SMT Business Services Inc. understood the purpose of this project to be:

• to undertake a Community Social Needs Assessment and Employment/Training Needs Assessment, and to provide recommendations to address identified issues.

SMT Business Services Inc. understood the four main objectives of this project to be as follows:

• to define and assess specific needs related to the overall health of the City of Camrose
• to identify current, emerging and future needs and trends
• to increase awareness of existing challenges, and associated programs and services
• to develop a strategic planning framework that lays the groundwork for actions that will address the identified issues

The following sets out the results and outputs that SMT Business Services Inc. anticipated from this project:

• a comprehensive report setting out the activities and process involved with the project and the resulting findings and recommendations

• an environmental scan of the community

• a statistical poverty profile

• an inventory of the existing Social Services Network

• a baseline assessment of the social needs of the residents of the City of Camrose including housing, transportation, child care needs, youth needs, senior needs, disabled needs, and family needs

• a description of how these needs are currently being met

• an inventory of unmet needs which identifies the nature and extent of the gaps between existing programs and the needs/desires of the residents

• a scan of similar communities in other jurisdictions to identify potential models for addressing gaps

• a summary of current and future trends and patterns that may impact on the community and the specific stakeholder groups

• a summary of any issues emerging from the process that were not part of the original mandate

• recommendations with respect to the data collected, gaps, emerging issues, current and future trends and patterns, and action steps

• enhanced understanding of needs and challenges of the stakeholders

• two (2) presentations of the report to stakeholder groups as desired by the Steering Committee.

Projects undertaken by SMT Business Services Inc. have involved a cooperative working relationship with the Steering Committee and the Project Coordinator. SMT’s approach is usually a practical one in which the Steering Committee contributes expertise with respect to the Community and its background, while SMT brings the expertise, and the consultation, research and planning skills to bear on the project.

SMT’s approach to developing comprehensive and effective recommendations encourages “buy-in” from internal and external stakeholders, decision-makers, and community members; and promotes the enthusiasm, understanding and commitment needed to implement the resulting recommendations. This approach usually includes supporting the Steering Committee or Implementation Team in its presentation of the findings at the community level, as identified in the deliverables/outputs component of the project-specific proposal.

Following are the five phases of the proposed methodology used by SMT Business Services

Inc.:

· Phase I:                     Design of the Framework

· Phase II:                    Primary and Secondary Data Collection and Analysis

· Phase III:                   Development of Findings and Recommendations

· Phase IV:                   Presentation of Preliminary Report

· Phase V:                    Submission of the Final Report.

 

The Steering Committee was coordinated by Gary Gibeault and included:

• Denis Beesley, The Bethany Group

• Mary Durand, Councillor City of Camrose

• Ken Flater, Community at Large

• Gary Gibeault, City Manager City of Camrose

• Wendy Gregg, Camrose & District FCSS

• Garth Horton, Alberta Human Resources and Employment

• John Howard, Gardner College

• Ina Nielsen, Councillor City of Camrose.

 

In keeping with the process set out in the draft framework, and agreed to by the Steering Committee, data were collected in a variety of ways including key stakeholder interviews, random telephone interviews, group discussions, and questionnaires. As the data was collected it was validated to ensure an accurate reflection of the community’s needs and issues. Emerging issues that may not have been anticipated have been identified for review by the Steering Committee.

A review of a variety of documents and reports was conducted. This review provided an overview of the trends and patterns in the area and the resulting issues. The listing below sets out the types of information and sources accessed:

• Annual reports of various community-based and regional support services

• Recommendations from the Beyond Economic Growth: Building Health Communities Conference

• Alberta 2002 Future Summit

• AUMA Housing Policies Report

• What Is Health Report by Headwaters Health Authority

• CMHC Sustainable Planning Workshop, and models, best practices

• Rocky Mountain House homeless initiative

• Cochrane Housing Initiative

• New Brunswick Housing Initiative

• Westarc Seniors Helping Seniors Initiative

• No Safeguards: A Profile of Urban Poverty in Alberta

• CCSD: Statistical Profiles of Urban poverty in Canada

• National Council on Welfare: Poverty Profile 1998 and 1999

• Grande Prairie Social Housing Project, and Youth Initiative Reports

• City of Edmonton Low Income and Special Needs Housing Strategy

• Social Planning: A Community Meeting -Camrose October 1999

• People Patterns Trends and Patterns 2000

• Rural Youth: Stayers, Leavers and

• City of Camrose Strategic Plan

• City of Camrose reports on housing and transportation

• City of Camrose Census 2001

• City of Camrose housing statistics

• Alberta Recreation Survey 2000

• What Works Alberta newsletters

• Statistics Canada year 2000 taxfiler data for Camrose

• Statistics Canada reports, census data, studies

• Prepared for Growth, Building Alberta’s Labour Supply, October 2001

• the Riley Guide: Preparing for a Job Search

• The Road Ahead Labour Market Trends and Realities

• Central Alberta Labour Market Review

• AHR&E Labour Market Trends

• AHR&E 2001 Annual Alberta Labour Market Review

• AHR&E Labour Force Statistics April 2002-05-25

• HRDC Emerging Sectors and Occupations

• HRDC Occupational and Sectoral Profiles

• Alberta Economic Development Sectoral Profiles

• HRDC Key Economic Factors

• HRDC Overview of Outlooks by Occupation

• HRDC Overview of Labour Market Trends

• Statistics Canada - Perspectives

• Statistics Canada Recent Releases

• Countdown to Future Shortages in the Canadian Labour Market

• Return Migrants 2000

• Youth in Transition Survey 2002

• Statistics Canada - Infomat

• Municipal data and information

• Municipal business directories

• Home Based Business Outlook

• Small Business Statistics

• The Future Workforce and the Future Worker

• Decline in Youth Participation Rate Since 1990

• Canadian Federation of Independent Business Needs Assessment Surveys 2001

• Portrait of Small Business 2000

• Canadian Business Labour Market Survey

• Small Business Needs Assessment - Industry Canada 2001

• Future Knowledge 2001

• USA Employment Forecast

• Monthly Economic Reviews

• City of Edmonton 2001 Workforce Connector

• summaries of industry-specific studies developed by sectoral councils and industry organizations

• profiles, etc. of all partners, supporters, enablers

• myriad of websites, web pages and research data

Table A1 sets out the consultation activities and the results of the process.

In the course of completing any project successfully, barriers and issues arise. Those occurring in this project include the following:

• detailed year 2000 Statistics Canada data not currently available

• statistical information with respect to actual current numbers and historical data not always readily available from service providers.

A comprehensive draft report documenting the activities and setting out the findings and associated recommendations was presented to the Steering Committee. It is the usual practice of SMT Business Services Inc. to present the draft report in a workshop format with the anticipated purpose of:

• reviewing the key findings and recommendations contained in the report

• providing the Steering Committee with an opportunity to discuss same as a group

• summarizing the ideas/feedback resulting from the discussion and identifying priority issues

• advancing notional plans for dissemination and presentation of the information.

The Steering Committee chose a different path, preferring to review the document individually and as a group and to submit their feedback to SMT Business Services Inc. via email. Recognizing that there may be some value in discussing questions re: the report, a representative of the Steering Committee did have conversations with the consulting group to clarify questions and perceptions.

SMT Business Services Inc. usually assists in the development of the material that the Steering Committee will present, acting as a resource during such presentation. Although SMT did provide an electronic copy of the August 27th presentation, the Steering Committee seemed inclined to develop their own material, and to present the findings and recommendations to Council on their own.

SMT Business Services Inc. reviewed the feedback from the Steering Committee re: the draft report with Steering Committee Member Wendy Gregg, and consensus on the amendments to be made was reached.

Upon completion of the review of the draft report, the Steering Committee requested that SMT Business Services Inc. assist in the development of the two key presentations.

The physical deliverables including 25 bound copies of the final report package, one unbound copy of the final report package, and an electronic copy of the final report package as per the proposal were delivered to the City of Camrose within 5 days of receiving the Steering Committee’s feedback.

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