co-constituents to officially vote on it, building the case for your idea to go forward.
Appreciations
Even a broken watch tells the time correctly twice a day. No matter how frustrated you may be at times with the way things are, it's important to underscore those successes. By posting appreciations, you'll be giving a well deserved 'pat on the back' when things go right, and gratitude is warranted. A balanced relationship must underscore victories as well.
2. Select your level of Government
To make sure your posts are directed to the right place, you'll be prompted to select to which level of Government your communication is aimed towards. You can select from the following;
Your City
Select this level of government when your post is regarding municipal topics. This can be things like building permits, zoning questions, parking tickets, potholes, snow issues (in the winter), or anything else you'd normally want to communicate to your municipal government.
Your Province
If your communication is relating to things such as healthcare, education, housing, drivers license renewals, or other matters of that nature, select your province. If you're not sure what you may want to communicate at the Provincial, you can select 'My Governments' in the Resident app, then choose 'My Province' and tap on 'Ministries'. Look at how many there are, you're sure to find one that would be interesting to engage with.
Your Country
We don't think about communicating that often with our most distant, yet not least important level of government, our federal government. Don't be shy, your Members of Parliament would love to hear from you (we know, they've told us). Similarly to the provincial level of Government, go see all of your Provincial ministries, you'll be sure to find some inspiration there too.
Once those two choices are made, then you write your content, add your pictures, set location settings, then be prompted to set these final settings before creating your post.
Tag your Elected Officials
By selecting the level of government, the Resident app has already tagged the elected officials assigned to you at that government. The head of government as well as your electoral district representative. You can choose to tag others as well, or untag those which were automatically tagged. If they haven't already created their Resident user account (as an Elected Official, which we take care of certifying), they'll receive an email containing your post content, inviting them to download the Resident app, create their account, and respond to your post.
Tag your Ministries / Ministers
If your post is aimed at your provincial or federal government, you can even tag from one of their ministries, in the even that you feel your post is relevant to one of them particularly. This will also automatically tag the Minister(s) appointed to lead this Ministry, who will be invited to respond to your post.
Set your Post Audience
One last step before submitting your post. Be sure to set the audience you want. There are 3 audience types;
Public
This is the default setting. Everyone on the Resident platform will be able to see, like and comment on your post, including of course elected officials and governments.
My Government
Select this setting if you'd rather that your post only be seen by the government to which you've targeted your post, as well as their employees and elected officials. This is practical when wanting to discuss matters which may be regarding more personal subjects, or in cases where topics include municipal issues concerning neighbours.
Me only
This audience allows you to set your post so that no one but you can see it. This may be useful not initially when making the post, but in the event you make a post which you want to hide from public view later on.
Resident Chat with your Officials & Governments
If you want to converse directly with your governments and/or elected officials, you can look them up, and initiate a direct chat with them by clicking on the Resident chat icon on their profile page.
If the Elected Officials / Governments you are initiating Resident Chat's with are not yet active on the Resident platform, they'll receive an email containing your Chat request, inviting them to create their Resident account so they can respond to you.
Note that Resident Chats with Elected Officials can be made public by either party, unless the Elected Official sets that the chat stay private.
Be sure to stay respectful and ensure that what is discussed is no different that if it were being discussed openly in a town hall type of setting.
This feature was created with the value of Transparency in mind. When dialoguing with our Elected Officials, we're having a conversation with a public representative, and therefore no conversation should be considered privileged or confidential on the Resident app.
Chat with us!
We've been tirelessly working on Resident for nearly 4 years. We really hope that you'll accept this invitation to download the app, and Please do chat with us by going to the Menu/Support/Chat with us section. Or, visit our extranet and chat with us there.
We can't wait to hear from you!