By Pepper Parr
August 2nd, 2019
BURLINGTON, ON
With a change of leadership in the months ahead, Community Development Halton (CDH) has begun the process of re-examining and re-inventing itself. They want to hear from the community (that is YOU) on which community development services to continue and EXPAND upon.
Executive Director Joey Edwardh talking with supporters at an annual meeting.
Executive Director Joey Edwardh has resigned after two decades of service.
The Board asks: “If you used any of their services and resources such as boardroom/ meeting room use, volunteer positions promotion, volunteer referrals, featuring your organization, building capacity through volunteerism, research and data analysis, age-friendly initiatives, empowering seniors workshops, educational sessions/workshops, neighbourhood development, social planning, asset mapping, publications such as Our Halton Reports, Community Lens, Community Dispatch, or consulting with their staff, they want to hear your voice to help shape the future of CDH.
They are encouraging you and your staff to make time to come to ONE of the following sessions.
Milton: Wednesday, August 14, 2019 9:30 am – noon
Bob Rumball Centre, 7801 Side Rd. 5, Milton
Oakville and Burlington: Thursday, August 15, 2019 9:30 am – noon
Halton Regional Centre South Auditorium, 1151 Bronte Rd., Oakville
Halton Hills Friday, August 16, 2019 9:30 am – noon
Hillsview Active Living Centre, 318 Guelph St., Georgetown.
Those from Burlington are to take part in the Oakville event. They shouldn’t expect a caravan of supporters to make the trek.
The Possibility Café process will be facilitated by Jody Orr from The Chrysalis Group, and Coordinator of the Halton Nonprofit Network.
CDH staff or board members will not be present. This will allow an open and honest conversation among community members, associates, partners, and friends to take place.
Please R.S.V.P. at cdhalton.ca/events.
Go onto Community Development Halton’s website and the one obvious thing that is lacking is a current statement of their Mission, Vision and Values. Virtually every organization today has this prominently displayed on their home page. CDH lists a lot of activities, but there is no easily accessible statement attesting to what they stand for, how they do it and their unique value proposition. I eventually found something called “Independent Community Based Planning in the Voluntary Sector”, but it was buried well into their website.
The second item that needs to be addressed is their name. Sorry, but “Community Development Halton” is amorphous and ill-defined. Develop what, and for whom? Looking at their website most of what they purportedly provide is social planning. Interesting research, but frankly not hugely impactful for a lot of residents, and most don’t connect with how this betters or improves their personal situation.
Another issue that needs to be addressed is their mandate. CDH’s website is laden with words like “facilitate”, “coordinate”, “partner”, etc. That does not describe an action oriented mandate or agenda. If you want broad-based community support, funding and engagement you need to be leading, directing and implementing. The not-for-profit community is strewn with all sorts of think tanks and research based agencies. Interesting from strictly an academic point of view, but not hugely impactful.
CDH operates with a 1990’s mindset, but that isn’t going to carry them very far into the future. The purpose statement on their website from the Social Planning Network of Ontario was written in 1994. The organization needs to re-position itself for changing times or else it will quickly fade into obscurity.