The Good Ideas Group's objectives for the 1999 Stories from the Front were to:
This year the Stories from the Front was organized as an opening to the Provincial Ontario Healthy Communities Conference hosted by Woolwich Healthy Communities. We could support the Woolwich group by getting the word out locally for the provincial event. We also hoped that having a provincial event in our Region would help with raising the profile of Healthy Communities to the benefit of all local collaborative and initiatives.
With assistance for printing from the City of Kitchener and from the range of partners active in the Good Ideas Group, we were able to distribute 9,000 notices of these events. We attended council meetings for most local municipal councils to bring both the invitation to participate and information about Healthy Communities. We were successful in getting local participation for both of these important events.
Just over 100 people attended the 1999 Stories from the Front. Citizens young and old were there as were many local politicians. People came with interest stemming from their professional lives, neighborhood issues, as well as from environmental and economic development concerns. The feedback from those who participated in this event was positive, but we know the story is young.
Meeting, being able to communicate with each other and developing a common vision are only starting points. Our ongoing challenge will be to work in partnership and build bridges from our common values and priorities. Fundamental changes to the infrastructure of our communities' social, physical and economic environments may be necessary to realize our common vision. Our health and the health of our community is ultimately in how we live our day to day lives and how the community structures we create support us in those common places and in our common sense needs from birth to death.