The City of St. Albert is undertaking a formal assessment of local social needs, with hopes of identifying where city- and non-city-operated programs and services are falling short.
The assessment, which is the first its kind since 2012, could result in significant program changes through Family and Community Support Services (FCSS), says Connie Smigielski, a senior manager in the city's community services department.
“We try to do them at minimum every 10 years and the timing is right to do one now,” Smigielski said. “Post-COVID there's been a lot of needs identified through economic and social pressures so it'll just give us a blueprint of where our programs (and) services need to be maybe adjusted or focused on in the coming years.”
A key aspect of the assessment is the 27-question public survey the city launched last week, which will be open for responses until May 18. Many of the survey questions look to gauge how and why residents access social services such as affordable housing, the food bank, and more, and what may be preventing residents from accessing needed services.
The survey also asks residents to rank social issues by perceived level of importance in order to see which issues residents want the city to focus on moving forward, such as adult education, housing security, or poverty.
“One of the things that we know to be true today is domestic violence is an increasing issue in communities and we may hear that we need to do more prevention focused work around domestic violence,” Smigielski said as an example of what services could change as a result of the assessment. “Food insecurity is a big issue and we may need to do some more prevention efforts around food security; mental health is a big issue, we may have to increase our efforts around mental health; so it's based on what we hear.”
“We'll pivot based on the feedback that we get.”
City staff will also be meeting with and interviewing representatives from various local social organizations as part of the assessment, Smigielski said.
If residents are unable to complete the survey online, members of the project team will be hosting ‘pop-ups’ throughout the city over the next three weeks for people to complete a physical copy of the survey, and ask questions.
Pop-up dates and locations include April 29 from 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. in St. Albert Centre; May 2 from 3:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. in St. Albert Place; May 4 from 4:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. at Servus Place; May 5 from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. as part of the Mental Health Walk at Lions Park, and more.
“If residents just want to come into our office and to any of the social organizations, there'll be a paper copy and we can work through that survey with residents,” said Smigielski.
The results of the survey will be posted to the City's cultivate the conversation platform sometime after May 18, she said.
The 2012 social needs assessment was used to develop the city's first Social Master Plan (SMP), which has been in place since 2013.
According to the SMP, the five most important social issues identified by residents in 2012 were housing, access to health care, addictions, bullying, and safe neighbourhoods.
Meanwhile, social organizations and service providers surveyed in 2012 identified housing, addictions, transportation for seniors, access to health care, and mental health services as the most important issues to focus on.
