TQSOI’s social development planning process started in 2013. Since then, The Social Development Committee was able to analyse the needs of the community and prioritise the issues that citizens are faced with. Following this exercise, the TQSOI made it its goal to work on the five following priorities: Health and Social services, Poverty and social exclusion, Food security, Housing and Transportation. For each priority, a working committee was then created and asked to find solutions that would improve the quality of life of residents in the southern West Island. In order to represent the numerous perspectives of the territory, a diversity of people take part in each committee. The Agents of change participating in these committees are citizens, representatives from community organizations, public institutions and private companies and elected officials. The role of these committees is first, to develop a localized and coherent social action plan aimed at creating and instigating positive changes in the community; and second, to oversee its implementation with the collaboration of local stakeholders.
During the spring and summer of 2016, each committee met repeatedly to deliberate what matters were most pressing and could realistically be achieved within the mandate of the TQSOI, the allotted timeframe, and the resources available.
During the initial meetings, committee members met to tease out the various issues and challenges related to their priority before setting goals. In order to do so, the first exercise presented by the TQSOI structured discussion around the current situation, the transformations desired, and the actions that could help bridge the two. Accordingly, the actions that arose from these discussions responded to both the challenges currently faced and vision of what a brighter future might look like.
The next exercise sought to narrow down the number of actions to ensure those selected would be feasible. To evaluate the potential actions, each was graded according to four major criteria: desirability, sustainability, collaboration, and ability to act..
The completed product of the concerted efforts of the Agents of change can be found in the following pages.
