What was the methodology used in the decision-making process?
The decision making process was based on empirical data, which used socio-economic status, health, and school readiness as indicators. Other considerations included crime data, demography (e.g. recent immigrants), neighbourhood readiness and Community Health and Resource Centres’ capacity to undertake community development. These indicators were applied equally to all neighbourhoods. Based on that data, eight neighbourhoods were short-listed by the Knowledge Transfer Table (representative of academics, community experts and city staff) and presented to the Community Development Roundtable to determine the four neighbourhoods that would initiate the community development framework implementation. The table took into account additional considerations such as geography (ensuring all efforts are not concentrated in one area) and visibility of immigrants given that immigration is viewed as a social priority that will likely affect service delivery in the near future.
