A Leadership Ottawa Report

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A Leadership Ottawa Report
Governance from the Bottom Up
A remarkable story of community engagement that
will be brand new to most in the audience, but
will ultimately touch every single person who
lives and works in Ottawa. It will change the
governance model of municipal politics. It may be
one of the primary solutions to holding municipal
spending in check. And it may cause everyone at
all levels of government to rethink how they
design and execute programs.
Robin McNeill, Sheila Whyte Josee
Loudiadis
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Leadership Ottawa
A Leadership Ottawa Report
Not for profit organization Tenth anniversary
next July Nine-month program to develop community
leaders 24-28 leaders per program Cross-sector
participation - public, private,
not-for-profit, immigrant, self-employed Two
programs per year Next program starts in April,
applications being processed now
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A Leadership Ottawa Report

• Governance from the bottom up
• Why is it necessary?
• Whats the solution proposed for Ottawa ?
• Whats making it happen in this city?
• How does it work?
• How will it impact us at this conference?

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Why its necessary?

• Problems with current top-down model
• Massive fragmentation, inefficient distribution
  of resources
• Focus on isolated problems / symptoms
  non-integrated approach
• Paternalistic system encourages dependency
• Costs and burden on taxpayers are UNSUSTAINABLE
• The top-down model will BANKRUPT OUR CITIES

Service Provider B
Service Provider A
Service Provider C
Community C
Community B
Community A
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Whats the proposed solution?

• No Community Left Behind (NCLB)
• Bottom-Up flips the typical service delivery
  model
• Sustainable - provides community leadership
  manpower
• Smart investment - forces harmonization across
  providers
• Systemic -- improves full range of community
  health indicators

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How big is NCLB?

• 86 Neighborhoods
• One million residents
• One neighborhood at a time

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Whats making it happen?

• Cross Sector Leadership
• Acknowledgement that something isnt working
• Commitment to a bigger purpose
• New shared belief system
• Partnerships/ownership across sectors
  - 14 CHRCs, City, United Way, Community
  Foundations of Ottawa, Service Agencies,
  Leadership Ottawa, Community Leaders and
  Associations

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Proof Point South East Ottawa(Banff Community)

• Increased, sustained and collaborative community
  and law enforcement involvement to fight crime
• Reduction in crime rate
• Reduced feeling of insecurity
• Clarify prevailing misconceptions about the police

Very Safe Safe Unsafe Very Unsafe
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Proof Point South East Ottawa(Banff Community)

• Collaborative process of service providers and
  community
• Youth involved in positive and skill building
  activities
• Trusting relationship between parents, youth
  workers and police
• Removed fear that kids will be bullied, harassed
  or under the influence of negative role model
• Youth mentorship, youth survey, youth council
• Tenants organized for the first time in many
  years
• Launch of Neighborhood Watch

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No Community Left Behind

• First 4 Neighborhoods
• 1. Overbrook
• 2. Little Italy
• 3. Bayshore
• 4. Carlington
• Starting NOW
• How does it work?

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Pilot Banff-Ledbury
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Step 1 Form Steering Committee

• Community service provider representatives with
  decision power brought together in a steering
  committee (police, school board, tenant
  association, rec centers, etc)
• Steering committee members acts upon finding in
  a integrated manner
• Working group are resources that initiate and
  support (in manpower) the NCLB program. They
  initiate the steering committee.

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Introducing Community Connectors

• Connectors are
• people you naturally trust,
• who know lots of people,
• who get things done, and
• who always act for the common good of the
  community

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Step 2 Community Assessment

• Identify concerns and available resources
  (connectors, service agencies, programs)
• Steering committee develops approach/plan (info
  available, to be collected, etc)
• Working group develops/conducts survey, plan
  focus groups and inventory of resources
• Serves as benchmark for measuring progress

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Step 3 Form sub-committees
Identify top priorities, objectives and
responsibilities (Strategic Plan) Put together
planning team/teams/sub-committees with
representation from all stakeholders
(Operational Plan)
Process concerns, available resources, assets
and programs
Issue 1
Issue 3
Issue 2
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Step 4 Prepare Action Plan
Identifying available and required resources
Preparing issues/areas of concern-specific plan
Moving from community needs to critical
priorities Linking critical priorities to goals
and objectives Developing the implementation
plan and an evaluation matrix Share final action
plan with steering committee for
approval Forward issues related to system level
for system level action planning
Approve final action plan Resolve issues
forwarded by sub-committee related to system level
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Step 5 Implement Action Plan
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City Level Involvement

• Citywide community development framework

City Leadership Tables
No Community Left Behind Coordinator
Action Plans
Resources
CHRC 1
CHRC 2
.
Steering committee 1 Steering committee 2 .
Steering committee 1 Steering committee 2 .
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• Overbrook South Neighborhood Project

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Current Neighborhood - Overbrook-Forbes
Middle Class Community west of Parkway
Ottawa Housing
Ottawa Housing
Selected Community Ottawa Housing Community
172 Ottawa Housing Units
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Overbrook Neighborhood
Source Ottawa Police Services Crime Analysis
and Statistics
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Overbrook Neighborhood
Source 2001 Census
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Overbrook Neighborhood

• Concerns about
• drug dealing, youth drug use, crack houses
• prostitution on Queen Mary Street
• gang activities
• violent crime
• vandalism
• safety in NCC park
• infrastructure
• traffic issues (speeding)
• Risk Factors
• poverty
• drug use
• Perceived lack of police support in area

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Overbrook Neighborhood

• Large Ottawa Housing Communities
• Local Tenant Association dysfunctional as no one
  want to take on the area.
• Overbrook-Forbes Community resource Centre tried
  to divide the area into 4 smaller communities.
• These have petered out and the other is barely
  striving.

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Community Involvement So Far

• Community Council of Overbrook
• Lobby city
• Organizes meetings with agency (e.g. police)
• Suggested to establish interest groups to follow
  policy suggestion for enhance safety and security
  (failed in the past)
• Overbrook-Forbes Community Resource Centre (CRC)
• Active community developer
• Leverage on-campus food back to attract people to
  services

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Timeline
Working Team Brought Together
Community Assessment and Connectors
Implementation
Nov
Dec
Jan
Feb
Mar
April
May
June
July-Dec
Neighborhood Level Planning
Forming Steering Committee
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Working Group

• City community development framework has a
  community development coordinator (CDC)
• CDC kick starts process with the community
  resource center
• Around the table initially
• Local community developer (CDC)
• Program manager (CDC)
• Executive director (CDC)
• Leadership Ottawa
• Team expected to grow
• Ottawa housing association rep
• Community Council for Overbrook

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Steering Committee (draft)

• Invitees
• Ottawa Policy
• Ottawa-Carleton District School Board
• French School Board
• Community Council of Overbrook
• Ottawa Community Housing Representative
• CRC
• Local City Counselor
• Etc
• Expectations
• Will engage with the community
• Has decision power
• No representation from residents initially

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Finding Connectors

• Top Down vs Bottom Up Approach??

Bottom-Up
Top Down

• Aboriginals community center
• Arts Culture library, theater, music store,
  concerts, newspaper
• Business chamber of commerce
• Community Groups community health center,
  community centers, legion
• Government federal, provincial, municipal,
  ex-city
• Health hospital, clinics, drug centers
• Immigrants OCISO
• Recreation rec centers, bingo, arena,
• Religious church, mosque, synagogue
• Schools ottawa/catholic/french boards
• Security Police
• Seniors Old homes, retirees
• Youth Early years Center, Boys Girls Club,
  Kiwanis, Big brother/sister

• Door-to-door during assessment
• Community Dinners (invitation)
• Focus Groups (invitation)
• With local venues

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Linking Working Groups
Best Practices Shared by Leadership Ottawa Team
Independent Community Structures and Plans
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Help us See the Future
How will these new neighborhood structures
influence (1) your work in private or public
sectors, (2) your lives as citizens?