Neighbourhood Strategy
The City of Kitchener has been instrumental in supporting the creation as well as the progression of the Forest Heights Food Forest since its initial start. Through the Neighbourhood Strategies the City of Kitchener has supported many grass roots initiatives across Kitchener. The Edible Forest Heights Committee members spent long hours planning and coordinating events etc with the city. We are grateful to live in a city that supports citizen initiatives.
Kitchener Rocks!
Kitchener’s neighbourhood strategy will help people connect and work together to do great things in their neighbourhoods.
Massive public engagement process complete
One of the most unique community engagement processes the City of Kitchener has ever delivered is now complete. Many people – including a lot of people who aren’t typically engaged in city consultations – provided deep and meaningful input in these diverse ways:
1,308 people spent 65 hours drinking lemonade and completing a survey at 27 events in 2015
Street team interview with family 400 people spent 1,000 hours talking neighbourhoods at the Neighbourhood Party in April 2016.
1,093 people spent 182 hours being interviewed in “street teams” at 86 locations this summer
408 people spent 408 hours participating in 35 focus groups this summer
961 people spent 39 hours commenting online through a survey, ideas forum and on social media
111 people spent 222 hours providing input with neighbourhood associations and other community partners
600 people spent 150 hours sharing their perspectives in a statistically-valid phone survey
134 people spent 268 hours identifying the red tape that limits people from acting on neighbourhood ideas
310 people spent 620 hours testing and practicing placemaking at 9 different sites throughout the city
18 members of the Neighbourhood Strategy Project Team spent 888 hours guiding the creation of this strategy at 53 project team and subcommittee meetings.
Add it all up, and that’s 5,343 people and 3,842 hours of conversation dedicated to the making of a Neighbourhood Strategy. That’s like talking neighbourhoods for 160 days straight!
Check out some of the unique places and groups we connected with on this fun map, which shows just how diverse and inclusive our engagement was.
With so much thoughtful input being provided by the community, we’re taking our time to fully understand people’s input and develop recommendations to be included in the Neighbourhood Strategy.
A draft of recommendations will be available for public comment in November, with the final strategy being presented to City Council in early 2017. Get the recommendations when they’re released straight to your inbox by signing up for email updates.
In the meantime, check out our vision for the Neighbourhood Strategy in our Top 10 Frequently Asked Questions about the Neighbourhood Strategy.
