Almost every time a city or an engineer completes a project, there are complaints. It’s easy to point out infrastructure choices that seem nonsensical once you’ve learned about the conditions that make places unsafe or uninviting for people — but it’s a lot harder to actually work with your local engineer to change those conditions.

The “doers” of nuSarnia, an advocacy group in Sarnia, Ontario, have adopted an uncommon approach to advocating for improvements in their city: Instead of reacting in anger to things they don’t like, they’ve tried to bridge the gap between themselves and their city’s officials by supporting projects that the transportation department is already working on that do align with nuSarnia’s vision for safer streets.

“So while there are things that we wish we could change, or we wish could be different, there’s enough negative voices out there,” said Tristan Bassett of nuSarnia. “So we always try to keep things positive and supportive where we can.”

Additionally, Bassett said it’s important to not only bring positivity but suggestions as well.