Action Items:

Establish a working gruop to engage City as a partner in problem solving

Ensure that service providers and low income persons are included. Manage expectations

Need to include youth and seniors in poverty reduction plan

Include local service districts

Involve service clubs, clients and faith community on working committee

Fredericton Social Innovation accept the challenge and request funding from Social Development to address poverty reduction (as one of the 15 local socioeconomic inclusion groups to be funded).

Employment needs to be a part of the plan

Day care issues are very important, need improvement

Threshold needs to be raised so that a recipient of income assistance is never worse off work working- this would be an incentive to move to employment

Cooperation among recipients and community leadership

Lobby city concillors individiually

Need a communication plan at multiple levels, include media on team

Open forum for problem solving on major issues/difficulties

Pressure on city to return bus route to St. Mary's Social Development office

Move ahead on Bill 35 and make it workable

Consult with other jurisdictions for best practices in poverty reduction

Education is key to making sure the public are well informed of the issues of poverty in the City

Need to address myths and inform the public/funders as to how/why/where/when

Obstacles:

Stigmatization of poor and and the notion of deserving/undeserving

Ensure business sector is involved and on board

Must met basic needs first before anything can happen.

Outcome:

Savings as a result of investments in the future

Break the cycle of poverty

Micro finance

Respect

Intergenerational representation

Fredericton to be a champion of Poverty Reduction.

Participants:

• Liz Smith
• Gregory Ericson
• Lindsey Croft
• Ellen Underhill
• Lawrence Wuest
• Gary Glauser
• Mary Astle
• Bridget Beswick
• Penny Ericson
• John Otteson
• Manssoureh Nasserchian
• Ian Culligan
• Bob Fisher
• John Carkner
• George Feenstra
• Myrna Gunter
• Tara Sutherlan
• Fiona Williams
• Douglas Mullin
• Brian Steeves

Participants:

• Mike O'Brien
• Fiona Williams
• John Coates
• Bruce Rogerson
• Ian Culligan
• Ric Cuthbertson
• Penny Ericson
• Olivier Thibault
• Ivana Vukie-Lepir
• Trisha Fournier-Hoyt
• Wayne Tallon

Participants:

• Donna Bowlin
• Mitch Claybourn
• Ric Cuthbertson
• Bruce Rogerson
• Ian Culligan
• Ann Charnley
• Kim Price-Finnamore
• Stephanie Lord
• Stephanie MacEachern
• Shelby Mercier
• Mac MacFarlane
• Claudia Hitchcock
• Trish Mersereau

Action Items:

Establish a Steering Group:

First Meeting: February 27, 9am-11am

Identify Mandate

Identify Facilitator

Judy Coates and Anne Marie Hartford agreed to be interim leaders/coordinators.

Participants:

Judy Coates

Angela Carr

Stephanie Lord

Barb MacKinnon

Anne Marie Hartford

John Carkner

Susanne White

Jill Peters

Geraldine Tibayrenc

Tara Brinston

Lisa Bamford De Grante

Eric Megarity

Trisha Mersereau

Christine Little

Brian Carty

Andy LeBlanc

Garth Duguay

Aimée Foreman

Fiona Williams

- Central source to match volunteer skills with non-profits in need (ie: university pool – students), share resources, create partnerships

- Why don’t we have something? Bricks and mortar or virtual

- Coordinate community fund raising events – calendar

- Educate/groom/develop skills of volunteer organizers

- Link with people in community that need volunteer support (ie: drives for doctors appts)

- Resource for non-profits to find volunteers

- Help citizens to get involved by helping them connect

- Recognize volunteers for their involvement

- Help to integrate people with community

- Centralize training – credentials

- Volunteer Canada for support to get started; look to City Hall as one driver

- Cost benefit analysis to garner support volunteer centre (Enterprise Moncton report)

- Link in corporate support and make connections

- Way for non-profits to help each other out re: peaks

- Connect service clubs

- Coordination

- Issue: Demographic aging shifts, youth involvement not there – how to promote volunteering to develop pool of future volunteers

- Benefit: integrate citizens

- Link to schools – accreditation for students

- Board development – to retain knowledge base

- Draw in schools to support ideals of volunteering; Give them plan they can support

- Volunteer screening centralized

- Fredericton accreditation card

- Will non-profits financially support volunteer centre or self funding

- Strength in funding initiatives through coordinated representation

- Economies of scale: people, resources, purchasing, office space infrastructure (old Y)

- Source for research and share info on best practice

- Source to encourage youth by making it accessible / instant need to plant seeds! Give youth opportunities

- Possible branding option for city … Fredericton – A City that Cares (to give them hook to connect / support initiative)

- Source to support new non-profit to develop education / infrastructure

- ?? How / where other volunteer centres funded??

FSI ~ Open Space Session

Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much"
— Helen Keller

Potential Youth Residence (16-18 year old males)

Feb 20, 2010

In attendance of the session (please refer to the blue sheet)

Membership of the Working Group

(Chair) Jan Smith Fredericton City Police , John Otteson with Social Development, Stephanie MacEachern with Social Development, Mary Astle with Social Development, Shelby Mercer with Youth Choices, Sarah Casey Director of Youth in Transition. This working group is open to membership to any person or organization that expresses an interest in helping with this potential project.

Concept or Vision

The greater Fredericton community recognizes the essential need for housing 16-18 males. The evidence supports the necessity to create a safe place in which homeless or near homeless males can live. It is hoped that we would create a male residence that would be a supportive housing model vs. an emergency shelter. The group made the suggestion that we attempt to create a pilot project that would fill this gap. This would consist of using the Youth in Transition Model, in a four bedroom unit, possibly in the public housing community of Doone St. The host organization would seek both financial and in-kind support, plus apply for HSP (good until March 2011). Key partnerships were already around the table and were all prepared to support this from becoming a concept into a reality.

Initial Actions steps:

1. Establish a working group consisting of the members listed above. Completed, as the first meeting was February 22@ 2:30.
2. Community stakeholders we will seek partnership with the Fredericton regional office of Social Development, specifically the housing division. We need to confirm if they would be interesting in exploring this potential idea further.  Completed, as SD/Housing are willing to sit at the table with us, however they are not prepared to make any commitments  at this infant stage.  The regional housing supervisor will be attending the meeting on March 10, 2010 @ 11:00 am.
3. The Y@R action committee, chair by Constable Jan Smith, will request a follow up meeting with potential partners. A working group will look at developing the actual plan of action while being cognisant of the challenges. Completed, see the meeting date above.
4. The committee will ask the potential organizations if they would be willing to be the host organization. Youth in Transition and Family Enrichment will be approached first since they were at the Open Space event. The committee will also approach the Fredericton John Howard Society and others.
5. The committee would help seek letters of support from key decision makers: Minister of Social Development Hon. Kelly Lamrock
6. The committee will seek letters or acknowledgement of support from service providers on the proposal; TAP/Enterprise, Partners for Youth, Community Shelter, Portage, Community for Action on Homelessness, Youth Advocacy & Ombudsman Office, Community Health Clinic, Mental Health and Youth Choices, Social Development and the Fredericton city police.
7. Provide supporting documentation such as: The New Brunswick Social Inclusion Plan, Connecting the Dots, and support letters from at youth needing this type of housing.
8. Explore with Social Development how this will fit into their new legislation with 16-18 youth. Family Services Act
9. Engage all community stakeholders (early) to diminish the NIMY on this concept.  If the residence is located on Doone St, Mary Astle will take the lead on this.
10. Ask for a letter of support from the FSI.

What is the cost?

This is too early to project a budget on this pilot, as it will depend on many factors including which type of supportive housing model will be used. This model will determine the staffing needs. The budget will also depend on other partners in- kind contributions towards the actually facility (rent, utilities, furniture, food, programming, insurance etc).

Who will fund this?

The working group will help the host organization apply for the HPS grant.  (Funding for up to 50% of the cost). Plus they will help to seek partnership for matching funding. The committee will work with the host organization agency and Service Canada (Alison Pineo).

Time line

These tasks need to be done immediately since the funding through the HPS can only be used to March 2011.

We are aiming this be a one year pilot with an evaluation report completed at the end.

PARTICIPANTS

• Ann Charnley
• Kim Price-Finnamore
• Tara Brinston
• Mitch Claybourn
• Jan Smith
• Sarah Caissie
• Stephanie MacEachern
• Claudia Hitchcock
• John Otteson
• Mary Astle
• Gary Glauser
• Andy Gunter
• Kelsey Patterson
• Marg Dykeman
• Margaret Savidge
• Donna Bowlin
• Brian Duplessis
• Gary Forward
• Bob Fisher
• Alex Forbes

Transportation discussion report:

Constructing a bike-pedestrian bridge on the old Carleton Street piers:

Moon Joyce wil spearhead a committee to work on this, and hold a first meeting by the end of March.

A committee for public education for transportation:

Doublas Mullin, Sebastián Salazar, Brian Carty, Rob Hoadley, Ian Robertson, Stephen Chase.

Liaison with the civic engagement people on transportation issues:

Sebastián Salazar, Rob Hoadley,

Continuing disussion on transportation issues

Marz Trahms, Sebastián Salazar, Bill McIver and Brian Carty

Participants:

• Marg Dykeman
• Anne-Marie Hartford
• Catherine Stewart
• Edee Klee
• Lucy Dyer
• Brian Duplessis
• Andrew Gunter
• Katie O'Shea
• Liz Smith
• Shirley Cleave

CIVIC ENGAGEMENT NOTES

February 20, 2010

Town Hall Meetings/Community Forums

• provide opportunities to bring citizens together to discuss topics of interest
• often people only rally in reaction to something they oppose; need to have periodic meetings to discuss issues/ideas related to city
• should be series, not just individual events, to begin to create a permanent presence in the community
• permanent presence would help keep civility – forum not seen as only chance to speak, etc.
• need structure to initiate town hall meetings
• should be framed in the positive and solution driven
• citizen groups should organize town halls; can’t expect politicians to do so since they often become just gripe sessions, but politicians need to be present to hear ideas/concerns
• shouldn’t become personal attack on leader, but appropriate to hold group accountable
• Market now owned by City – would be ideal location for regular forums
• forums could use a variety of media or take a variety of forms; face to face gathering brings people together & helps to create network/community, but not only option; need to consider use of technology -e.g., social media

Forums Being Planned

1. Women in Politics – initiated by Myrna Gunter

• • Equal Voice – provincial organization that could become involved
  • help women to become candidates
  • need to provide support – financial, moral, etc.

1. Volunteer Involvement as step toward Civic Engagement – hosted by Andy Scott

• • involvement as volunteer can be first step in becoming involved in politics & other forms of civic engagement
  • churches, temples, mosques, etc. good location for meetings & pool of untapped volunteers
  • project based opportunities rather than long term commitments may be more attractive

1. Citizen Engagement by Youth - hosted by Renaissance College students

• March 20, Renaissance College – all welcome

Diversifying Political Leaders

• need to change culture of political process – why would anyone want to get involved in present process
• need citizen groups to identify candidates & support them, not just rely on candidates supported by business interests

Focus on Youth

• Middle Schools  - hold town hall meetings at schools that address issues of importance to students; preparation to participate as adults

Possible Organizational Structure

• consider Saint John Human Development Model

General Commitments by participants

• young people get involved when parents/other significant adults are involved (e.g., read newspapers, vote) and talk about it  - all present committed to being role model for youth as opportunities present
• many opportunities to participate in forums, workshops, etc. – all present committee to at least consider participating and/or encouraging others to do so based on interest

Challenges

• need transformational process; change not happen overnight
• leadership is critical, but need to transform how we think of ourselves as citizens
• not enough to elect progressive leaders; need to provide citizen support
• need to think of 1^st person projects (our project) not 3^rd person (their project)
• hard to get involved in community, especially for immigrants despite claims to want more immigrants (e.g., more international students & Provincial nominee program)
• Who is missing – Aboriginal members; business community, persons living in poverty, new Canadians, neighbouring communities (e.g., New Maryland, Oromocto)
• need to consider appropriate methods to engage others
• need to provide supports for some to participate (e.g., day care, transportation)

Suggestions

• good to start by celebrating successes  & recognizing what is done well
• need inventory of volunteer opportunities/not-for-profit organizations – perhaps City has a role in this
• FredKids good example of citizens taking initiatives to meet their needs
• need better civics education in schools; essential for involvement as youth and as adults
• target senior high and university students – either stay and make Fredericton better or spread out across province/country/world and make contributions there

Volunteers interested in Network for Civic Engagement Forums