What is Social Development?
Social Development is a broad term that describes actions that are taken to build positive outcomes and prevent negative social outcomes that can adversely affect a community. These outcomes include issues ranging from crime, poverty, gang activity, school disengagement, teen pregnancy, addictions and substance abuse, obesity, and poor health.
The aim of social development is to improve the availability of support systems in the community that prevent negative outcomes before they occur or buffer (lessen) their impact. For example, rather than reacting to a crime after it has already happened, measures are taken within the community that prevent crime from ever occurring.
Good prevention starts with parents before they have children and very directly once conception has occurred. Evidence suggests that negative environments not only affect pregnant mothers but can very directly alter the architecture of the brain of the unborn child. These events and circumstances forever change the pathways of development and ways of interacting with the world and the people in it. In other words, adverse events and circumstances affect a child’s capacity to learn, their behaviour and their health.
Recent research has suggested that there is a 17:1 return on investment in the early years for vulnerable children and a 1:8 return for the remainder of the population.
Social development is about creating environments that enable children and youth to thrive and not merely survive.
Social Development and the City of Prince Albert
In 2007 City Council adopted a strategic plan that identified social development as one of seven strategies for Council and Administration to implement for the term of City Council.
Municipal governments are traditionally expected to provide basic municipal services such as garbage collection and snow removal. Although the City of Prince Albert maintains that issues of social development are reserved for the Provincial and Federal levels, the prevalence of negative social outcomes in Prince Albert has demanded that a particular role for the City be established.
Since the creation of the 2007 strategic plan a social development role has been carved out for the City of Prince Albert
With a network of non-profit organizations, government service agencies, and individual community volunteers dedicated to the mission of social development in Prince Albert, the City found that the most appropriate role would be in providing resources that would enable organizations to work together. This would improve coordination by bringing together people and organizations with common purposes and help the community to develop a seamless weave of supports and services funded by provincial and federal governments.
All too often our citizens ‘fall between the cracks.’ The strategic plan acknowledged that an orchestration role was critical for all these supports and services to work together to enable positive outcomes for all.
In order to do this, an evidence base must be established to help the community understand themselves and begin to differentiate causes and effects. The goal of the strategic plan was to help the community become more proactive by working to change the systemic causes of poor learning, health and behavioural outcomes rather than just reacting to the outcomes themselves.
Working from this principle, the position of Social Development Manager and a Division within the Community Services Department was created. The objectives of this division fall into two specific categories:
- Develop and maintain networks in the community and, when possible, provide the partnership development resources necessary to these organizations to ensure that Prince Albert is offering the best level of social development services possible. This includes monitoring efforts to eliminate duplication and overlap of services, identifying service delivery gaps, and capitalizing on partnership opportunities.
- Conduct research and compile information on a city-wide basis that will provide an integrated evidence base required for all levels of government to make informed decisions on policy, resource deployment, funding, and program delivery.
The Social Development Plan
Prince Albert City Council has adopted a strategy aimed at 5 pillars of social development and activity. They are:
Addictions and Substance Abuse
Early Childhood Development
Food Security
A community is food secure when all people at all times have physical and economic access to food that is safe, sufficient, nutritious and culturally acceptable.
Homelessness and Housing
Youth
These areas were chosen in part because they can have a significant impact on supporting positive outcomes and preventing negative social outcomes in Prince Albert. They were also chosen in part because there would be a great benefit achieved by coordinating the strong organizational base that Prince Albert already had in these areas.
Other activities of the Social Development Division include:
- Support the work of the Race Relations and Social Issues AdvisoryCommittee
- Act as secretary to the Committee
- Support the work of the Coalition of Municipalities Against Racism and Discrimination (CMARD)
- Arrange for John Riley from Edmonton to speak to the Committee and to the Regional Intersectoral Committee (RIC)
- Help to develop the infrastructure to support the initiative
- Report the progress on the Ten Common Commitments Support the work of the New Immigrants to Canada working group, and
- Continue as an advisor to the Urban Aboriginal Strategy Steering Committee.
Reports
See a comprehensive list of all reports that have been produced for the Social Development Division.
For further information, please contact:
Greg Zeeben
Director of Community Services
Phone: (306) 953-4800
E-mail: gzeeben@citypa.com
Related Links
What is Social Development?
Social Development is a broad term that describes actions that are taken to build positive outcomes and prevent negative social outcomes that can adversely affect a community. These outcomes include issues ranging from crime, poverty, gang activity, school disengagement, teen pregnancy, addictions and substance abuse, obesity, and poor health.
The aim of social development is to improve the availability of support systems in the community that prevent negative outcomes before they occur or buffer (lessen) their impact. For example, rather than reacting to a crime after it has already happened, measures are taken within the community that prevent crime from ever occurring.
Good prevention starts with parents before they have children and very directly once conception has occurred. Evidence suggests that negative environments not only affect pregnant mothers but can very directly alter the architecture of the brain of the unborn child. These events and circumstances forever change the pathways of development and ways of interacting with the world and the people in it. In other words, adverse events and circumstances affect a child’s capacity to learn, their behaviour and their health.
Recent research has suggested that there is a 17:1 return on investment in the early years for vulnerable children and a 1:8 return for the remainder of the population.
Social development is about creating environments that enable children and youth to thrive and not merely survive.
Social Development and the City of Prince Albert
In 2007 City Council adopted a strategic plan that identified social development as one of seven strategies for Council and Administration to implement for the term of City Council.
Municipal governments are traditionally expected to provide basic municipal services such as garbage collection and snow removal. Although the City of Prince Albert maintains that issues of social development are reserved for the Provincial and Federal levels, the prevalence of negative social outcomes in Prince Albert has demanded that a particular role for the City be established.
Since the creation of the 2007 strategic plan a social development role has been carved out for the City of Prince Albert
With a network of non-profit organizations, government service agencies, and individual community volunteers dedicated to the mission of social development in Prince Albert, the City found that the most appropriate role would be in providing resources that would enable organizations to work together. This would improve coordination by bringing together people and organizations with common purposes and help the community to develop a seamless weave of supports and services funded by provincial and federal governments.
All too often our citizens ‘fall between the cracks.’ The strategic plan acknowledged that an orchestration role was critical for all these supports and services to work together to enable positive outcomes for all.
In order to do this, an evidence base must be established to help the community understand themselves and begin to differentiate causes and effects. The goal of the strategic plan was to help the community become more proactive by working to change the systemic causes of poor learning, health and behavioural outcomes rather than just reacting to the outcomes themselves.
Working from this principle, the position of Social Development Manager and a Division within the Community Services Department was created. The objectives of this division fall into two specific categories:
- Develop and maintain networks in the community and, when possible, provide the partnership development resources necessary to these organizations to ensure that Prince Albert is offering the best level of social development services possible. This includes monitoring efforts to eliminate duplication and overlap of services, identifying service delivery gaps, and capitalizing on partnership opportunities.
- Conduct research and compile information on a city-wide basis that will provide an integrated evidence base required for all levels of government to make informed decisions on policy, resource deployment, funding, and program delivery.
The Social Development Plan
Prince Albert City Council has adopted a strategy aimed at 5 pillars of social development and activity. They are:
Addictions and Substance Abuse
Early Childhood Development
Food Security
A community is food secure when all people at all times have physical and economic access to food that is safe, sufficient, nutritious and culturally acceptable.
Homelessness and Housing
Youth
These areas were chosen in part because they can have a significant impact on supporting positive outcomes and preventing negative social outcomes in Prince Albert. They were also chosen in part because there would be a great benefit achieved by coordinating the strong organizational base that Prince Albert already had in these areas.
Other activities of the Social Development Division include:
- Support the work of the Race Relations and Social Issues AdvisoryCommittee
- Act as secretary to the Committee
- Support the work of the Coalition of Municipalities Against Racism and Discrimination (CMARD)
- Arrange for John Riley from Edmonton to speak to the Committee and to the Regional Intersectoral Committee (RIC)
- Help to develop the infrastructure to support the initiative
- Report the progress on the Ten Common Commitments Support the work of the New Immigrants to Canada working group, and
- Continue as an advisor to the Urban Aboriginal Strategy Steering Committee.
Reports
See a comprehensive list of all reports that have been produced for the Social Development Division.
For further information, please contact:
Greg Zeeben
Director of Community Services
Phone: (306) 953-4800
E-mail: gzeeben@citypa.com
Related Links