Creating Buy-In

In order to ensure that each community member, agency and organization understands what community safety and well-being planning is, and to begin to obtain buy-in and create partnerships, municipalities, First Nations and their partners may choose to start by developing targeted communication materials. They may also wish to meet with and/or bring together service providers or community members and take the time to explain the community safety and well-being planning framework and important concepts and/or get their feedback on local risks. Designing a visual identity and creating marketing and/or promotional material may also help to obtain multi-sectoral buy-in and allow community members to identify with the plan.

See Tool 4 for guidance on engagement.

Focusing on Risk

Engaging community members and service providers to document risks is the first step. The range of risks identified will be dependent on the sources of information, so it is important to engage through various methods, such as one-on-one interviews with multi-sectoral service providers, focus sessions with vulnerable groups, and/or surveys with public drop boxes. Risk identification and prioritization is the next task that should be done by looking at various sources of data and combining it with feedback from the community.

See Tool 4 for guidance on engagement and Tool 5 for analyzing community risks.

Assessing and Leveraging Community Strengths

Achieving a community that is safe and well is a journey; before partners involved in the development of a plan can map out where they want to go, and how they will get there, they need to have a clear understanding of their starting point. It is important that community members do not see community safety and well-being planning as just another planning exercise or creation of a body. It is about identifying local priority risks and examining current strategies through a holistic lens to determine if the right sectors, agencies and organizations are involved or if there are overlaps or gaps in service or programming. Some communities may find there is a lack of coordination of existing strategies. To address this they should look at existing bodies and strategies and see how they can support the development and implementation of the plan. Other communities may discover that there are gaps in service delivery, and should do their best to fill these gaps through, for example, the realignment of existing resources. As every community is different in terms of need and resources, it is recognized that some communities, such as some First Nations communities, may experience difficulties identifying existing strategies due to a lack of resources. It may be of value for some communities to collaborate with neighbouring municipalities and/or First Nations communities to create joint community safety and well-being plans. For example, where capacity and resources are limited, or many services are delivered across jurisdictions, communities can leverage the assets and strengths of neighbouring communities to create a joint plan that will address the needs of the area.

See Tool 3 for guidance on asset mapping.