Community Table Sub-Group Meeting
Community Capacity Building and Civic Engagement
Participants: Lisa Petch, Clara Freire, Suzanne Doerge, Naini Cloutier, Robin McNeil, Abid Jan, Valerie Stam, Antoinette Chibi
Absent: Hamdi Mohammed, Don Sucalit.
Discussion.
Clara Freire provided the background, context and objective of the meeting, quickly recapping the need to look into the best practices with regard to capacity building and civic engagement and coming up with ideas for a network of agencies and experts working on civic engagement and capacity building to share strength and abilities and best support the work at the grassroots level whether that be in the communities of interest or the communities of belonging.
It was highlighted that all partners were doing great work, However, there was need for some kind of mechanism to build necessary skills of the community developers, community activists and other frontline staff to sustain the work of civic engagement.
Participants were asked to share their experiences, ways to working for capacity building and civic engagement and best practices.
Naini Cloutier share the "Safe People" project run by PQ for cross cultural education, community organization, self-care, effective lobbying beyond the neighbourhood. This is a sixteen week activity that is covered through 12-16 3-hour sessions.
Antoinette shared CAWI's civic engagement approach, whereby they train 5 women per centre/neighbourhood through a series of workshops and build their skills for public consultation, deputation. The participants are provided with tools and skills on how to approach media and do effective lobbying. In the latest training session, 30 women were engaged through five CHRCs where a staff member from each of the centre (mostly community developers) played the role of mentors for the participants.
Robin McNeil shed light on the Leadership Ottawa's 9-month-long training program and its approach of pulling participants from public and private sector and build their potential to be a force for good in the world. As a result, LO is trains 50 non-positional leaders a year, who identify connectors. Community connectors and he interlocking networks are additional assets that support the community development and civic engagement.
Valerie Stam shared the community developers' perspective and the discussion that the CDers' coalition had about the capacity building and civic engagement. She highlighted the special professional development need of the CDers. There is enough skill building support at the CHRCs level but there is not good enough targeted support for their capacity building needs. The CDers also felt the need for broader networking and effective connections to the decision makers and councilors which they hoped will take place as a result of the CDF work.
Conclusion:
After lengthy deliberations and sharing of experiences, the participants came to the conclusion that the work of capacity building and civic engagement is closely intertwined. Community leaders, community activists and the front line staff of various agencies come to mind when we talk about capacity building. Similarly, when we discuss civic engagement, we feel the need to build capacity of the same actors.
Capacity building of community members and front line staff, and effective outreach to residents were identified as the key areas for effective civic engagement. The participants agreed over the need to develop two training packages: one for the frontline staff and the other for potential community leaders and activists. OCISO, CAWI, LO, PQCHC, CDer's Coalition and United Way were expected to experiences, knowledge, tools and best practices to develop the proposed training packages, which will support and sustain the civic engagement work as well as strength the CDF in the existing and future neighbourhoods.
The proposed training packages will consist of various modules, covering best practices and various perspective and approaches to effective community engagement and mobilization. The training could be offered in series or as an all-in-one package. Clara also suggested making one of the partner agencies as the lead on financial and program coordination for the next phases of the proposed work. Decision on this suggestion as well as content, process and other micro-management issues are to be made in the next meeting of the sub-group that is scheduled for June the 25th at 1:00 pm at the City Hall.
© 2008-09 City of Ottawa and Partner Agencies
Collaboration, Coordination, Community Participation and Leveraging of Resources
