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NEIGHBOURHOOD DECISION MAKING
Presentation to Ontario Parks Association
What is Neighbourhood Decision Making?
• A specific type of engagement process where residents
propose and vote on how to spend a pre-determined portion of
the municipal budget
• It is used across a range of international jurisdictions although
the scale, level of funding and program design varies greatly.
• It is also known as Participatory Budgeting
Purpose:
The purpose of this program is to engage, empower, and
connect residents by bringing neighbours together around
community-driven projects that enhance and strengthen
their neighbourhoods.
Background
• 2008 City of London staff (Neighbourhood Children and Fire Services
lead) engaged over 100 residents on a task force to define “Strong
Neighbourhoods”
• The belief behind this work was that “residents are the heart of
change in neighbourhoods”
• Developed the London Strengthening Neighbourhoods Strategy and
Implementation Plan of collective ideas for stakeholders including
London residents for creating the best city they can imagine
• The Strategy contained action steps under People and Place and how
they interact together
• City staff and residents worked together to manage expectations…
residents developed a document that was achievable!
• This document was a vehicle for collective action
Background
• In 2015 we celebrated the conclusion of the Strategy and began
work on the London Strengthening Neighbourhoods Strategy 2.0
• The legacy of the London Strengthening Neighbourhoods Strategy
1.0 included many tools, resources and programs for residents
that increase the activities happening in neighbourhoods found on
Neighbourgoodlondon.ca
• SPARKS! Neighbourhood Matching Fund • Residents apply for up to $5000 funding for Neighbourhood Projects
• Total amount of funding $50,000
• Residents must match the amount with in-kind resources, raised funds,
sponsorship, volunteer hours (at a rate of $15/hr)
City of London Strategic Plan
Background, 2015 – 2019
Where our work fits:
City of London Strategic Plan
Strengthening our Community
1. Vibrant, connected and engaged neighbourhoods
Strategy
What are we doing? How are we doing it?
A Support neighbourhood driven
activities and decision making
• London Strengthening Neighbourhoods
Strategy 2015-2020
• Great Near Campus Neighbourhood Strategy
B Fund and partner with the London
Public Library to support people and
neighbourhoods
• London Public Library 2014-2017 Strategic
Plan
C Work with our partners in Education to
help keep neighbourhood schools
open and use former school sites
effectively
• The London Plan
• Neighbourhood School Strategy - new
Background
• During the 2016-2019 Multi-year Budget process, Council
committed one-time funding of $30,000 in 2016 to two
neighbourhoods to pilot a neighbourhood decision making project
through an expanded SPARKS! program.
• This was an effort to increase decision making by residents in their
neighbourhoods hence the name “Neighbourhood Decision
Making Program”
• Was promoted and supported by one City Councillor in particular
who worked with us to build the program – made it somewhat
political
• Neighbourhoods may use funds to plant public gardens, restore
environmental resources, create public art, pilot a community
program, host a neighbourhood event, document a
neighbourhood’s history, or enhance a park or playground, to
name just a few potential ideas.
Why Neighbourhood Decision Making?
• Greater transparency in government
• Increased civic participation of residents, particularly residents
under-represented in civic affairs
• Strengthened and empowered communities
• Improved local budget decisions
• Increased community capacity and leadership
Neighbourhood Decision Making -2016 Pilot
• Council directed – surprise motion in a council meeting in
spring 2016
• Two neighbourhoods
• Two approaches
• $15,000 in each neighbourhood
• Less than a year to complete the allocation of funds with a
promise to implement within the following years time frame
• Increased workload during the process and during
implementation with no operational $$
• Recipe for grumpy corporate staff
How does it work?
How do we get buy in from internal staff?
Building Relationships Key
• Internal partners - feasibility work up front
• Previously worked together on other neighbourhood programs which helped speed up the trust and relationship with staff
• Buy in and help determine process
• Technology training
• Technology use to track projects
• Idea bank creation with costs created and shared
Who was involved
• Parks Planning
• Parks Operations
• Roads and Transportation
• Culture Office
• Environmental and Engineering
• Facilities and Building
• By-law office
• Social Services
• Recreation Area Services
• Clerks Office
• Corporate Communications
Parks Relationship
• Rocky start – Council directed program with no opportunity to
shape the timeline or scope of the work
• Most affected Service Areas - Parks Operations and Parks
Planning
• Involvement from these staff from the beginning
• Top down – Directors Table, Bottom up – Managers
• Why hesitant – projects that create work – maintenance, funding
model doesn’t consider life cycle and annual maintenance
• All levels of staff involved- Give presentation to staff at spring
training to explain new projects popping up in their districts
• Relationships - Supervisors work with Neighbourhood Staff on
events like Movie Nights and Neighbourhood Safety Audits
2016 Successful Projects
Medway
• Polar Express ($2500)
• Little Libraries ($800)
• Nature in Medway ($11,700)
Ward 13
• Gleaning Food Forest ($5,000)
• Kindness Meters ($1,500)
• Art on Utility Boxes ($4,250)
• New Play Equipment ($4,250)
Results of Pilot
Lessons Learned
Evaluation Recommendations (Resident Feedback)
• When assessing the feasibility of projects submitted through the
NDM process, the rationale for inclusion on the ballot should be
made clearly understandable to the resident.
• Based on learnings from this pilot, explore an adequate level of
funding for communications, especially in consideration of the
number of neighbourhoods in which the program will run.
• Implement online voting for future neighbourhood decision making
initiatives.
• Build a standardized FAQ/idea bank based on ideas submitted to
the program and common themes to provide information to
residents about ideas that have been put forward in the past. This
bank should be built upon each year the program is run.
2017 – Rolling it out City Wide
• Council approved the Roll Out strategy, some support for dividing the city by wards (increasing political involvement)
• The city was divided into 5 areas
• Residents submit ideas (identifying the area), which may cost from $0 to $50,000, to enhance their neighbourhood(s).
• Total of $250,000 for the whole city
• Still no communication budget
• Still no operational budget
• Still an added responsibility for staff who are already busy and we are asking them to deem ideas feasible which makes even more work for them
Londoner Involvement
• Over 300 ideas were submitted and 148 were determined
feasible
• An explanation was provided to the 152 idea submitters why
their idea could not be on the ballot – educating Londoners
• Neighbourhoods rallied over some ideas creating the
beginnings of Neighbourhood Associations or at minimum,
neighbourhood networks
• Almost 5000 Londoners voted in person or online on one
day - November 18th
• In person – all London Libraries
The 5 Geographic Areas
• A total of $250,000 is available
annually to the whole city
• The city and funding is divided into
5 (Northeast, Northwest, Southeast,
Southwest and Central)
• Each geographic area of the city
gets $50,000
Promotion
Technology
• Getinvolved.London.ca • Idea bank providing examples and costs
• Smart Simple • Platform that stores all data and can create reports
such as a list of all parks ideas
Idea Bank
Engagement Committees
• Each geographic area had an Engagement Committee
• Members representing harder to engage Londoners i.e.
cultural leaders, youth, older adults, resource centre orgs,
the Library
• The committees supported the engagement and
empowerment of residents of all the neighbourhoods and
diverse communities
• These people were our social media staff, our legs on the
ground and offered advice and support to get the word out
Library Partnership
• 15 Libraries located throughout the city
• Headquarters for information
• All Engagement Committee meetings booked here
• Idea Cafés here
• Spot for people to pick up more posters and postcards
• VOTE LOCATIONS
Ballots
Parks!!
• Overwhelmingly Park focused
• Only about 30 that don’t happen in a park or involve Parks Staff
90% are in Parks
Role of Parks - Volunteers
• In person vote day – parks staff helped to work at the poles (Libraries)
• Great place for people to ask parks staff questions or for rationale on decision, make suggestions or complain
• New information gained through the process of suggested programs and infrastructure – a great feedback/input opportunity
• Discussion between staff and residents at the poles – example – need for signage at a park that warning of coyotes in the area
Results of the Vote
• 14 projects with 5 parks projects and two park located ice rinks
• Total money transferred to Parks Planning for the 5 projects = $136,700
North West London
Ninja Warrior Course in a Park - $50,000
North East London
Outdoor Ice Rink - $2,300
Playground Park Improvements - $30,000
Stoney Creek Nature Trails - $17,700
Central London
Clay Mosaics Business District Street - $15,000
Fruit Trees Planted near Community Gardens - $4,000
Outdoor Piano in Market Lane - $1,000
Community Garden Gathering Space at Church - $30,000
South West London
Outdoor Education Centre at School - $30,000
Outdoor Ice Rink in Park - $6,000
Save the Bee Pollinator Garden - $3,000
South London Canada Day - $1,000
South East London
Natural Landscape Playground – $35,000
Community Movie Theatre - $15,000
Ninja Warrior Course
Nature Trail Improvement
Park Playground Upgrade
Fruit Tree Planting at Community Garden Sites (9)
Natural Playground Install
Bee Pollinator Garden
2 Outdoor Skating Rinks
Benefits
• Increased neighbourhood networks and activities
• Increased feelings of pride and ownership in neighbourhoods
• New ideas
• Opportunity to enhance existing projects
• Desires of Londoners feeds into Parks Master Plan
• More educated Londoners so better able to understand rationale and accept decisions
• Involvement of Schools
• Involvement of Council
More Benefits
• Other service areas adopted the 5 areas – used the map and the rationale for the division to assign staff from Recreation Area Services, Parks Operations staff assignments
• Positive relationships developed between the City staff and residents
• Opportunity to increase the quality of life for Londoners
Challenges
• Neighbourhood Associations like the SPARKS! Program
• Park projects can vary in costs greatly – we didn’t accurately predict the pricing of projects
• Priorities and promises to residents can break trust and damage relationships
• Resident expectations, still want to get their projects implemented even if they don’t win
• Ongoing - Parks Planning has to take new projects and put them into an existing priority list with public and political pressures
• Timeline overall is very tight – Spend within the following year
• Turn around time also tight, starting process again in April because it’s a yearly program and election year
Political Challenges
• Councillors want projects to happen in their wards
• Councillors want changes to the program that increase the number of projects which in turn increases the amount of work to manage relationships and the projects
• Our boundaries include multiple wards or parts of wards which means councillors overlap
• Normally Councillors help us promote and this is a great program for them to champion…. When the project wins in their ward
Implementation
• Each park project has a Parks Planner staff, Parks Operations Staff and Neighbourhood Development and Support Staff
• Residents kept in the loop and consulted when appropriate
• Manage expectations
• Is there an additional process that we have to include – a public meeting, send letters etc.
• New discoveries once the project becomes real – i.e. invasive species along a trail, archeological site, added costs, neighbours not wanting the project implemented
Neighbourhood Decision Making 2018
• Implementation of projects from 2017 has begun
• Evaluation just completed for 2017
• 2018 idea submission begins April 20th
• Vote day June 16th
• No real changes to the program so we can continue our evaluation
More Information
Getinvolved.london.ca/NDM
www.london.ca/neighbourhoods
neighbourgood@london.ca
koldham@London.ca
519-661-5336
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