Instead of farming out St. Albert’s social master plan to some private consultant, the city has taken a unique approach to its development — relying on the public.
In his update to city council on the status of the city’s next master plan, Scott Rodda, director of Family and Community Support Services, described how local residents have grabbed a hold of and are driving its development.
“Their leadership has been remarkable. Some have been doing lots of research the last six months on social master plans all over the world,” Rodda told city council Monday.
The plan, approved in the 2012 budget, recognizes that municipalities can and should act on different factors that determine the social wellness of the community, addressing issues such as homelessness, seniors, youth and families, among others.
Citizen feedback has been crucial to the process – hundreds of residents and local groups that provide social services have taken part in forums and other conversations to identify what social themes are important to St. Albertans, Rodda said. But those same participants have also led interviews and group conversations, performed research and will write the bulk of the final report, due in the first quarter of 2013.
“We’ve really tried to step back and say, ‘How can we get the community involved?’” Rodda said in a later interview. “It really has a strong presence in the community. We’ve had a lot of residents step up and become passionate about this. It really does have a flavour of being community-driven.”
Young people have also become a significant part of the process. Besides participating in open houses and workshops, several youth were trained as facilitators to help guide conversations in subsequent discussions.
“One of the real successes is we did spend some time training residents, especially youth, who turned around and hosted a lot of these conversations,” Rodda said.
Throughout the consultation process, four common values emerged – residents want a sense of belonging, to know their neighbours, to provide feedback in civic decisions and participate in community activities.
There are also 12 other themes, ranging from housing, homeless and poverty to volunteerism, drug addiction and family violence, as well as support for seniors and those with developmental disabilities.
The next phase will involve developing strategies to address each theme, which Rodda hopes to shape in a positive, rather than negative tone.
“Rather than talk about poverty or homelessness, and those are important issues, is there another way we can talk about inclusivity, treating people with dignity and respect and reflecting diversity? Some words might speak to principles that we hold important.”
Council was supportive of the work so far, but Mayor Nolan Crouse called on higher orders of government, such as the provincial and federal governments, to do more.
“Imagine 400 municipalities in Alberta and the provincial and federal governments saying, ‘There will be no bullying,” Crouse said. “I think there has to be stronger public statements by leaders.”
