Linda L' Nosbush

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Lessons Learned About Community
Engagement Mobilizing Our Community to Help All
Our Citizens Realize Their Promise New Horizons
for Seniors March 2, 2005 Ottawa
Linda L. Nosbush Understanding the Early
Years Prince Albert Pilot Site
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The Health and Well-being of our Children Is a
Global Concern As well as a Local Concern
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Understanding the Early Years Study Area
Saskatchewan Rivers School Division No. 119
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Objectives
Understanding the Early Years
National Research Project

• Build Knowledge
• Monitor Progress
• Catalyze Community Action

Phase I - Establishes a baselinePhase II - Is
the knowledge exchangePhase III - Becomes the
comparative data
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The Virtuous Circle
Prosperous Society
Social Stability
Innovation and Competitive Workforce
Resources to Fund Programs that Foster Healthy
Child Development
Healthy Children and Adolescents
Healthy Child Development
Doherty Offord
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How Can We Grow . . . In the Shelter of Each
Other?
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The Collaborative Synergy
Dialogue

• Common, Safe Space
• Share wisdom lived experience
• Make meaning together

• Individuals
• Personal Relationships
• Honour Gifts
• Honour Perspectives
• Empower with Sharing

• Groups/Sectors
• Small Intact Working Groups
• Trust
• Established Working Relationships
• Common Ground
• Valued Contribution

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The Transactional Synergy

• Process
• Knowledge Exchange
• Pay It Forward
• The Geese
• Working Together Differently to Make a
  Difference

• Product
• Policy
• Programs
• Resource Development Deployment
• Various Levels of Aggregation
• Personal
• Family
• Neighbour-
• hood
• Community
• Sectors
• Civic Govt
• Regional Govt
• Provincial Govt
• National Govt

• Transaction
• The way we come together should enable us to
• Go far
• Be better together
• Build a Strong Social Safety Net that will
  enable Positive Outcomes for All

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The Star of Hope, Resilience, Growth, and
Transformation
Dialogue
Process
Product
Transformation, Resilience Hope
Change, Growth,Development Courage
Groups/Sectors
Individuals
Transaction
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Community Influences on Child Development
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Community Factors that Influence Child Development

• The community as a physical environment
• Quality of buildings homes -Traffic
• Land Use Green space - Residential Mobility
• The community as a social environment
• Average income education level - Diversity
• No. of Single Parents - No. of children per
  adult
• Positive social support Antisocial behavior
• Neighborhood safety - Drug Involvement
• Levels of Delinquency
• The community as a resource
• Quantity quality of services education,
  entertainment culture, special interest, health
  wellness, sports recreation, and societal
• Variation of use due to age
• Barriers to Access time, location,
  transportation cost

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Community Factors that Influence Child Development

• The community as a collectivity
• Social cohesion
• Sense of neighborliness
• Extent to which they come together to deal with
  problems
• Willing to help and trust one another
• Share similar goals and values
• Childrens social networks, friends experiences
  in the neighborhood
• Residents may select communities that mirror
  their values
• Certain level of stability required for
  collectivity to develop
• Diverse neighborhoods may have subgroups

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Community Factors that Influence Child Development

• The community working for the common good
• Willing to make investments in their community
  because rewarded individually and as member of
  large society
• Community associations and community activities
• Collective responsibility for children
• Neighborhood Watch
• Programs providing services for children
• Collective efficacy
• Collective socialization

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City of Prince Albert Looking South
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City of Prince Albert Looking from East Flat to
West Flat
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Weyerhaeuser Pulp and Paper Mill Prince Albert
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Wapaweka Sawmill Prince Albert Northern Boreal
Forest
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Kinsmen Park City Of Prince Albert
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The Study AreaCity Of Prince Albert and Area

• Population
• City 40,000
• Study Area 50,000
• By 2020, 50 of the population will be
  Aboriginal
• Mix of First Nations, Métis and other cultures
• Incarcerate about 1,000 people in
• Federal Penitentiary (700),
• Mens Correctional Centre (300)
• The only Womens Provincial Correctional Centre
  (160)
• Youth Facility
• Aboriginal Healing Centre
• Study Area
• 50 square miles

• First Nation Communities
• in study area
• Rural
• James Smith (Cree)
• Muskoday (Cree)
• Sturgeon Lake (Cree)
• Little Red River (Cree)
• Wahpeton (Dakota)
• Urban
• Opawakowcikan (Cree)
• Ethnic
• French
• Ukrainian
• Others
• Woodland Cree
• Plains Cree

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Prince Albert Market Trading Area
Market Trading Area Population 150,000
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City of Prince Albert

• Strengths
• Our ability to work together
• Thriving Economy
• Community Schools
• Good sense of community
• Range of good programs and services
• Integrated Human Services Practicum

• Challenges
• Increase in crime, substance abuse
• FASD
• Sexual Exploitation of Children
• In times of budget restraints, preventive
  programs are often cut
• High teen pregnancy rate
• Poverty (1 in 4 families below LICO)
• 50 of our population has a Grade 12 or less
  education
• Mobility Rate
• Access to Resources
• Quality of Early Life
• Social Index indicates an especially large number
  of children live in high risk neighborhoods

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Building A Framework for Understanding

• We are responsible for
• Opening doors
• Ensuring that these doors stay open
• Helping children to walk through these doors
• Being a role model for children
• Helping children to develop a sense of a
  brighter future

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Building a Framework for Understanding
DoorwaysSwing easily for some are heavy for
others and for yet others they are stuck shut.
Adults and systems need to turn the knob or push
the door open for children.

• Opening Doors to positive developmental outcomes
• Possibilities for our Children
• Human Capital for the Nation
• Assets in the Global Economy

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If we have only one start in life Let it be a
strong one!
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• The Knowledge Exchange
• An interactive process to generate knowledge
  through research and effective practices
• Knowledge is exchanged through interactive
  engagement in a timely and accessible way
• It is used for practice, planning, policy
  making, and the development of new research

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Knowledge Exchange

• Is about causing a community to become
  reflective and consciously aware of who they are
  at various levels of aggregation
• The level of awareness equips a community to
  make informed decisions
• Is an active, evolving process that transforms
  the group at each stage
• A Transformational Process
• Metaphor The Metamorphosis of a Butterfly

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Knowledge Exchange

• Data is interrelated so that it becomes
  information
• The Information is integrated with what the
  community knows (its wisdom) and is then
  internalized so it becomes part of their
  collective Knowledge Base
• Community uses this Knowledge to stimulate and
  generate action including program and policy
  development
• A Comprehensive Community Action Plan is
  generated to guide decisions

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Data The Egg Stage
The data is encapsulated, difficult to permeate,
in a form that is not easily understood.
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Population Distribution
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Most vulnerable children live in middle income
families
(Percentage of Children in Canada)
Family Income adjusted for Family Size
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Information The Caterpillar Stage
Data is interrelated to make it more
understandable it is related to previous
research.
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Infant Mortality Rate
The numbers represent infant deaths
per 1000 live births.
11.4
12.0
8.4
10.0
8.6
8.4
6.1
8.0
6.0
3.5
4.0
2.0
0.0
Prince Albert
Saskatoon
Regina
Moose Jaw
Saskatchewan
Canada
Source Saskatchewan Health (2000)
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Infant Mortality
Out of the 1200 Children Born

• 14 of you will die before the age of 1
• This is almost double the Canadian rate
• This is thirty percent higher than the
  Saskatchewan rate

• Canadian figures suggest
• Injuries 43
• Congenital Anomalies 30
• Sudden Infant Death Syndrome 11
• Other 9

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Social Index
provides a general picture of neighbourhoods
within the broader community and suggests the
number of potential challenges they face
. Unemployment rate . Individual poverty
rate . Proportion of individuals 15 years and
over without a high school diploma . Proportion
of families with children headed by a lone
parent . Proportion of the population speaking
neither official language . Proportion of the
population that immigrated to Canada since
1991 . Mobility in one year . Home ownership .
Proportion of the total income in the EA coming
from government transfer
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Birth Weight Prince Albert Regional Health
Authority 9, 2001

• Total Deliveries 1153
• Low Birth Weight 32 - 3(less than 2500 Grams
  5.5 pounds)
• Average Birth Weight 851 - 74(between 2501 and
  3999 grams over 5.5 pounds and under 8.8
  pounds)
• High Birth Weight 270 - 23

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Community Indicator Scores for Prince Albert
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KnowledgeThe Chrysalis Stage
Synthesizing the information requires integrating
it with your lived experience and background
knowledge.
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Learning Communities

• Invest in core infrastructure
• Network available resources
• Focus on core dynamics
• Timing
• Anticipate consequences

• Keen awareness of external changes that shift the
  equation
• Invest in research and development
• Monitor the Outcomes
• Learning how to keep score
• rather than flying blind

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Putting What Weve Learned into Action

• Share what we learn with the community
• Data Information Knowledge - Action
• Build community understanding support
• Build Capacity and Response-ability
• Develop an Action Plan to improve community
  supports for early child development
• Outlining how the community will take action to
  increase positive developmental outcomes for all
  children

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The Pay It Forward Process

• Process whereby
• The Knowledge and Expertise of small intact
  groups
• Is paid forward to subsequent groups and
• Is used to build a comprehensive understanding of
  developmental health and well-being
• In order to build a Knowledge Action Plan for the
  community

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Pay It Forward MapUnpacking the Cause-Effect
Relationship
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ActionThe Butterfly Stage
Evidence-based decision-making leads to informed
decisions about policies and programs.
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Messages for Intersectoral Work

• A permanent shift in thinking and relationships
  is required if the effort is to be more than
  short term and superficial
• Service integration is a powerful organizing
  principle for meeting needs and challenges
• Service integration demands that providers at all
  levels forge linkages with each other to
  accomplish the results needed based on the needs
  of the clients they encounter
• Design policy around shared goals and carefully
  defined results, not around organizational
  structures or existing function (UK Modernizing
  Government Report 1999)

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Requisites for Effective Partnerships

• Strong champions (leaders) within sectors
• Support on the record from the top (horizontal
  to vertical linkage)
• Partner representatives occupy similar vertical
  positions, that is, they have similar
  decision-making authority within their
  organization
• Community/civic society partners included

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Principles

• Shared Responsibility
• Mutual Respect
• Holistic
• Client-Centred Focus
• Broad Community Participation
• Cultural Affirmation
• Cultural Equity
• Integrated Services
• Prevention Services
• Accountability and Affordability

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Readiness To Learn
Whenever and Wherever people Congregate, Then and
there shall Be the Time, Place, And means Of
their education -OLeary, HRDC, 2000
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I wonder what the future will bring . . . . .
Will I be ready for it?
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The New PovertyHaberman, Harvard, 1993

• Todays poverty is unlike that of the past.
  Children experiencing the new poverty face the
  following
• Growing up without adults they can trust
• Living in communities where violence abuse of
  human beings is high
• Experiencing feelings of despair and lack of
  hope
• Witnessing their familys inhuman treatment from
  the bureaucracies that were established to help
  them
• Resigning themselves to a state of
  powerlessness, being at the whim of some other
  authority outside their families.

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We Live, Love, Learn and Discover our
Human-Being In the Shelter of Each Other

• Action has meaning only in relationship and
  without understanding relationship action on any
  level will only breed conflict (Krishnamurti).
• So often we focus on what we should do instead
  we need to focus on what we should be for our
  children (Neufeld Maté)
• Relationship is a two-way connection for it to
  facilitate development it must be
• Positive
• Enduring
• Reciprocal

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Weve Come UndoneNeufeld Maté, 2004

• In periods of rapid change, groups must
  reconstitute who they are and how they function
  but it takes 100 years to create a working
  culture
• The type of society that supports the
  developmental needs of young human beings is
  vanishing. The cause is not individual parental
  failure but an unprecedented cultural breakdown
  for which our instincts cannot adequately
  compensate. Children need stability, presence,
  attention, advice, good psychic food, and
  unpolluted stories (Bly).

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How does this Happen and Why? Neufeld Maté,
2004

• Mobility interrupts cultural continuity
  incessant transplanting results in
• Children growing up peer rich and adult poor
• Loss of Extended Family who provide unconditional
  acceptance
• The Nuclear Family is under extreme pressure
• Divorce Rates
• Competing Attachments
• Secularization of Society spiritual communities
  provide an important supporting cast for parents
  and an attachment village for children which grow
  out of secure, primary attachments
• Recreation and many other activities for peer
  group thereby distancing intergenerational
  contact and support
• Immigration
• Powerful economic dynamics
• Two parents working
• Loss of the family meal
• Culture is eroded in its capacity to
• Evolve customs and rituals that serve attachment
  needs
• Games are an instrument of culture

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What is the Effect? Neufeld Maté, 2004

• Attachment Voids are created situations where
  the childs natural attachments are missing, and
  they are dangerous precisely because they are so
  indiscriminate
• Children hunger for relief from attachment void.
  Attachment instinct is blind to such factors as
• Dependability,
• Responsibility,
• Security,
• Maturity, and
• Nurturance.
• The likelihood of an attachment becoming an
  affair is much greater when it is born of a
  void instead of an existing attachment.
• Peer attachments are safest when they are the
  natural offspring of attachments with parents.
  Frequently, they are born of disconnection rather
  than connection. Then, attachment
  incompatibility results and the child must choose
  one or the other
• If we do not recognize what binds us together, we
  cannot understand what tears us asunder.

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Our Behaviour Effects

• Our Learning
• How We Interact With One Another
• How We Form Relationships

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What are the Results of Working Together In
Community?

• Education
• SchoolPLUS
• Readiness to Learn at School
• Health
• Population Health
• Human Services Integrated Practicum
• SAFE Community Status
• Social Services
• Child Protection
• Under 12 Strategy for Crime Reduction
• Early Learning and Care Ministerial Committee
• Justice, Corrections and Public Safety
• Crime Reduction Strategy
• Drug Strategy
• Detoxification Community Centre
• Civic Government
• The State of the Children Address
• Neighbourhood Report Cards
• The Dirty Dozen

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Family Enabling Society






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man Capital based on
Program Evaluation, Monitoring,
Social Inclusion
long learning
Collaboration
And Research
-
life
Hu
Four Corner Posts

Doug Willms, NLSCY 2002
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Watch over us. Wrap us up against the cold and
the rain, and give us shade from the hot sun.
Make sure we have enough to eat and drink and if
we are sick, nurse and comfort us.

- Castle, C. Lynch, P. J. For Every
Child
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We live, love, learn, and develop our human-being
in the shelter of each other.
Can we each go forth to make Canada a place where
all can, not only survive, but thrive?
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A human life is a work of art than can reach
eternity. Each life has the ability to touch
other lives, which in turn touch yet more lives.
And so, person by person, generation by
generation, a world and a future are shaped
(Kinkade, 1999, p. 232-233).