The Town of Crossfield is undertaking a community social needs assessment with the help of a third-party consulting firm to determine what the municipality is doing well and what needs improvement when it comes to recreational services.
During a council meeting on Dec. 7, 2021, council members approved 2022 funding allocation recommendations for its family and community support services (FCSS) applications. Council also gave the go-ahead to conduct a community social needs assessment survey this year.
According to Nicole Vandenberghe, newly appointed FCSS and community development coordinator, the survey was spearheaded by Courtney Cox, who previously held the role.
“She’s the one who came up with the idea when looking at how we can better address the social needs of the community,” Vandenberghe said. “Other communities were also looking at doing the same thing, so we thought it would be a good way to identify the strengths within the community as well as the gaps or areas that could be improved.”
The FCSS program aims to develop locally driven social initiatives to enhance the well-being of individuals, families, and communities, said Cox during the December council meeting.
“Assessing the needs of our community is a responsibility as a municipality,” Cox said. “Completing a social needs assessment will allow us to identify areas in our community that require improvement.
“In turn, this will result in the Town being able to distinguish where there are gaps within our community and how administration may determine how FCSS can address them.”
RC Strategies, a Canadian consulting firm specializing in community and cultural planning, will be conducting the survey over a period of four to five months. The survey is set to be completed by the end of June.
Vandenberghe said the assessment consists of several components, including a social trends analysis, community asset inventory, internal interview and meetings, a public household survey, a youth survey, and an agency survey.
Outside of that, stakeholder interviews and sessions – along with the findings of the engagement sessions and strategies – will be compiled into a final report and presented to council as a social needs assessment for the Town.
“RC Strategies specializes entirely in quality-of-life planning, and they have experience conducting community social needs assessments with other Alberta communities,” Vandenberghe said. “Through their assessment process, they’ll be able to identify the strengths we already have in place, but also identify those focal points for which all community partners can rally around.”
She added the public household survey is currently live on the Town’s website – crossfieldalberta.com – and is available for residents to complete until Feb. 11. The youth survey will be open until the end of the month.
According to Vandenberghe, the questions are centred around life in Crossfield, including social issues faced by residents and what programs or services are available to address them.
“We ask what five social issues our residents think should be given priority in Crossfield over the next few years,” she said. “[We ask] whether or not our residents are aware of specific organization that offer programs and services and what prevents them from accessing them if needed.
“And then, [we ask] what programs or services that aren’t available to Crossfield that they would like to access locally.”
Vandenberghe added she and her team are in close communication with RC Strategies and undergo weekly meetings to review the assessment process as it unfolds.
“If we wanted to add anything to the surveys or change certain things about them, we’ve been able to do that,” she said, adding her role is to promote the surveys to the community.
“My role is to be sure everyone knows about [the survey] and is able to take it. We won’t see those survey results directly – they'll go to RC strategies and then from there, they’ll work it into the full assessment for us to have at the end.”
Vandenberghe said the survey is very important to Crossfield and the outcome of the assessment will shed light on issues that impact the individual, family, and overall community’s health and well-being.
“It will allow us to bring in programs and services to help address those issues,” she said. “The biggest thing we are hoping is to be able to identify the social services we already have in town, but also the services our residents need or are looking for.
“Which will then allow us to plan for the future and address the gaps in social services.”
Findings from the survey will be used as a tool to determine what type of external and internal funding the Town should prioritize and to ensure the needs of residents are being met through preventative social service programming.
Vandenberghe added residents who do not have access to a computer to complete the survey can go to the Town of Crossfield office at 105 Ross Street or the Crossfield Municipal Library and pick up a paper copy to fill out. An envelope will be provided for residents to drop the survey back off at the same location they picked it up from, and Vandenberghe will then mail it to RC Strategies for processing.
To access the survey online, visit crossfieldalberta.com
