Case Study: Inclusive Community

“Our community, both individuals and organizations, want to be welcoming and inclusive. We have to be. We recognize it affects the economic sustainability of our community. Where should we start?”

Situation: A coalition of organizations in a small community of northern Alberta invested in making their community more inclusive. Through the joint leadership of their municipal government, the local immigration services provider and the chamber of commerce, the coalition already had the buy-in and interest from other regional organizations.

What We Did: CFRAC’s consulting team had a series of in-depth conversations with the leadership team and co-determined that the first step would be to facilitate a workshop for interested community members and organizations. The workshop established a common definition of diversity and inclusion. Our consulting services also provided for the workshop participants an overview of “promising practices” in municipalities of similar size across Alberta. In the afternoon, CFRAC’s consulting team facilitated discussion groups so participants could identify and prioritize the first steps working towards diversity and inclusion in their community. Our team compiled and analyzed the data to generate themes of recommended action by the community themselves.

Benefits of the Process: The workshop provided an outline for developing a three-year strategic plan for the coalition. Because of our team’s familiarity with the initiative, the municipality also asked CFRAC’s consulting team to develop an evaluation and monitoring framework for the plan that outlined what relevant and accessible data would inform the coalition and community members on the impact of the strategic plan.