Page 100 - Six Nations Community Plan 2019

GOING FORWARD:

A FUTURE OF COMMUNITY PLANNING

This comprehensive update to the Community Plan
document is a positive step towards coming together in a
process of planning and collaboration – but words on paper require sustained effort
to be turned into action. Developing a consistent, inclusive and culturally based process
of planning can allow us to make progress in some of the key challenges that we face
as a community. Successful planning can be a powerful tool for change if it is central
in the community, connected to leadership and reflective of our diversity.

Planning, and community change in general, are deeply political as it can involve
challenging decisions that impact us today for the best interest of future generations.
From the engagement that went into this update, the following considerations came
forward to describe what a sustainable and self-determined planning process could
be in our community. These four sections present considerations for a future of
Community Planning according to their increased feasibility as our community
comes together in unity through governance.

SUSTAINED COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT
Ongoing, sustained and consistent engagement must be at the heart of our planning process, to uphold the principle that
“Our People are our Planners”. Keeping community at the centre of community change builds up our tradition of making
important decisions through the wisdom of the collective. Planning requires developing standards of community engagement
that all leadership and community members can uphold. Standards can ensure the community is engaged in genuine two-way
dialogue early in decision-making or project development.

COORDINATING INFORMED AND
COLLABORATIVE DECISION-MAKING
A common theme that emerged from our engagement is
that too often change is happening in silos. Planning must
involve coordinating implementation of the Community Plan
through collaboration with all departments, organizations
and leadership. Time and resources are required to support
coming together, sharing information and understanding
strengths and challenges of different people and organizations.
Community Planning can facilitate collaboration to find
commonalities in strategic directions and projects and
reduce duplication. Planning can become a central repository
for research, new collaboratives studies, transparent
data management, and monitoring success through the
indicators outlined in “Measuring Success” sections. All of this
collaboration, information gathering, and communication can
lead to more well-rounded and informed decision-making,
building the section “Using the Plan as a tool for informed
change-making” into a robust decision-impact assessment tool.

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