Section 3 – Critical Success Factors

The community safety and well-being planning framework is intended to get municipalities, First Nations and their partners thinking in new ways about local issues and potential solutions by exploring options to address risks through social development, prevention and risk intervention. While this may spark interest in beginning a local collaborative planning process, there are several factors that will be critical to the successful development and implementation of a plan.

The following critical success factors should be taken into consideration when developing a plan:

Strength-Based

Community safety and well-being planning is not about reinventing the wheel – it’s about recognizing the great work already happening within individual agencies and organizations, and using collaboration to do experience and expertise. Ontario communities are full of hard-working, knowledgeable and more with local committed individuals who want to make their communities safe and healthy places, and it is important to leverage these individuals when developing a plan. Helpful information and guidance may also be found by talking to other communities in order to build on their successes and lessons learned.

“Community safety and well-being touches every resident and is important to all aspects of our community - from education to health to economic development. It is an area of community planning in which many community members are greatly interested and excited to be involved.” - Lianne Sauter, Town of Bancroft

Risk-Focused

Community safety and well-being planning is based on an idea that has been a focus of the health sector for many years – it is far more effective, efficient and beneficial to an individual’s quality of life to prevent something bad from happening rather than trying to find a “cure” after the fact. For that reason, local plans should focus on risks, not incidents, and should target the circumstances, people and places that are most

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