Time of Change
Wulh ni’ kwelhs uy yek sos ‘o’ thu thi
Cowichan Tribes Comprehensive Community
Planning Challenges
October 2014
Cowichan Tribes is the largest band in BC with 4,800 members
and half of our members live off reserve.
The sheer size of the community created many challenges for
the CCP Team, including community engagement, gaining
community support, and reaching our elders.
The Beginning: 2007 -2008
Our work began with one year of CCDP, ending in 2008.
Some of the challenges were:
• One staff member working on his own: lack of staff
support (one-person team)
• Lack of direction and mentorship
• Consultant driven, not Community Driven
How that Has Changed
• Mentorship Program was put in place and helped
staff move forward.
• More control by staff to ensure that the CCP was
Community Driven.
• New consultants for technical support
• More staff support, support from Chief and Council
and support from Managers.
• CCP Working group was created and included staff,
managers, elders, youth and community members.
Starting again: 2011 to Present
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New Challenges:
Engaging OFF reserve, as half of our members live
off reserve.
Engaging youth, as they are spread out in 7 public
schools, 6 private schools and 3 band schools.
We have 7 villages and it was difficult to engage all
villages equally.
It was difficult to get many members out to
community dinners.
Door to door updates, invitations to events took a
lot of staff time as there are 530 homes on the
reserves.
How We Overcame These Challenges
• Engaging OFF reserve: Interviewing at Tim Horton’s, went to
our off-reserve housing apartments (7) and dropped off flyers.
• Engaging youth: Went to most of the schools and tried to
capture all age groups in different classrooms, and went to
the youth centre and friendship centre.
• Engaging all 7 villages and families: Had barbecues in the
villages, had family dinners, coffee time and went door to
door.
• Low turnout for community dinners: Instead of doing more
community dinners, we piggybacked on other community
events had open houses that included staff and members.
• Door to door Invites: We hired students to go door.
More Challenges
• Lack of continuous Funding which was overcome by applying
for different funding sources.
• Lack of continuity, staff turnover and lack of staff.
• Change of management and supervisors.
• Lack of a champion.
• Challenged by managers tight schedules.
• Not having the consultants at all times- the work became
overwhelming.
More Challenges
• Our Community announced a State of Emergency due to the
climbing rate of suicides. That became a priority for one year.
Our community needed the emotional support for the losses
that they were suffering through.
• Short staffed, team members were unable to move forward in
the work due to illnesses/family dynamics.
• Tragic incident in the community prevented plan moving
forward.
• Presenting to the Chief and Council - removed from the
agenda due to more pressing issues in the community- such
as suicides and deaths.
Gathering information and putting it together
was challenging
• We had so much information from the past
work, and projects that departments were
working on or just completed that gathering
and sorting took a lot of time.
• For example:
Work already being done
Health, wellness and safety:
Embracing Life Strategy (2013 -2014)
Suicide Workshops (2014)
ASSIST program (2014)
Turning Stones Program (2014)
Community Health Plan (2010)
Ts’ewuhltun Health Department Strategic Plan (2012)
Community Mobilization (2013 -2014)
Safety Strategy (2014)
Guardian Program (2014 – Mulaqw Road)
Land, Resources, Community and Governance
Housing Strategy (2014)
Housing Department Apartment Planning (2014)
Land Code (Under development – to be completed in
2016)
City of Duncan Active Transportation Plan (CT
involvement)
TransCanada Highway Corridor Plan (CT involvement)
Annual General Meetings (Initiated April 2014)
Operational Plan (2013)
Human Resources Department Strategic Plan (2014)
Communications Strategy (2014)
Land Use Planning Framework (2013 -2014)
Watershed Board (CT involvement)
Environmental Farm Plan (CT involvement)
Youth, Education and Employment
Youth Recreation Committee
NAIG Legacy Program
Youth Council
Youth Survey (Health) (2012)
Youth Engagement Strategy
Quw'utsun Syuw'entst Lelum Education Strategic Plan
(2014)
Operational Plan (2013) –youth and culture initiatives
Khowutsun Development Corporation (KDC) Strategic Five
Year Plan (2012)
Independent Opportunities Program (IOP) Social
Development Department (2010/Ongoing program)
Education Department (Various programs)
Education Strategic Plan (2014)
Yuthuythut Adult Learning Centre and training program
Data Analysis
• We had a lot of data to analyze, which would
have been impossible for our CCP team to do.
Our consultants, EcoPlan did this work for us.
Issues analysis: Influence diagrams
Issues: Influence diagrams
Issues: Influence diagrams
We combined them…
Issues: Influence diagrams
…then simplified them…
Issues: Influence diagrams
ROOT CAUSE
A BIT OF BOTH
…then conducted some analysis.
SYMPTOMS
Issues & Values
Community (2012
Open House
ranking):
1. Housing
2. Education
3. Health &
Wellness
4. Economic
Development
(i.e., Jobs)
5. Safety
6. Sustainability
7. Self-sufficiency
8. Support for youth
9. Governance
(comm./vision)
10.Infrastructure
Staff (from dept.
interviews- 2011)
• Housing
• Capacity building
• Inadequate/inapp
ropriate services
• Communication/v
ision/leadership
• Budget/funding
• Land ecology and
food connection
Leadership (from
Strategic/Operation
al Plan)
• Housing
• Capacity building
• Quality of service
and programs for
youth
• Communications
Strategy
• Departmental
planning and
implementation
• Culture
• Financial and
administrative
governance
Exceptions: High-priority issues
…then developed
general strategies.
AND WE DID IT
• We completed our CCP Document
• During the process, we completed a Land Use
Planning Framework and atlas
• We started a Transportation and Mobility Plan
• Now we are challenged with filling in the
remaining gaps that we found through the
CCP process
Gaps - Four strategic areas:
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Street safety and mobility
Community-based planning and cohesion
Health and wellbeing
Employment support
Summary of CCP related achievements
Projects supported by CCP
 Housing Strategy
 Embracing Life Strategy
 Community Mobilization and Safety Strategy
 Transportation and Mobility plan
 Community Safety Plan
Capacity Building
 Engagement and planning process
 GIS
HUY'TSEEP'QU