WE LIP Success Story – January 2020
On December 3, 2019, the Windsor Essex Local Immigration Partnership (WE LIP) held its Winter Council meeting at École secondaire de Lamothe-Cadillac. A component of the meeting included a Community Conversation on the development of a Regional Community Safety and WellBeing (CSWB) Plan.
In 2018, the Provincial Government amended the Police Services Act, requiring every municipality in Ontario to create a Community Safety and Well-Being Plan. In November 2019, Windsor City Council authorized the Commissioner of Community Development and Health Services to work in collaboration with Windsor Police Services and the County of Essex and its partners, in the creation of a regional Community Safety and Well-Being Plan.
A CSWB Plan will be grounded in the recognition that complex social issues cannot be addressed in isolation. CSWB planning will use a strengths-based approach to ensure that existing community assets and resources are leveraged to inform and develop integrated service delivery strategies for prioritized risks.
Throughout 2020, the CSWB team will strive to meet with representatives from across multiple sectors, agencies and organizations to help with the identification of local risk factors. These community consultations will occur to identify factors such as risks and community assets in order to inform the prioritization process. The identified factors will be examined in relation to existing community programs and initiatives and prioritized as system and/or municipal issues.
Ultimately, the goal of CSWB planning will be to develop a sustainable plan with a focus on safety and the social determinants of health. The risk factors and recommended courses of action will be incorporated into a regional CSWB plan. The plan will be brought to Windsor City Council and Essex County Council for approval and next steps before the end of 2020. This was the first consultation held on the CSWB initiative. The goal was to draw from the experiences of the WE LIP membership to get a better understanding of how community safety and well-being is viewed from the ‘newcomer lens’.
Facilitated by Leonardo Gil, Community Safety and Well-Being Plan Project Manager, information was provided on the CSWB planning framework.
The conversation activity tasked the 46 council member attendees to reflect on, discuss, and provide responses to the following 6 questions:
- How would you personally define Community Safety?
- How would you personally define community well-being?
- In your experience, how is community safety and well-being understood among the newcomer population?
- Are there programs or processes which you think are working especially well with newcomers? Please elaborate.
- Are there either gaps in programming or barriers which make it difficult for newcomers to access programs? Please elaborate.
- Are there either gaps in programming or barriers which make it difficult for newcomers to access programs? Please elaborate.
WE LIP Success Story – January 2020 – Community Conversation: Community Safety & Well-Being Planning
Download a PDF copy of this Success Story here:
