The Role of City of Grande Prairie Community Social Development (CSD)

The City of Grande Prairie FCSS program is administered by the Community Social Development (CSD) department in partnership with the Government of Alberta. CSD’s purpose is to enhance the social well-being of individuals, families, and the community, by investing in prevention programs. CSD is committed to working with skilled community stakeholders from many sectors to identify ways in which collaboration and coordination can connect our web of support and transform our social safety net into a system that truly supports the people who need it.

In 2011, the City of Grande Prairie – Community Social Development’s Social Sustainability Framework stated, “In order for a community to function and be sustainable, the basic needs of its residents must be met. A socially sustainable community must have the ability to maintain and enhance its own resources and have the resiliency to prevent future problems.”2 Building a socially sustainable community requires diversity, belonging, and equity in our city.

• Diversity: We recognize, respect, and celebrate the diversity of our citizens. We engage in learning opportunities about our community and extend those same opportunities to our citizens. We welcome newcomers to Grande Prairie, whether they arrive from elsewhere in Alberta, from other provinces, or from other countries. We commit to purposeful engagement with Indigenous Peoples in our community, and in each area of our programming.

• Belonging: We engage in an ongoing process of building shared values within our community. While we come from many different backgrounds, we recognize and value the experiences and contributions of all our citizens. We face our challenges and embrace our opportunities together.

• Equity: We desire equitable opportunities and outcomes for all residents. We pay attention to the contributions and needs of all our residents, especially our most vulnerable. Making this a reality means recognizing the importance of lived experience in social planning and community development. It also means recognizing that our most vulnerable citizens will require more support from our community to build on the social, economic, and physical assets they bring.

These dimensions of sustainability can best be summed up in the concept of social inclusion, “the ability of an individual, or group of individuals, to participate in the social and economic lives of their communities and to have their contributions acknowledged. It also involves access to tools…that enable participation and a set of shared rights, values and responsibilities that bind people together in a cohesive society.”3

The Social Sustainability Framework 2018: A Map for the Road Ahead which guided our work from 2019 to 2022 will continue through 2023 to 2026 with a change to the overarching priorities. The second investment priority in 2019 - Community Capacity and Collaboration is now the mid-term outcome of social inclusion.

Csd System Planning And Integration Efforts

CSD is taking a lead role in improving community safety and well-being by coordinating and collaborating with key stakeholders to develop a standardized process that service providers can follow to improve the service delivery of social supports for individuals in need.

“Many of the issues faced by individuals and families in our community are not simple problems, but complex challenges with converging factors. Challenges like homelessness, poverty, mental health issues, addictions, and substance use, all intersect and solutions to these challenges require the involvement of multiple agencies, institutions, funders, and those with lived experience working together to achieve common goals and outcomes.” 4

In the winter of 2019, CSD initiated designing and implementing an Integrated Coordinated Access (ICA) Model unique to the needs of Grande Prairie and area residents. ICA is a process where service providers work together to ensure those in need find the right help at the right time using a “no wrong door approach”. CSD engaged in three months of community consultations and determined the barriers to accessing services can be summarized in the following themes:5

• Physical Access

• Coordination and communication between agencies

• Organizational capacity (consistency and equity)

CSD is committed to working with community stakeholders to identify new innovations in which collaboration can transform existing systems to address emergent community issues and barriers to participation. Solutions offered by community stakeholders lead to the development and ongoing implementation of the following initiatives, branded the Grande Prairie and Area Community Compass:

• The System Navigators Collective, a mechanism to integrate all service providers regardless of sector or target population.

• System Mapping by maintaining a real-time assets directory with HelpSeeker Technologies

During the process, we included:

• The impor tance of aligning with the City of Grande Prairie’s strategic goals and priorities.

• The prevention continuum to effectively prevent vulnerability and increase resiliency, all three forms of prevention must occur simultaneously.

• Updated the existing Social Sustainability Framework 2018: A Map for the Road Ahead and created this FCSS Funding Framework 2023 to 2026: Investing in Social Inclusion to guide funding decisions.

Transforming our system and aligning our priorities will not be easy. “The challenges faced by Grande Prairie are complex and multi-faceted, and system-level change will require coordination of internal and external stakeholders. Collaboration and coordination at the community level are essential to building a sustainable future for Grande Prairie.”6