Project Summary
The issue of isolation in relation to social and economic exclusion in urban and rural areas was a regular theme in roundtable discussions attended by community partners from across Central West Ontario between February and December 2002. When considering the lived experience of isolation, youth and seniors were identified as population groups most affected by an apparent breakdown of connections and social supports within communities.
The proposed Project will continue work already started in the first phase of the Social and Economic Inclusion Initiative and will provide a cross-community perspective to explore exclusion issues and create strategies and resources to increase community capacity for action to reduce barriers to participation in local communities. A combination of local and regional processes in the Project will maximize shared knowledge and enable the creation of tools and resources useful for a range of communities.
This unique opportunity is made possible through the collaboration of three Social Planning Councils in Waterloo Region and Brant County: Social Planning Council of Kitchener-Waterloo, Social Planning Council of Cambridge and North Dumfries, and Brant Community Social Planning Council. Using their local knowledge and networks, these partners will engage participation in their respective local communities and bring what is learned in their local processes to a regional level. While there are a number of community partners engaged in this project, West Elgin Community Health Centre has partnered with the three Social Planning Councils to conduct fieldwork in Elgin County.
The Project will begin by compiling information to better understand community context and available resources. This knowledge will be the first of a series of learning cycles tied to three regional learning forums that will provide the foundation for creating resource materials at different stages in the Project.
The Project process will engage youth and seniors, community leaders and community partners in informal discussions at a series of Kitchen Table Talks in Waterloo Region, Brant County and Elgin County. The knowledge gained about system barriers will be used to develop audit tools, indicators and action planning strategies that are based directly on a combination of personal realities and objective community data.
All of what is learned during the Project will be available to communities across the Central West Region for healthy public policy development on reducing isolation among youth and seniors. Materials and resources will be available to provide a wider sharing of knowledge with community partners through print and on-line publications and through hands-on action workshops in the final stages of the Project. The shared knowledge, communication and collaborative involvement will also be the basis for a regional network expected to continue after the funded period of the Project ends.
At the completion of this Project, the three Social Planning Councils providing collaborative leadership for this Project, will support at least one Project in each of their local communities. Thus, the Project will engage, build capacity, develop new collaborative working structures, inspire local action and support continued action in the region to reduce barriers to inclusion.
The following chart outlines how the Central West SEII Project intends to "close the distance" between marginalized populations and the mainstream population, institutions and decision makers.
| Methodology | Outcomes |
|---|---|
| Research on existing programs, resources, tools, strategies, and demographics about the local community context | Community resource inventory and Community Profile |
| Community forums | Content and strategies for kitchen table talks and social inclusion workshops; Community leader engagement |
| Kitchen table talks (informal discussions) | Youth and seniors stories of isolation and connectedness; Youth and senior engagement |
| Social inclusion workshops | Awareness of Youth/Senior isolation and commitment to closing the distance (e.g. impact on municipalities and formal organizations) |
| Resource material development and dissemination | Tools and strategies for use across the Central West region; Website development to maintain communication and information sharing |
| Local project development | One social inclusion project in each of Kitchener-Waterloo,Cambridge, and Brant County supported by local Social Planning Councils |