Pilot Phase of Community Planning Final Report

Quick Links: Project Objectives | Collaborators & Partners |
Resources, documentation & learnings | Community Documents |
Observed Similarities | Conclusions from Pilot | Envisioned Phase II

Summary of Project Objectives

Falls Brook Centre received support from Rural Secretariat and Fundy Model Forest to carry on a Pilot Phase of Community Planning in which the following objectives were achieved:

1. Carry out asset mapping from Nackawic to Perth-Andover of the built, social, and natural environment. We did 5 sessions; the first was a champion meeting (meeting of community leaders) for the whole region at the Falls Brook Centre, the second was an action planning session held in Nackawic, the third was an asset mapping workshop in Perth-Andover, the following one was in Hartland and the wrap-up session for the whole region was held at Falls Brook Centre.
2. Measure, document and share learnings, tools and practices which will be developed during the course of the project by disseminating information through local networks, holding workshops, providing tours, working with educational institutions and other means of public exposure.
3. Explore potential and existing governance models that can be further developed and researched, and hold community discussions to modify this model so that it has useful applications.

The St. John River Valley Initiative runs from Nackawic to Perth-Andover, whose economic history has been driven by the forestry and potato farming industries. In addition, there are clusters of economically viable organic farms and small businesses.  The region has had some serious economic setbacks but also has some strong assets to dust off, and upon which to build resiliency. The community understands their lack of resiliency and the need to reinforce local assets to secure their future in the eventuality of further economic uncertainty and crisis.

The Community Asset Mapping initiative gave participants the opportunity to investigate and describe their home community and dare to dream about a productive future; from that articulation of assets and values follows action and implementation.
The Phase I and the future Phase II of this project aims to encourage and facilitate communities in taking their future into their own hands. The ultimate outcome of this capacity-building process is to empower communities by giving them the tools to develop greater resiliency.

During the Pilot phase the main points of discussions were to identify community strengths and there threats. They tried to understand and underline how our rural areas are failing, how our economies are struggling and the reasons why we are losing our young people.  People spoke about how much they appreciated the forum to share ideas, to learn what other communities are thinking and to feel a sense of hope for future about their communities.  We were encouraged to take on this role for our region and to make things work!
We have engaged a number of community leaders, developed a network and now we can work with them to continue and further develop this project

Quick Links: Project Objectives | Collaborators & Partners |
Resources, documentation & learnings | Community Documents |
Observed Similarities | Conclusions from Pilot | Envisioned Phase II

Collaborators & Partners

Below are the organizations and businesses which we have been in contact with and who have demonstrated interest in this project.
Enterprise Carleton, Committee Against Transfer of Crown Land Allocation, Town of Perth-Andover, Nackawic, Hartland and Woodstock, Meduxnekeag River Association, Carleton-Victoria Christmas Tree Producer Association, Tobique First Nation, Canadian Organic Maple Company Ind., Harvey Lumber Ltd., AGFOR Inc., Hope Seed & Perennials, Rural District Planning Commission, Perth-Andover Recreational Commission, Metapra Associates Inc., Early Intervention Program, Speerville Mill, District 14, NB Department of Education, Valley Solid Waste Commission, Carleton-Victoria Vocational Board Inc. and New Brunswick 4-H. 

Quick Links: Project Objectives | Collaborators & Partners |
Resources, documentation & learnings | Community Documents |
Observed Similarities | Conclusions from Pilot | Envisioned Phase II

Resources, documentation & learnings

The second objective of the project was to develop tools and resources to facilitate networking and future planning. These tools will allow community members to analyze their current status, identify opportunities, and help adapt to the dynamic nature of today’s challenges.

The report from your asset mapping workshop and student survey results contain valuable inputs, recommendations and feed back to help your community adopt a vision and direction for the future. The reports from the other workshops are also an excellent tool to see what other communities have as assets and threats and to appreciate what solutions they are considering to manage their issues. For example, we have identified that Perth-Andover wants to extend the town’s land use and that Hartland has just finished a land development plan, their issue being the limitation of the town’s land. Also, we would like to draw your attention to the similarities we have identified along the valley. We hope that communities will share their learnings so that other communities don’t have to re-invent the wheel. We are all facing similar challenges and we are encouraging all participants to continue to get involve in this project to enhance networking for better planning in the whole St. John River Valley.     
Participants from the champion (community leaders) meeting of Dec 14th asked us to gather youth’s inputs about their community assets which we did by carrying out a survey targeting grade 12 students in five high schools from district 14. The district accepted the survey and we sent them out to Southern Victoria High School in Perth-Andover, to Hartland Community School of Hartland, to Woodstock High School in Woodstock and we to Carleton North Senior High School of Bristol. We sent surveys to Nackawic High School and we are still waiting for these results. We asked the students what community assets they cherished, what kind and level of implication they have in their communities and what their future plans were. This school year had a tight timeframe because of all the canceled school days due to snow storms. The school district is more than willing to do a follow up and to join our project with some projects they are doing. We will be meeting with them in the near future to discuss the possibilities. If your community has any inputs on this aspect of the project, please let us know. The full reports are available on our website.

Here are the resources for your community to use as planning and network tools:

Quick Links: Project Objectives | Collaborators & Partners |
Resources, documentation & learnings | Community Documents |
Observed Similarities | Conclusions from Pilot | Envisioned Phase II

Observed Similarities throughout the Valley Region

This was only the first step, the connections with communities revealed that all are yearning to initiate change at the local level and begin to build from their understanding of assets over their deficits. From the discussions, we have identified key assets, threats and possibilities that need to be further developed by the proposed project. Many similarities were identified between targeted communities along the St. John River Valley.

Here are the commonly cherished assets along the three regions:

1. The St. John River and its tributaries, with their potential for recreation, education and economic development including fishing and hunting.
   
2. Small businesses with growth potential as an economic asset including local food and farms.
3. The existing infrastructure, including recreation facilities specially the public services such as the schools and the hospitals.
   
4. It was underlined at three sessions that the valley has an aging and retiring population that should be an asset to build upon.
   
5. The whole region was identified as being important gateways to the US and national parks, lake systems and natural reserves (Mount Carleton, Grand Lake and Spednic Lake and protected area)
6. The new highway is definitely an asset for marketing but can be a threat to tourism assets for some regions.

This process permitted the participants to make recommendations to support and keep those community assets strong:

1. Need to develop and better use the networking and governance structures that exist. The members of these structures should meet and have information sessions with public more often to discuss different issues and to strengthen the communication, coordination and promotion process. For example, one participant from Hartland said: “Develop networking structures and better connection with the LSDs (Local Service Districts) to promote and develop the entire area.”
   
2. Find ways to attract highway users into the surrounding communities to boost marketing and tourism possibilities.
   
3. Increase availability of local products and businesses and promote niche markets in Carleton-County. In all three workshops it was envisioned to develop a local directory for local goods, services and businesses. This is a tool for local networking and to inform tourism of what and where can be found local assets.
4. All three visited region want to develop a tourism strategy. The St. John River Valley Tourism Association is a great tool for developing tourism.
   
5. All community identified centralization of services and general globalization as major threats to the sustainability and resilience of their communities.

The above inputs are what we hope will form the basis of a common vision for the future of the St. John River Valley. While we are available to provide resources and assistance, this vision must be realized by the initiative of a large diversity of community members. We aim to help you and facilitate you through this process. 

Quick Links: Project Objectives | Collaborators & Partners |
Resources, documentation & learnings | Community Documents |
Observed Similarities | Conclusions from Pilot | Envisioned Phase II

Conclusions from Pilot Initiative

The keystone issue in building sustainability is empowerment of community members to take responsibility for their own development and building the capacity for action. It is crisis (or the threat of crisis) which galvanizes action. The wrap-up session identified three directions for movement.

1.    Community Asset Mapping was carried out in Nackawic, Hartland and Perth-Andover. This project has only explored the surface.  There are many more assets to be identified and mapped.  There was agreement that this is an initiative that should continue. 

2.   The talk turned to the lack of local government in a great deal of rural communities. Perth is a good example of an organized community and they have a municipal socioeconomic infrastructure that works well. It was mentioned that the LSDs (Local Service Districts) are existing structures that are falling apart. They should be reinforced or reorganized.
Our networking and discussions with community members revealed the possibility for a governance model called “Rural Community”. This concept is discussed amongst Keswick Ridge and the "border" area from Jacksonville to Meductic and other communities in the province. Participants are asking us to do further researching about the potential of this considered option and to include this model in the discussions and network.
      It was also proposed that all LSDs (Local Service Districts) should get together and develop networking capacity. And that the governance model should have at its core rural planning in the direction of community resiliency for economic sustainability and emergency preparedness. 

3.   There was general agreement to gather all isolated directories and build an electronic directory with maps to identify niche markets, small businesses, services and other useful community assets. For this purpose it would be great if all interested communities would build a directory to contribute.

Some of the community members made the point that the emergency preparedness/resilience approach from Burtts Corner was the "hook" to engage people in asset mapping because it is very specific and it directly touches people’s lives.  We felt strongly that this would open the door to the larger issue of communities which are sustainable in every respect.  This is a point that should not be lost because the session participants understood that doing something that everyone recognizes as valuable is the way to build civic engagement. Strategic planning and visioning sessions have their place but they do not retain participants after the initial experience.  Concrete projects do.
The Pilot Phase was a process to begin to build and learn from community people and what they valued in their areas, what assets they perceived they had and how to harness those assets for a sustainable future and in valuing our Acadian Forest region. This process introduced optimism and established some basic guidelines for governance, asset mapping and accessing resources.

Quick Links: Project Objectives | Collaborators & Partners |
Resources, documentation & learnings | Community Documents |
Observed Similarities | Conclusions from Pilot | Envisioned Phase II

Envisioned Phase II

The proposed project will take these realizations to the second stage by building upon the network of the initial stage to strengthen local community’s empowerment. These local networks will allow communities to identify and build upon the identified common assets, thereby rallying around a common goal. As we engage more communities in the network and planning of local initiatives, they will build capacity in self realization and sustainability.

The communities who participated in the asset mapping exercise have indicated a desire to move further with the process and to build upon the results of the initial planning sessions. Interest amongst community leaders is high and there is a thirst for more efforts in the areas of planning and connecting the St. John River Valley communities. Through our case studies we realized how crucial it is to follow this project to maintain the momentum we build with the pilot phase and in moving the communities forward in taking action on the recommendations determined through the asset mapping exercises. The proposed project will mobilize the incentive, encourage community engagement, add to and use the tools and resources previously developed.  

Being attentive to the fact that establishing learnings and networks are the first step to action. Change is a longer process that requires a capacity building phase. Establishing leadership and asset mapping are important starting points for each community. There is local governance in place but engaging wider community participation is the key to success.

There is a need to move forward with this initiative. We are preparing a “Phase Two” proposal that moves the original work done to an organized community based effort designed to implement changes and establish more capacity to lead and sustain a resilient future.

This is a critical success factor for this type of initiative. We have introduced optimism and established some basic guidelines for governance, asset mapping and accessing resources. We need to be there as communities move to initiate change at the local level and begin to build from their understanding of assets over there deficits.
We are working on a follow up project submission and your contributions are and will be crucial in describing further steps and goals to carry on this process.

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